THE DAUNTLESSES OF JUNE

  

 

It happens every June.

 

I get thinking about two epic battles of World War II that occurred two years apart:

 

Midway in June 1942

And

Philippine Sea in June 1944.

 

Aside from the second and fifth aircraft carrier engagements (there’s not been one since) both featured my mental-emotional icon: the Douglas SBD Dauntless (Scout Bomber by Douglas).  It was the only American tailhook aircraft engaged in all five flattop duels.

 

The Japanese of course had more representation.  Their Mitsubishi “Zero” fighter, Aichi “Val” dive bomber and Nakajima “Kate” torpedo planes flew from Imperial flight decks in all five battles, though the 1944 event featured new strike aircraft, the Yokosuka “Judy” dive bomber and Nakajima “Jill” torpedo plane. 

 

SBDs were first to last Pacific warriors, from Pearl Harbor to VJ Day although the 1945 contribution was land-based mostly in Marine Corps squadrons.

 

In order, the Dauntless’ carrier battles were:

 

Coral Sea, May 7-8, 1942 (shared sinking a Japanese carrier)

Midway, June 4-7, 1942 (sank four Japanese carriers)

Eastern Solomons, August 24, 1942 (shared a Japanese carrier)

Santa Cruz, October 27, 1942 (damaged a Japanese carrier)

Philippine Sea, June 19-20, 1944 (damaged two or three Japanese carriers)

 

Over the years (OK, decades) I have described the SBD as “the plane that won the war.”

 

Wow!  Does that rile the B-17 fanboys.

 

But here’s some facts versus emotion:

 

The B-17 was incidental in the Pacific, and it was outproduced by the B-24/PB4Y Liberator family by over 40 percent: 12,700 versus 18,400.  We would have defeated the Empire of the Sun without B-17s.

 

We would have lost without SBDs.

 

That’s right.  Without Dauntlesses, the United States of America would have been defeated by Japan in the years after Pearl Harbor—and beyond.

 

What were the options?

 

Oh lord…

 

The only other scout-bomber committed to combat in that period was Vought’s fabric-covered SB2U Vindicator.  In 1937 it had been one of the first two American carrier-based monoplanes with the Douglas TBD Devastator.  Both showed their age five years later, especially the “Wind Indicator.”  A meager 260 were produced, including those to foreign buyers.  In the Vindicator’s June 4 Midway mission, 12 land-based SB2Us suffered four losses without inflicting damage on Japanese warships. 

What was the backup?

 

The trouble-plagued Curtiss SB2C Helldiver finally entered combat in November 1943.  You can do the math as to how long that entry compared to Pearl Harbor.

 

So:

 

The Dauntless was the plane that won the Pacific war.  Three days after Pearl Harbor an Enterprise SBD sank a submarine, Japan’s first naval loss.  Then in 1942 SBDs sank or wrecked, in whole or in part, six Japanese carriers, a battleship, two cruisers, a destroyer and a boatload (!) of vital transport ships trying to reinforce Guadalcanal.

 

The Pet Dauntless

 

Between 1972 and 1974 my father acquired and oversaw restoration of the world’s only airworthy Dauntless.  I helped, spending part of a summer on my head in the rear cockpit with a rivet gun in one hand and a shop light in the other.  The full story of the restoration is another blog’s worth, but I’ll just say that I benefited from several hours flying with Dad, leading to my first book. 

 

In order, my SBD volumes were:

 

The Dauntless Dive Bomber of World War II.  Naval Institute Press, 1976.

 

Dauntless: A Novel of Midway and Guadalcanal.  Bantam, 1982.

 

SBD Dauntless Units of World War 2.  Osprey (UK), 1998.

 

Along the way I was fortunate to know Edward H. Heinemann, the intuitive genius who designed the SBD and a later generation of naval aircraft including the A-1 Skyraider, A-3 Skywarrior, A-4 Skyhawk, F4D Skyray, and two record-setting “X planes.”  During one of our visits at Rancho Santa Fe, I was oafishly proud to tell Ed something he didn’t know about his most important design.  Each of the 318 holes in the dive and landing flaps was exactly the diameter of a tennis ball. 

