George was exempted from this requirement. Had father Prescott's crony Artemus Gates,
the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air, been instrumental in making the exception,
which was the key to allowing George to become the youngest of all navy pilots?
On June 12, 1942, his eighteenth birthday, Bush joined the navy in Boston as a seaman
second class. [fn 1] He was ordered to report for active duty as an aviation cadet on
August 6, 1942. After a last date with Barbara, father Prescott took George to Penn
Station in New York City to board a troop train headed for Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
At Chapel Hill Naval Air Station, one of Bush's fellow cadets was the well-known
Boston Red Sox hitter Ted Williams, who would later join Bush on the campaign trail in
his desperate fight in the New Hampshire primary in February 1988.
After preflight training at Chapel Hill, Bush moved on to World-Chamberlain Naval
Airfield in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he flew solo for the first time in November
- In February 1943 Bush moved on to Corpus Christi, Texas, for further training.
Bush received his commission as an ensign at Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943.
After this Bush moved through a number of naval air bases over a period of almost a year
for various types of advanced training. In mid-June 1943 he was learning to fly the
Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo-bomber at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In August he made
landings on the USS Sable, a paddle wheel ship that was used as an aircraft carrier for
training purposes. During the summer of 1943 Bush spent a couple of weeks of leave
with Barbara at Walker's Point in Kennebunkport; their engagement was announced in
the New York Times of December 12, 1943.
Later in the summer of 1943 Bush moved on to the Naval Air Base at Norfolk, Virginia.
In September 1943 Bush's new squadron, called VT-51, moved on to the Naval Air
Station at Chincoteague, Virginia, located on the Delmarva Peninsula. On December 14,
1943 Bush and his squadron were brought to Philadelphia to attend the commissioning of
the USS San Jacinto (CVL30), a light attack carrier built on a cruiser hull. Since the name
of the ship recalled Sam Houston's defeat of the Mexican leader Santa Anna in 1836, and
since the ship flew a Lone Star flag, Bushman propaganda has made much of these
artifacts in an attempt to buttress "carpetbag" Bush's tenuous connections to the state of
Texas. Bush's VF-51 squadron reported on board this ship for a shakedown cruise on
February 6, 1944, and on March 25, 1944 the San Jacinto left for San Diego by way of
the Panama Canal. The San Jacinto reached Pearl Harbor on April 20, 1944, and was
assigned to Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58/38, a group of fast carriers, on
May 2, 1944.
In June Bush's ship joined battle with Japanese forces in the Marianas archpelago. Here
Bush flew his first combat missions. On June 17, a loss of oil pressure forced Bush to
make an emergency landing at sea. A US destroyer picked up Bush, along with his two
crewmembers, gunner Leo Nadeau and radioman-tail gunner John L. Delaney, after some
hours in the water. Bush's first Avenger, named by him the Barbara, was lost.