SEVENTY-THREE YEARS FOR A MEDAL OF HONOR

   

 

Sea of Japan, 1952: A U.S. Navy F9F-5 Panther was the bogey in a furball featuring half a dozen Soviet MiG-15s which, the Panther pilot had been assured, never ventured over water.

 

California, 1956: Cruising at 32,000 ft at night, the North American FJ-3 inexplicably lost its windscreen and canopy.  The violent wind twisted the pilot’s helmet 180 degrees, rather restricting his forward vision.

 

El Centro, California, 1957: Flying an F9F on a banner-tow takeoff, the pilot was too low to eject, sustaining multiple fractures of the neck and back which, by all rights, should have ended his flying career.

 

Key West, Florida, 1965: The Phantom was on long final, both engines on fire with one shut down and the other in burner, and the rear cockpit empty. 

 

Any of the foregoing would provide a There-I-Was tale.  But all involved the same remarkable aviator.

 

==

 

I’ve known or met about a dozen Medal of Honor recipients and wrote two books on the subject:      

 

Above and Beyond: The Aviation Medals of Honor (Smithsonian Press, 2001) and Heroes: U.S. Army Medal of Honor Recipients (Caliber Press, 2006).  But until this month I did not know a contemporary recipient of the nation’s highest military award.

 

Captain W. Royce Williams, USN (Retired) received the Medal last week during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.  First Lady Melania Trump draped the pale-blue ribbon with bronze pendant around Royce’s neck.  He’s 100 years old and received the award 73 years after the event.

 

Mr. Trump also awarded the Medal to Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover who was seriously wounded in the spectacular January 3 operation seizing Venezuelan strongman Maduro to face criminal charges in the U.S.  Slover overcame four bullet wounds to continue leading the mission in his MH-47 Chinook helicopter.

 

(Sidebar: Slover’s eight weeks from the action to presentation provides a significant contrast to Williams’ 73 years.  I only find two faster awards among more than 100 aviation Medals of Honor.)

 

Little known is that Royce’s South Dakota connections included the Foss family, and Royce’s brother became a Marine Corps aviator.

 

Royce received his wings of gold at the end of World War II and flew Hellcats, Corsairs and Bearcats before transitioning to jets.  During the Korean War he flew Grumman F9F Panthers with VF-781 aboard USS Oriskany, logging 70 missions.

 

In 2009 Royce and I wrote his entry in The Hook magazine’s “Where Are They Now?” series.  As far as I can tell it was the first open-source account of Royce’s November 18, 1952 dogfight that lasted an eternal 35 minutes. (Most jet combats are determined in two minutes or less).  When the Evil Empire collapsed in 1990, former Soviet records became available.  In large part the declassification was achieved by one of Royce’s former commanding officers, the late Vice Admiral Dave Richardson whose intelligence background influenced the National Security Agency to release some details. 

 

The mission began as a combat air patrol from Oriskany, sailing within range of the Soviet bastion on Kamchatka although Russian aircraft rarely ventured as far as U.S. task forces.  But when radar plotted multiple bogies about 80 miles distant, Royce’s four-plane division was vectored out.

 

From there things went sideways.  One of the Panthers developed mechanical trouble and turned for base with its wingman.   Royce and Lieutenant (jg) Dave Rowlands intercepted only 40 miles from Oriskany, caught at a serious altitude deficit. 

 

In the wrapped-up, churning dogfight Royce only had about 20 seconds worth of 20mm ammunition.  He used it wisely.

 

The Navy remains conflicted as to who did what in Royce’s epic mission.  The original press release did not credit Royce with any victories but here are the official results based on subsequent debriefs:

 

Lt. Elmer Royce Williams: one MiG-15 destroyed and one damaged.

 

Lt(jg) John Davidson Middleton: one MiG-15 destroyed.

 

Lt(jg) David Morris Rowlands: one MiG-15 probable.

 

Recently U.S. researchers found that the MiGs were from a Russian Navy fighter regiment.  The admitted losses were two pilots killed in action and one fatally crashed upon return.

 

The long-long trail to Royce’s Medal of Honor began with award of the Silver Star in 1953.  After a years-long effort aiming for a Medal of Honor upgrade, Royce received the Navy Cross in January 2023.  But his legion of admirers and supporters continued pressing for “the big one” and ultimately, they prevailed.

 

The Medal of Honor warrant specifies armed combat with an enemy of the United States, demonstrating “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of one’s life above and beyond the call of duty.”

 

Royce has always downplayed the “above and beyond” aspect, saying “I was just trying to stay alive!”  Outnumbered by superior aircraft, he could not disengage so he had to stay in the fight, whittling down the odds while taking hits.