 

How I discovered that esoteric fact was due to my younger brother’s girlfriend, a top-rated Oregon player.  Details for a later time.

 

By coincidence, this month I’ve been re-reading Clash of the Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot (Caliber, 2005.). Though the title emphasizes the Grumman Hellcat’s lopsided triumph in the two-day battle off Saipan, the SBD contributed to the victory.  (See above list of Dauntless successes).

 

It holds up well.  Among other things, the appendices include the most complete table of organization for U.S. and Japanese forces engaged, and it was harder to confirm more American ship captains than Japanese.

 

I took time to investigate all 102 ships in Task Force 58 and found that 87 of them had been commissioned in the two and a half years since Pearl Harbor.

 

Yeah.

 

Some historiography: when Clash was published 13 of the 41 veterans (representing 17 ships) already were deceased.  My lone Japanese contributor, dive bomber leader Zenji Abe, died in 2006.  The last of those I could track passed in 2018.  I’ll probably never know details of the remaining four.

 

I’ve not heard of a subsequent full-length book devoted to the fifth carrier battle, though additional Japanese sources have emerged.

 

I’ll close with a brief description of the SBD’s reason for existence:

 

At about 14,000 feet the pilot reduced throttle, extended the dive brakes, and nosed into a 70 degree dive, tracking the target through his optical sight.  About six feet behind him—contrary to almost every depiction—the radioman-gunner rotated his seat forward rather than deploying his guns sternward.  The back-seater had a partial instrument panel including altimeter so he could call the descent to the pilot.

 

Few fighters could stay with an SBD in a dive, making 240 knots (275 mph) for the 30 to 35 seconds descent.  It was a very busy half minute: acquire the target, making upwards of 30 knots in an evasive turn that constantly changed the crosswind component, with stick hands and rudder feet jockeying Ed’s beautifully balanced controls to track the target.

 

Approaching 1,500 feet, the pilot pressed the red B button atop the control stick and/or pulled on the double-handle manual bomb release.  Freed of 500 or 1,000 pounds, the Dauntless bucked in response and the pilot began a high-G recovery, sometimes pulling nearly nine Gs.  Blackouts were fairly common while audio clues told him: shove up the power, pull in the flaps, and get out of AA range soonest.

 

Repeat as necessary to win the war.

 

And someday I might write another SBD book:

 

Dauntless: The Heartwarming Story of a Boy and His Dive Bomber.

 

Today ours is displayed in original A-24B configuration at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

PURESOME REMEMBERED

That fluttering sound you detected on May 20 was the flapping of wings greeting a new arrival far-far above the contrail level.

 

Commander Jack D. Woodul, USNR (Ret) died at his New Mexico ranch after a prolonged illness at 85.  He left a huge gap in the lives of his beautiful, talented wife Carolyn, their two sons, and thousands of admirers.

 

Jack Woodul was an intriguing mixture.  He was of medium height, compact and muscular with a perpetual gleam in his eyes.  He’d been a devoted marathoner until his knees gave out.  

 

On the outside he was wry, humorous, and personable.  On the inside lurked Youthly Puresome, naval aviation’s Everyman Junior Officer, the sort you want beside you in a food fight, fist fight, or dogfight. 

 

In some 35,000 hours aloft, Jack flew a wide variety of aircraft.  He went to war in A-4 Skyhawks aboard USS Independence in 1965 and resented the hell out of the U.S. Navy for denying him a second helping.  So he went Reserve, flying Crusaders and Phantoms when he wasn’t working his way up the Delta (“Grits Airways”) ladder from flight engineer to transoceanic jumbo jet captain, rated in five airliners.

