20 FlightJournal.com
sharp-shooting hellcat
headed back to the rendezvous point.
We escorted our bombers back to the Essex.
I knew I’d been hit and hit pretty hard, but I
had no idea where. Despite the damage, I was
able to land. When I got back aboard the Essex
and checked my Hellcat, I found bullet holes
in each wing and on both sides of the fuselage.
They went straight through the wing. The Zero
had narrowly missed my cockpit. There was
not a single hit in my fuselage. I want to thank
the Japanese Zero that made the overhead
run on me because if he hadn’t hit me when
he did, the other Zero flying with him would
have gotten me good.
On that mission to Rabaul, we lost one F6F
to a Zero and one SBD to ground fire, but we
shot down 14 Zeros.
Our raids on Rabaul demonstrated that
carrier task forces could operate within range
of Japanese land-based bombers. We went next
to Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, where
VF-9 provided air support for the Marines. I
shot down a Mitsubishi F1M “Pete” floatplane
near Tarawa on November 18. The next day,
again with only a little ammunition (
rounds), I was credited with a Mitsubishi G4M
“Betty” twin-engine bomber. That made me
the first air ace to get all of his kills in the F6F
Hellcat.
Our squadron saw action January 29, when
a 12-carrier task force supported the invasion
of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. Fighting
Nine drew the job of strafing the Japanese
airfield at Roi inlet, using 18 Hellcats led by
Lt. Cdr. Herb Houck. I was credited with two
Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 “Hamp” fightersthat day. I was credited with two more Zeros
on February 19, 1944. That made me the first
carrier pilot and first Hellcat pilot to become a
double ace.
I went back to war in VF-12 aboard the USS
Randolph (CV 15) when we were beginning,
finally, to conduct operations against the
Japanese home islands. We had the F6F-
Hellcat now. On February 16, 1945, I got my
11th victory, a Zero.
If we could attack the Japanese islands, they
could attack us. On May 13, 1945, a Nakajima
C6N Saiun “Myrt” reconnaissance plane came
over our task force at 25,000 feet. I was on
combat air patrol and put some rounds into
him. The aircraft was so close, its oil sprayed
all over my F6F. Debris from the Myrt evened
the score by downing one of our pilots, and
we spent the rest of the day covering a Vought
OS2U Kingfisher that rescued him. That
recovery mission lasted five and a half hours,
the longest time I ever spent in a Hellcat
cockpit. JAUTHOR’S NOTE: McWhorter married Louise Edel
in 1943. “He did everything he wanted to do and
left us suddenly,” Louise said. McWhorter flew in
the postwar Navy, retired as a commander in 1969
and was a civilian flight instructor for two decades.
“He was always proud when one of his students
went on to the airlines,” Louise said. He wrote an
autobiography, The First Hellcat Ace, with Jay A.
Stout (Pacifica, Calif.: Pacific Military History, 2000).
“He was never satisfied with anything that didn’t
involve flying,” Louise said.Below: The second production Hellcat (BuAer 04776) on a test flight over the Long Island
Sound/Atlantic Ocean coast, painted in the early war Intermediate Blue-Gray over Light Gray
camouflage with oversized national insignia to aid in long-range identification. Right: Coming
into service at the same time, the new battle-armed and armored CV Class carriers, married
with the Grumman Hellcat, finally put the U.S. Navy on the offensive in the Pacific beginning in
the late summer of 1943, eventually creating over 300 F6F aces by VJ-Day. (Photos courtesy
of Stan Piet)
WHEN I GOT
BACK ABOARD
THE ESSEX
AND CHECKED
MY HELLCAT, I
FOUND BULLET
HOLES IN
EACH WING
AND ON BOTH
SIDES OF THE
FUSELAGE.