 

(Seldom noted: Royce’s straight-wing F9F-5 was markedly slower than swept-wing MiG-15s, which had a higher ceiling and outclimbed the Panther at least two to one.)

 

Demonstrating superb airmanship, rather than ejecting, Royce kept his stricken Panther under control at 170 knots (about 40 more than the usual landing speed) and planted it on Oriskany’s deck to snag an arresting wire.  Thereby he saved the U.S. Treasury at least $140,000 ($1.7 million today).

 

Some accounts state that Royce’s jet (Navy BuNo 125459) was so heavily damaged that it was pushed overboard.  But despite more than 250 holes in its airframe the “Grumman Iron Works” product was sent ashore for repair, remaining until 1959.

 

Royce’s subsequent good-deal assignments were the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and the Navy Fleet Air Gunnery Unit.

 

Following nonflying “payback” assignments, in 1963 Royce upgraded to Vought’s F-8 Crusader, the navy’s first supersonic aircraft.  Commander Williams assumed command of VF-33 during a Mediterranean cruise, subsequently transitioning to the two-seat McDonnell F-4 Phantom.  He reported to his second war in 1965-66, leading Air Wing 11 aboard USS Kitty Hawk.

 

Due to his lingering 1957 injuries, Royce lost his pilot rating but qualified as a naval flight officer, the first NFO air wing commander.  Among subsequent duty, one of the most gratifying was running the Navy’s POW-MIA affairs office.

 

Back to sea, Captain Williams conned USS El Dorado, the Pacific Fleet’s amphibious command ship.  He and Cam thoroughly enjoyed two years in Japan before Royce retired in 1975.

 

Or so he thought.  Recalled to duty in 1981, Royce became commodore of a West Coast training convoy.  For a supersonic aviator, the transition was surprisingly fun.

 

Royce closed his logbook with 4,000 flight hours and more than 500 landings aboard 12 carriers. 

 

He remains one of America’s finest aviators with a devoted circle of friends and admirers.

THE TRUMP CLASS BATTLESHIPS

 

 Alright, let’s start at the beginning.

 

Then 

 

“Battleship” is an extremely well-established term that the world’s navies have agreed upon since, oh, the first one: HMS Dreadnought, which revolutionized warships upon commissioning in NINETEEN OH SIX.  For the numerically challenged, that was just about 120 years ago.

 

Dreadnought combined advanced technologies—ordinarily not a wise engineering philosophy—but it worked.  She had the same caliber big guns (12 inchers) rather than mixed armament, with steam turbine propulsion.  At 18,000 tons she was light for later battleships, and relatively slow at 21 knots.  In comparison, the final U.S. Iowa (BB-61) class ships pegged 48,000 tons with 16-inchers and logged 32 knots.

 

Whatever the era, battleships were big, heavy, well armored and heavily gunned.  They were meant to defeat enemy battleships in force-on-force combats to establish control of a given portion of the earth’s surface.  

 

America’s first battleship designated as such was the 10,000-ton USS Indiana (BB-1) in 1895.  Seventeen others were commissioned before World War I. 

 

During the Great War the U.S. Navy considered “Tillman maximum class” battleships--inspired by my shirt-tail relation, South Carolina Senator Benjamin Ryan “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman.  They went through several concepts, peaking at a honking huge 80,000 tons with FIFTEEN 18-INCH guns.  For comparison, only two such monsters were ever produced: Japan’s Yamato and Musashi, both over 70,000 tons and both sunk in 1944-45.

 

Throughout the U.S. Navy’s long history, it has logged very few big-ship engagements, though definitions vary.  Two occurred during the Spanish-American War, resulting in slam-dunk wins at Santiago Bay, Cuba, and Manila Bay the Philippines.  

 

Sidebar: USS Maine (ACR-1) whose self-destruction mistakenly started the flail in 1898 was not repeat not a battleship.  She was an armored cruiser. 

 

The Cuba and Philippines duels preclude qualification as battleship fights.  The major combatants fell into the 3,000 to 6,000-ton “armored cruiser” category.

 

Seven years later the then-largest armored warship clash occurred in Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea, pitting four Japanese capital ships against 11 Russian including coastal defense vessels. The heavyweights displaced nearly 15,000 tons mounting 12-inch guns. The result was a huge win for the emperor’s sailors, who gunned down six Czarist battleships and 15 lesser vessels for one torpedo boat lost.  