 

I flew with Jack twice, in his speedy Bellanca (dubbed “Giuseppe,” you can look it up) and his overpowered Air Cam that jumped off the ground although Jack insisted he got nose bleeds above 50 feet. He was a smooooth pilot.

 

Jack’s Navy service included a tour as an A-4 instructor at Jacksonville, Florida, where he trained a wide variety of pilots.  They included future Senator John McCain (Jack was unimpressed) and the first class of Israeli Skyhawk pilots (Jack was highly impressed.)

 

Jack conceived Youthly Puresome for a twenty-year feature in The Hook, quarterly journal of the Tailhook Association.  He and I received our lifetime achievement awards in 1998, the year our World War I epic was copyrighted. (Read on for more details)

 

At annual Tailhook meetings Jack held down the Skyhawk suite, a “ready room” for convivial gatherings whether attendees had flown A-4s or not.  The variety was exceptional, including regulars Captain Royce Williams who received a much-belated Medal of Honor early this year at 101, and the colorful Commander Bart Flaherty, a former State Department operative whose foreign relations began in the rear cockpit of a Phantom over North Vietnam.

 

==

 

Jack’s fellow warrior and soul mate is Roy “Shadow” Stafford.  He set a near-unique record, transitioning from enlisted Marine infantryman in Vietnam to RF-4 Phantom aviator.  His Black Shadow aviation shop in Florida provided world-class restorations to the museum community.  He recalls:

 

“Naval Aviation has lost an incredible Brother. For decades he brightened our lives with tales that made us laugh… at ourselves and others. He was irreverent…yet intuitive about things in life that most of us could relate to.  As long as we live, we will all remember the ‘Tales of Youthly Puresome.’ 

 

“I am deeply saddened, for I have also lost a dear friend.  A man who encouraged me and would always take the time to share his wisdom and knowledge. He was like a big brother to me.  I will forever be grateful to Barrett Tillman for introducing us to each other. It was a true life blessing.

 

“We all have our ups and downs in this thing called life… but in some of my darkest times… he never failed to make me laugh. Oh dear God, what a blessing… The Man made me laugh… he made me LAUGH! Again, what a blessing it was to open The Hook and read his latest gift.  I might add that besides the humor, each gift contained a little nugget that only us Naval Aviators could relate too. That made it even more special. He was truly unique and one of a kind!

 

“To his family, thank you for sharing him all these decades.  I know he was proud of you and loved you dearly. 

 

“God Speed Puresome.  We will always remember you and be a little jealous that only “The Big Guy” will be enjoying your tales first hand! Until we meet again… All the Best! Thanks for the memories!

 

==

 

From another longtime colleague, Lieutenant Commander Rick Morgan of the EA-6B Prowler community:

 

“Heard this morning that my good friend Jack Woodul has passed. Jack was from Portales, and a New Mexico ROTC grad who became a Naval Aviator.  He flew A-4s with VA-86 in Vietnam and then left the regulars to work with the Reserves in F-8s and then F-4s, all this while he rose through the ranks at Delta to become an international pilot in 767s.  

 

“Jack was a one of a kind; a friend from the first meeting (Hook '96) and well known from his work in The Hook as "Youthly Puresome", which covered his many adventures in the business. 

 

“His wife Carolyn has movie star good looks and is a beautiful person. They were married before ROTC midshipmen were allowed to have brides and hid it from the Navy.

 

“He was big on nicknames.  Carolyn got hers when he was feeling playful as an airline captain and she was wearing her new mink coat with a cabin announcement after landing. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to have on board that famous Italian movie actress, Tunita del Mundo. She's wearing a mink coat in first class. Be sure and say hello.’

 

“I feel like a better person knowing both of them and will miss his wit and opinions in E-mails and other correspondence. He represented everything I love in Naval Aviation.” 

 

==

 

With our unindicted co-conspirator Commander R.R. “Boom” Powell, Jack and I conducted a years-long project to produce a World War I novel, Duel Over Douai.  Email evidence indicates origin around 2009, e-published in 2021 and the print edition in 2024.  

