A WWII F6F Navy Fighter Pilot’s Experiences in the Pacific

LCDR. Norman P. Stark USNR (Ret.)

  September 17, 2002

Norm Stark  Essex, 1944

The following is an account of a combat fighter pilot’s experiences during 1944 and 1945 in the Pacific. This includes accounts of various missions, attacks and dogfights as well as the stress of flying alone for hours in "pea soup," friends being shot down, and the pilot's own experience "in the drink" and learning that your true worth is 10 gallons of ice cream.

Memoirs of LCDR. Norman P. Stark as written by Norm Stark. Norm served on the Essex, Wasp, and Yorktown. His story reminds us of all those who served with him, about their sacrifices, and what it was like for all those who served their country - those men of the Greatest Generation. In reminiscing, Norm speaks not only for himself but for all those others as well. Thank you Norm for sharing this with us. R.S.

 

The following account utilized my Official U.S. Navy Orders, personal Flight Log books, Pilot's Handbooks for the SNJ, F6F, F4U, FM2, and T.M., still in my possession. Additional sources of information were newspaper and magazine accounts, personal contacts, publications, maps, aerial photos, and other data brought from the combat zone. Finally, although more than 50 years have elapsed since World War II, memories of the incidents recounted are etched so deeply in my mind, that they seem to have occurred only yesterday. Norm Stark

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