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from Japan.But the United States chose not to invade. Instead it conducted daily air raids on the heavily fortified communications towers and facilities. It took the precision of dive bombers and glide bombers to pinpoint the small locations. That meant every pass had to be made through a barrage of heavy antiaircraft fire.During the period that U.S. aircraft carriers were in the area. Chichi Jima was bombed often. Nine of our pilots were shot dow n over the island. Most of the pilots landed in the ocean on the other side of the island.All but one of them swam for shore and were taken prisoner. None were ever heard from again.I he Nav v pilot who escaped was George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States.What would have been his fate had he been captured? We know we never had heard from any ofwthe eight pilots who were captured, but for over 50years we never knew the details.The families never knew the details. They knewwnothing.The United States and Japanese governments both w ithheld all details because thev were too hor-rible to reveal.James Bradley, a son of one of the I wo Jima flag raisers, w rote “Flags of Our Fathers, revealing the never before known details of that controversy. Following on the overwhelming success of thatfor not staying quiet, as he had been ordered to do. Mitchell was a broken man. but he continued lecturing about the emergence of air power. And he warned of Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.Bradley also gives us a touching insight into George H. W. Bush's early life as a privileged son of the elite, w ho could easily have avoided military service, but instead enlisted on his 18th birthday and became one of the Navy’s youngest pilots.Editor '.s note: Ja\Miller ma\be contacted at 3 LaTitsa, Santa be, NM 87505, (phone) (505) 982-2723, (fax) (505) 984-0982, or (e-mail) insidethecapi-tol@hottnail.com.
Newspaper Details
Alamogordo Daily News
Alamogordo, New Mexico, US
Tue, Jul 19, 2005
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Allen C.
IN, USA 09 Nov 2018
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