 

In World War II U.S. Navy battleships fought two at-sea engagements.  Off Guadalcanal in November 1942 the spooky-smart Rear Admiral Willis Lee in USS Washington (BB-56) conducted a nocturnal slugfest that left the 36,000-ton Kirishima a floating wreck with four destroyers.  But Lee’s teammate South Dakota (BB-57) suffered serious electrical failure, and the Americans also lost four destroyers.

 

Almost two years later in the Philippines’ Surigao Strait, Rear Admiral Jesse Oldendorf’s crews shot two enemy battleships and two destroyers apart, without loss. 

 

U.S. Navy 16-inch shells weighed up to 2,700 pounds—more than a Volkswagen Beetle—propelled by about 600 pounds of powder.  The shells blasted from the muzzle at 2,300 to 2,700 foot-seconds, achieving a range of 20 miles.  One of my novelist colleagues graduated from Annapolis in time for the war.  He provided a vivid description of a surface engagement, with violent concussion and overpowering noise.  But mostly he remembered the armor-piercing shells striking steel: “It smelled like a giant welding shop.”

 

Battleships fought no more surface engagements though Missouri (BB-63), Wisconsin (BB-64) and New Jersey (BB-62) provided gunfire support to Allied forces in Korea, Vietnam, and ultimately in Lebanon.  

 

The last American battleship in service was New Jersey, decommissioned the last time in 1992.  

 

So where does that put us in the Battleship Compendium?

 

Let’s consider the name.  Apparently the navy (seldom logical in such things for decades) has hit upon USS Defiant (BBG-1) for the first Trump battleship.  Well…that poses a problem.

 

The U.S. Navy already has a USS Defiant (YT-804).  It’s a tugboat in the six-ship Valiant class which, by the way, further illustrates naval ineptitude in ship names.  The others include Reliant (an adjective), Seminole (Florida tribe), Puyallup (Washington), and Menominee (Wisconsin).

 

Assuming the “battleships” are built, it’ll be interesting to see how The Navy deals with the name thing.

 

Today

 

This month the president announced plans to produce two ships approximately immediately followed by eight more, followed by a dozen others—or more.

 

The navy’s description of the Trump class battleships posits a high-high tech sea control vessel for which there is but one potential enemy: China.

 

Nominal displacement is 35,000 tons (about the same as a WW II battle cruiser) capable of 30 knots, crewed by about 500 Sailors (it’s Capitalized since Soldiers and Airmen exhibited proper noun Marine envy). 

 

The ship’s offense includes potentially nuclear-capable cruise missiles plus defensive weapons in vertical launch cells and rolling airframe missiles.  Additionally, 21^st century directed-energy weapons railguns are considered with a 5-inch gun firing hypervelocity projectiles.

 

The latter inspires little confidence: a similar arrangement was proposed for the scandalous Zumwalt (DDG-1000) class destroyer.  Of 32 planned, three have been completed due to immense cost over-runs by Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding.  The Advanced Gun System was so mismanaged that it was canceled because ammunition cost nearly $1 million per round.

 

In self-respecting militaries, those responsible would go away.  Instead, We The People fund their lavish, unearned retirements.

 

Navy insiders—active and retired—express serious doubts about the Defiants.  Although the U.S. has begun a long-overdue commitment to ship building, years are required to bridge the gap.  After the first two “battleships,” Trump posits eight more toward a total of 20 to 25.  Where those ships will be built, how they will be manned and based, remains to be seen. 

 

I’ll finish by citing three of my go-to authorities.

 

Those who follow naval affairs know Norman Polmar, arguably the world’s senior naval analyst.  “We have recently cancelled the frigate and two littoral ship programs.  We need small (frigate size) combatants now for a variety of missions.  It will take several years to design and order the Trump battleships.     

 

“U.S. shipyards are far behind major ship construction--look at the nuclear aircraft carrier programs.

 

“An objective review and ‘overhaul’ of U.S. naval ship design and construction procedures and capabilities is desperately needed.”

 

This summary comes from an uncommonly astute truth-teller among the retired admiral ranks: “It all dates back to insane organizational changes made by Secretary Cheney that fractured the ‘Rule of the Common Commander’ in the Systems Commands and eliminated OPNAV (directorates for surface, sub-surface, aviation, industry liaison and others).  The present organization will not ever function effectively, no matter how many patches they make to it.”

 

Finally, from an influential military journal editor: “I’m going out on a limb and saying they will never be built.”

THOUGHTS ON VETERANS DAY

 

 

I'm going out on a limb here, but bear with me. Memorial Day and Veterans Day always involve reflexive tributes to those who "defended our freedom."

But there's a huge difference between freedom and security, and we should not confuse the two. Absent Britain long ago, no foreign enemy has possessed the ability to deprive us of our freedom. The Soviets could've destroyed us, but they couldn't conquer us. And in the world wars the enemy couldn't even get here.

