Those were the words of the late Leonard E. Waldrop, an officer and naval aviator hero of World War II. When queries were made about Waldrop’s heroism while flying the famed Navy Avenger TBF (torpedo-bomber-fighter) while engaged with the enemy, he would just say, “It was the thing to do.” It was almost as if he was saying he was going to town for his wife. If asked if he had been shot at many times, his general reply was only, “I was lucky.”
I think this writer was honored to be among few persons that sat with Waldrop, sometimes for hours, when he relived those terrible events. His description of incredible circumstances of danger was too often astonishingly modest. Maybe he wanted to get it off his chest. But at times when he really felt like talking about what happened, his detailed account was frank, factual, and quite often the drama of war was accented with tears running down his face.
Not the least of his extremely close calls with death was, what many believe, to be the turning point in the naval engagements with the Japanese Navy with the U. S. victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Task Force Three (Taffy 3, as it was called) was comprised of a few destroyers and other smaller war ships with their largest guns which hurled only six inch shells. There were three small aircraft carriers upon which Waldrop flew from so many times.
The sounds of battle stations brought the tiny fighting group to full alert. The major portion of the Japanese Navy was approaching our troop landing on Leyte (Philippines). Admiral Sprague knew they had no chance against such a formidable foe. His brilliance paid off as he signaled the destroyers to circle Taffy 3 with all the smoke screen they could muster. He did not want the Japs to see what they were up against. Then he ordered all planes in the air to attack some of the largest warships in the world. “Fire everything you have, drop every explosive weapons even if could only be WP (white phosphorus used mainly for marking but lethal if burning phosphorous touches your skin). Keep diving on them even if you have no ammunition left.” They did! The Japs turned and ran!
His ordinance officer named Black told me the last time “Tex” landed that TBF he had a hole in the wing you could pass a refrigerator through. Then a large explosion hit the St. Lo as the first suicide Kamikaze crashed into the carrier. The ship sank within an hour. Both Waldrop and Black survived many hours in the shark infested waters. Waldrop will always be remembered because he was awarded the Navy Cross. The next highest decoration is the Congressional Medal of Honor.
“Oh, I was told I would be decorated by the Marines one time. I was on submarine patrol off one of the islands when I saw the Marines were pinned down by terrific gun fire by the Japanese. I just flew over and dropped whatever I had, which was only a depth charge. It blew apart a lot of the jungle where the Japs were, but the Marines got away”.
When I returned to the carrier all pilots were called before the captain of the ship. “Who the hell dropped that depth charge on the Japs instead of doing your duty to protect these ships? The damn Marines want him decorated.” Waldrop had returned without his depth charge so he had to answer to the captain or face a court martial. “Captain Sir, I saw this shadow in the water and thought it might be a sub so I dropped my ordinance on it.” It was not discussed again but some believe they saw a smirk or two on the face of the pilots or maybe even the ship’s captain.
“Another time I was returning from a submarine patrol and my final approach to landing on the carrier was directly over a navy battleship. Suddenly, I saw two tell-tale wakes of torpedoes headed straight for the battle ship. I just dropped my nose, set my sights on the first one and let go with my fifties (50 Cal.) and it blew up. Did the same with the other one and it blew up too. The battleship captain wanted to decorate me but I never heard anymore about it. It was just the thing to do.”
The author says, thank a Vet! They signed a blank check to all of us for their all, including their lives.
jbobalong@yahoo.com