 

https://www.amazon.com/Duel-Over-Douai-novel-aviation-ebook/dp/B09KXBVKCP

 

Aside from our collective aviation experience—Boom had flown Great War replica aircraft—we cast each of ourselves as characters in the novel.  Boom was the Brit, I was a German princeling, and Jack was George Armostrong Cody, a Texas mankiller who fled to the European war via Canada.

 

Jack’s character was self-descriptive when Cody told an obnoxious Brit, “I am no gentleman.  My mother taught me to read and write.  My father taught me what it was to be a man.  I have lived a rough life, but it is important to do what is right…You don’t abuse machinery or animals, and you take care of those you choose to run with.”

 

In person and in print, Jack described the warrior aura of Little Bighorn: ghostly trumpet triplets wafting on the wind that rustled the long grass where Yellow Hair died with his command.

 

He was especially fond of animals, from his flock of “goatlets” to large canines (“Buddy Moose Dog” et al) plus horses.  He guarded them all with a Winchester .30-06 zeroed to several rocks on Rancho Delmundo.

 

==

 

Jack was warrior down to his DNA; he declared himself “De Portales Gonsleenger.”  His family provided combatants to America’s wars “because that’s what men do.”  His father Parker, an Army colonel, was wounded in Italy.  An uncle (also Jack D.) was a B-17 gunner who froze to death in the English Channel in 1944.

 

In that regard, Jack identified with Gary Sinise’s “Lieutenant Dan” in Forrest Gump.  Moreover, Jack’s arrival in Valhalla must have been a bittersweet experience after leaving his earthly realm.  It’s intriguing to imagine those among the reception committee.  His father and uncle; George Custer and Crazy Horse (callsign of a Navy Reserve colleague); Captain Wynn Foster (“Captain Hook”); Captain Steve Millikin (Silver Star helicopter pilot and Hook editor), and USS Independenceshipmates amid other Navy losses.

 

And imagine Jack’s devoted mother with world-class bicyclist brother (“Beel the heepie boy” consultant to Kevin Costner’s American Flyers), and so many others.

 

He remains irreplaceable.

DECAPITATION AND BOMBING LITTLE PEOPLE

 Courtesy of American Thinker:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/04/decapitation_and_bombing_the_little_people.html

 

Eighty-three years ago this month, sixteen U.S. Army fighter planes took off from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on a long-range mission of strategic assassination.

Their target: Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese Combined Fleet commander who oversaw the Pearl Harbor attack.

Based on detailed intelligence, the Americans flew a near-perfect mission, intercepting Yamamoto’s flight as it descended toward Bougainville on an inspection trip.

I knew the mission commander, Colonel John Mitchell, who said, “I couldn’t navigate that well again if my life depended on it.” The fact was, Isoroku Yamamoto’s life did depend on it. The pilot who downed his plane was my fellow Oregonian, Colonel Rex Barber.

Despite its spectacular success, Operation Vengeance exerted little effect on the course of the war. Japan was bound to lose with or without Yamamoto.

Bombing the Little People

Airpower’s seminal prophet was Italian General Guilio Douhet, who influenced British and American airmen from World War I onward. All too aware of the massive bloodletting in the Great War, Douhet theorized that bombing enemy cities and production centers would cause the populace to force its leaders to capitulate with far less attrition.

He was wrong.

Germany tried to influence events with its aerial campaign against England 1915-1918. Though impressive technically, the Zeppelins and bombers achieved little, and losses forced an end to the effort.

Between 1940 and 1944 about 70,000 Britons died under German bombs, missiles, and rockets. London never came within shouting distance of calling a halt to the war.

However, bombing works both ways. Estimates vary widely, but probably between 300,000 and 500,000 Germans were killed by Allied bombing that destroyed dozens of cities. Yet Adolf Hitler never considered surrender, as he knew his likely fate. Instead, two years almost to the day after the Yamamoto mission, with his capital in ruins and surrounded by the Red Army, the Fuhrer shot himself. His successor, Admiral Karl Doenitz, surrendered a week later.