Only Americans can deprive Americans of their freedom(s), and frequently it appears that some of them are succeeding. But here's the thing: generations of Americans have left these shores bound for places some of them never heard of, risking and often losing their lives TO RETURN FREEDOM TO CONQUERED NATIONS WHO HAD LOST IT. That is a magnificent testament to the character of the American nation, and IMO it does not get one tiny smidgen of the recognition it deserves, hence this post.

A heartfelt salute to those who served over the centuries, in war or in peace, and often both.

Family Ties

 

Most readers can tell similar stories to my family. My mother joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on Captain John Parker who commanded the Lexington, Massachusetts, militia on 19 April 1775, and Colonel James Barrett at Concord.  My mother had a cousin named Parker Barrett.

 

My father’s family included Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman, George Washington’s aide from 1775, who took word of the momentous victory at Yorktown, Virginia, to Congress in Philadelphia in 1781.  It’s significant that Tench’s father remained a crown loyalist and a brother became an officer in the Royal navy. 

 

 

In the Civil War the families again parted ways.  Based on geography the Tilghmans/Tillmans went for the Confederacy by 8 to 1 although at least four died wearing the blue. The Barretts, on the other hand, were from Maine. 

 

As a lifelong shooter I grew up knowing of Sergeant (then Corporal) Alvin York’s combat marksmanship in October 1918.  But not until I saw the 1941 Gary Cooper movie did I realize that one of York’s commanding officers was Captain, later Major, James M. Tilghman from Georgia.

 

Meanwhile, a cherished friend is a retired vice (three-star) admiral who spent a typical amount of time away from home.  He says, “We have a lot of unsung veterans among us we need to also honor on this day.  These are our wives and kids.

 

“We held a ceremony of sorts this morning at this senior facility where the wife and I now reside.  We have five World War II veterans residing here, one being a WAVE Yeoman, and a lot from Korea and Vietnam. I am the senior military veteran in rank, so was given the opportunity to say a few words. 

 

“My words pointed out that our families were also veterans, mentioning the fact my wife orchestrated 30 moves in 40 years, including four ocean crossings and a lot of cross the USA moves, while I flitted from one assignment to another.  This included raising two great kids, who had as many as three schools in one year on one occasion, and whose lives were constantly in motion.  I owe my career to Doree and the kids.”

 

Forgotten Nurses

 

Recently there’s been discussion of issuing a Congressional Gold Medal honoring the 74,000 U.S. military nurses in World War II.  My wife’s aunt was one of 59,000 Army nurses, and the Navy had 14,000.  Together they served in the States and abroad, in field hospitals, evacuation centers, on hospital ships, and as flight nurses.  (My favorite example is the fetching young lady supervising loading a C-47 transport, accessorizing with a Colt .45 pistol in a shoulder holster.)

 

The official figure is 241 who died on active duty, 201 Army personnel.  Sixty-seven Army nurses –“The angels of Bataan”--were captured when Manila fell in 1942, remaining until freed in early 1945.

 

As of this month, five are known living, all well over 100 years of age.

 

Presumably medical facilities and personnel were immune to attack owing to international conventions.  But some nations—notably Japan—ignored such protection.  On a clear April night in 1945 the hospital ship Comfort steamed near Okinawa, illuminated as a noncombatant and painted white with red crosses on the hull.  Then a single Japanese plane passed overhead, came back for another look, and dived into Comfort’s superstructure, killing 28 people including six nurses.

 

Draftees to Volunteers

 

Within living memory, the height of American patriotism undoubtedly was the Second World War—“the good war”--although that pool is rapidly draining.  (I lost my last World War II veteran this year, a 103-year-old naval aviator).  However, even amid that four-year crisis, over 60 percent of military personnel were drafted. 

 

The U.S. military has been all-volunteer since January 1973, the month of the Vietnam War cease fire (predictably resumed two years later when Hanoi’s army smashed into Saigon and conquered the South.)

 

Since then, recruiting has waxed and waned.  The services struggled with serious shortfalls especially from 1999 to 2022, when enlistments hit a 40-year low.  This year, with patriotism surging again, every branch expects to exceed its goal.  Interviews show a significant reason is patriotism and return of “the warrior ethos” after years of tepid leadership from uniformed sociologists. 

 

For years, recruiters have noted the appeal of martial masculinity among young Hispanic males. Recent figures show 18 percent in the army—matching all branches combined--and 27 percent in the Marine Corps.

 

Today’s troops are tomorrow’s veterans, and they earn our respect now—and later.