BARBARA BECAME "BAR" BB, 19. BPB remembered Prescott Jr. as the coiner of "Bar" (Ibid.); Jonathan thought it was George. (Author interview with Jonathan Bush.) BARBARA PIERCE AND POPPY BUSH BECAME ENGAGED Author interview with BPB. See also BB, 20, and LF, 31.
"SO PERFECT A GIRL" ATB, 24.
WHEN HE READ THE NEWS Ibid., 3839.
"I LOVE YOU, PRECIOUS" Ibid.
HOW OFTEN I HAVE THOUGHT Ibid.
THE TBF AVENGER TORPEDO BOMBER Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 6. See also LSY, 4748, and Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 5153.
THE PLANE WAS 40 FEET LONG Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 4.
WITH HIS TRAINING GROUP Ibid., 6.
AFTER FLORIDA, BUSH LEARNED Notes on GHWB's World War II naval service provided to the author by the archivists at the GBPL; Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 53. There were additional postings at Chincoteague, Virginia; Norfolk again; Hyannis, Massachusetts; and Charlestown, Rhode Island. (Ibid.) His northeastern postings put him in tantalizing proximity to Barbara, who was enrolled at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. "I miss Bar something terrific but I suppose it's only natural," Bush wrote home. "It's really agony-so close and yet so far away." (ATB, 39.) BUSH AND HIS SQUADRON WERE ASSIGNED Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 68.
DOROTHY HAD A MISSION OF HER OWN Author interview with BPB.
MRS. BUSH ASKED WHAT KIND OF RING Ibid. See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 6869. BPB wore the sapphire for the rest of her life. Holding up the ring-still on her finger-when asked about the train episode in 2014, she said wryly: "We've never had it appraised because we don't think it's real, but we don't care. We don't care. It's supposed to be a star sapphire, but nobody has ever seen the star." (Author interview with BPB.) THAT COLD, CLOUDY WEDNESDAY The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 15 and 16, 1943.
LUNCH ON THE DAY THEY SET OUT Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 13. The San Jacinto had sailed to Norfolk from Philadelphia; the spaghetti-and-meatballs lunch was served on the day the ship left Norfolk, bound for the Pacific. (Ibid.) "WE HAD A COMPLETE PUKE-UP" Ibid.
AT A STOP AT TRINIDAD Ibid., 11.
THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL Notes on GHWB's World War II naval service provided to the GBPL archives staff to the author.
BUSH TOOK SOME TIME Ibid., 13.
THIRTY-ONE DAYS LATER Ibid.
SEVEN: I Wanted to Finish My Mission MY GOD, THIS THING Author interview with GHWB.
THE TARGET WAS WAKE ISLAND Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 76.
WAKE HAD BEEN HOME Samuel Eliot Morison, The Two Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War (Boston, 1963), 13738.
HIS CREWMEN WERE Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 79, 76.
"WE WERE ALL TENSE" Ibid., 76.
"I DON'T THINK THERE WAS ANY TIME" Ibid.
BUSH EXECUTED A DANGEROUSLY DIFFICULT Ibid, 8285. See also ATB, 44. According to information provided to the author by Robert Holzweiss at the GBPL, Bush lost three planes in his naval career. The Bar I, as Bush called it, crashed during training at Hyannis when the landing gear collapsed on November 1, 1943; Bar II was lost at sea due to combat damage in June 1944; and Barbara III-he expanded the name from "Bar"-was lost at Chichi-Jima. (Author correspondence with Robert Holzweiss, GBPL.) HE PLAYED GAMES-USUALLY ACEY-DEUCEY Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 10. See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 9394.
"GEDUNKS," THE TERM USED ON BOARD Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 10.
HE DOLED OUT NICKNAMES Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 3.
HE WAS CALLED GEORGEHERBERTWALKERBUSH Ibid., 96.
THE WIDESPREAD USE OF "POP" GHWB to "Mom and Dad," October 11[, 1944], October 1944, World War II Correspondence, Personal Papers, GHWB Collection, GBPL.
IN THE WARDROOM Grab, "Flyboy," unpublished manuscript, 10.
HE READ BOOKS HIS MOTHER ATB, 41.
BECOMING "PRETTY MUCH INTERESTED IN THAT END" Ibid.
PLAYED VOLLEYBALL Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 93.
HE BELLYACHED ABOUT THE FOOD ATB, 48.
HE WOULD LIE IN HIS BUNK Ibid., 4142.
BUSH ALWAYS REMEMBERED THE FIRST SIGHT Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 76.
"IT IS QUITE A FEELING" ATB, 42; Ibid., 7677.
HAD DISAPPEARED WITH TWO CREWMEN Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 76; ATB, 47.
"HAD JUST BECOME A FATHER" ATB, 42.
BUSH CRIED IN GRIEF Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 77.
ANOTHER PILOT, ROLAND R. "DICK" HOULE Ibid., 98.
"I GET SUCH A KICK OUT OF BUCK" ATB, 49.
A STRIKE CODE-NAMED "BAKER" Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 104. My account of Bush and Chichi-Jima is drawn from the detailed version in Hyams, Flight of the Avenger; LF, 3440; Cramer, What It Takes, 8094; GHWB's contemporaneous letters about the episode; and my interviews with GHWB, among other sources.