Returning to the Pacific:

One night in March 1945 General Curtis LeMay’s B-29 Superfortresses burned down one-sixth of Tokyo and killed more than 80,000 people. Emperor Hirohito saw what he saw and smelled what he smelled -- and the war continued another five months. In all, at least 300,000 Japanese perished from bombing, fire storms, and A-bombs. By then nearly two-thirds of the country’s urban-industrial area was incinerated.

But Tokyo’s doom-laden war cabinet was deadlocked that August, forcing Hirohito to intervene. He never explained his reasoning, though personal and family survival may have influenced him.

The record is crystal clear: despots simply do not care about the little people. Even though little people produce the weapons of war.

Governments are built to last. They perpetuate themselves with a hierarchy ensuring continuity when heads of state are removed. Four U.S. presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy) were assassinated by lone actors, and three others (Ford, Reagan, and Trump) survived their attacks.

Successors to slain presidents left a mixed record. Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction era after the Civil War likely mirrored Lincoln’s intention while another Johnson -- LBJ -- succeeded JFK to mismanage the Vietnam morass.

Whether Iran was involved in the attempts on Donald Trump remains unknown, but statements from Tehran seem to support the concept.

Boots on the Ground

U.S. campaigns for regime change have succeeded when U.S. troops physically removed anti-American dictators. Prime examples are Reagan’s 1983 Grenada occupation with six Caribbean allies (the date is now a national holiday), and GHW Bush’s invasion of Panama in 1989 that deposed narco-lord Manuel Noriega.

This January a spectacular commando raid seized Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro for trial in the U.S. for his massive drug operations. Citizens danced in the street.

In 1986 the U.S. targeted Libyan dictator Muamar Gaddafi in retaliation for his terrorist actions. He escaped on that occasion but died in a 2011 coup supported by NATO aircraft.

Israel has routinely struck enemy leaders in Gaza, dating at least from 2004. In the past two years five Hamas figureheads have been killed in Gaza and one in Iran.

Ten or more Hezb’allah leaders have died under Israeli bombs in Lebanon since 2024. But as of last year, Western intelligence sources placed the group’s strength at perhaps 90,000. However, Israeli air strikes have inflicted thousands of casualties among civilians.

In 2020 Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike directed by President Donald Trump. Soleimani, second only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was consulting with Iraqi officials in Baghdad. But mainly Trump’s first administration focused on the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq, leading to the death of the emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2010. The organization declined in numbers and influence but still remained active.

In his two terms, President Barack Obama authorized more than 500 drone strikes that killed perhaps 4,000 people in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, including at least 320 civilians.

In 2011 President Obama approved the mission that slew 9/11 al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Together, the U.S. and Israel executed eye-watering precision strikes against the Iranian leadership in 2026. Supreme Leader Khamenei, who escaped harm in the Soleimani strike, was killed with about 40 senior leaders. His son and successor reportedly was badly injured in another strike. The American campaign, Operation Epic Fury, began in February focusing on Iran’s missile capability while essentially destroying the air force and navy.

Today, Hezb’allah and Hamas remain intact while ISIS exists in a reduced status. How the current campaign against Iran will proceed remains to be seen. Regime change has been an open U.S. goal, but the hard-core Islamists in Tehran have no qualms about hanging or simply killing thousands of demonstrators. A frequently quoted number for the last massacre early this year is 30,000 or more -- a lesson on what can happen when government retains a monopoly on violence.

So where does that leave us?

Where From Here?

Deprived of its conventional military, Iran retains two means of fighting the war: its apparently dwindling stock of missiles, and its large inventory of sea mines. All the while, Tehran’s decades of terrorist funding and its determination to achieve a nuclear capability drives U.S. and Israeli policy. The image of such weapons in the hands of religious zealots who do not fear death remains a chilling concept.