TO DESTROY A RADIO TOWER Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 1. See also LF, 3536. See also Chester Hearn, Sorties into Hell: The Hidden War on Chichi-Jima (Westport, Conn., 2003), 1011.
EACH OF THE PLANES Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 12.
THE SQUADRON WAS BRIEFED AGAIN LF, 34.
A LIEUTENANT JUNIOR GRADE ATB, 4952. There are differing accounts of how Ted White came to be on Bush's plane that day. In his contemporaneous correspondence, Bush reported that he had asked White. (Ibid.) In his 1987 autobiography, Bush recalled that White had approached him about the flight, not the other way around. (LF, 35.) In Flight of the Avenger, which was heavily drawn from Bush's recollections and those of his comrades, Joe Hyams also has White asking to fly that day. (Flight of the Avenger, 1045.) WHITE HAD LONG HOPED TO SEE Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 105.
PRESCOTT BUSH KNEW WHITE'S FATHER Author interview with GHWB. See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 1045, and LF, 35.
THE SQUADRON COMMANDER AGREED LF, 35.
LEE NADEAU SURRENDERED HIS TURRET AS GUNNER Ibid.
THERE WERE JOKES ATB, 4950.
AT A QUARTER AFTER SEVEN LF, 35.
THE WEATHER, BUSH RECALLED, WAS CLEAR Ibid.
A LITTLE MORE THAN AN HOUR Ibid. See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 106.
THE JAPANESE GUNS FILLED THE AIR Author interview with GHWB.
FLYING AT A THIRTY-FIVE-DEGREE ANGLE LF, 36.
THE PLANE WAS HIT Ibid.
AS THE AVENGER JOLTED FORWARD Ibid.
SMOKE FILLED THE COCKPIT ATB, 50.
FLAMES RACED ALONG THE WINGS Author interview with GHWB.
"MY GOD" Ibid.
BUSH RADIOED WHITE AND DELANEY ATB, 50.
THE AVENGER, HE KNEW, "WAS GOING DOWN" Author interview with GHWB.
CHOKING ON THE SMOKE Ibid. See also ATB, 50.
THIS TIME HE SCORED Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 107.
"I REALIZED I COULDN'T KEEP" Author interview with GHWB.
"HIT THE SILK!" Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 107.
HE COULD NOT BE SURE ATB, 50.
HE LOOKED BACK Ibid.
"I TURNED THE PLANE" Author interview with GHWB.
"AFTER THAT I STRAIGHTENED UP" ATB, 50.
OTHER SQUADRON FLIERS ON THE MISSION Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 107.
HIS OWN PARACHUTE STRAPS FASTENED Author interview with GHWB. See also ATB, 50.
HIS HATCH OPENED ATB, 50.
BUSH STRUGGLED UP AND OUT OF THE COCKPIT Ibid. "I stuck my head out first and the old wind really blew me the rest of the way out," Bush told his parents. (Ibid.) See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
PROPELLING HIM BACKWARD ATB, 50. See also Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
GASHED HIS HEAD AND BRUISED HIS EYE ATB, 50.
BUSH PULLED HIS RIP CORD TOO SOON Ibid.
SEVERAL PANELS OF THE SILK CHUTE Ibid.
AT ABOUT TWO THOUSAND FEET Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
HE SAW HIS PLANE CRASH INTO THE OCEAN ATB, 50.
HE UNFASTENED THE BUCKLES Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
BUSH PLUNGED DEEP INTO THE OCEAN ATB, 50. But not so deep, he noted, "to notice any pressure or anything." (Ibid.) GULPING DOWN BITTER SALT WATER LF, 3738.
KICKING OFF HIS SHOES Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
INFLATING HIS LIFE JACKET-WHAT NAVY MEN CALLED A "MAE WEST" ATB, 51.
HIS KHAKI FLIGHT SUIT WAS SOAKED AND HEAVY Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 108.
SAW THE SQUADRON'S COMMANDER, DON MELVIN, SIGNAL THE LOCATION ATB, 5051; see also LF, 37. Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 1089, reports that a Hellcat first signaled the raft location, but Bush's contemporaneous correspondence credits Melvin.
HAD FALLEN FROM BUSH'S LIFE JACKET ATB, 50.
BUSH SWAM THE FIFTY FEET Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 109.
THE WIND WAS BLOWING BACK ATB, 5051. Hearn, Sorties into Hell, is a comprehensive account of the war crimes committed on Chichi-Jima.
THERE WAS NO PADDLE Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 109.
PADDLED WITH HIS ARMS LF, 37.
SUMMONED THE USS FINBACK Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 109.
WHAT WAS KNOWN AS "LIFEGUARD DUTY" Ibid.
THE SUBMARINE WAS TEN MILES AWAY Ibid.
STUNG BY A PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR LF, 37.
DOUG WEST DROPPED DOWN Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 109. See also LF, 37.
BUSH APPLIED MERCUROCHROME Ibid.
BUSH SPRINKLED DYE MARKER ATB, 51.
PROMPTING WEST TO OPEN FIRE Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 115.
"FOR A WHILE THERE" Author interview with GHWB.
VOMIT OVER THE SIDE LF, 3738.