16 FlightJournal.com
sharp-shooting hellcat
I was born in 1921 in Georgia into a middle-
class family. I was nine years old when Dad
arranged my first flight, in a Ford Tri-Motor.
Soon afterward, I saw a fighter plane for the
first time. I wanted to fly fighters.
I attended college in Georgia, but my real
satisfaction came from qualifying for naval
aviator training. I was learning to become a
Navy pilot when the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor. In training, I flew the Brewster F2A
Buffalo; it was completely inadequate.
After pinning on wings and ensign’s bars
in 1942, I trained in the Grumman F4F-
Wildcat. They assigned me to Fighting Nine,
or squadron VF-9.
Being a Wildcat pilot was an unforgettable
experience. The ship’s stalky landing gear
gave it dubious ground- or deck-handling
characteristics. It could be “mushy” when
maneuverability counted most. You caught a
violent draught if you slid the cockpit hood
open in flight. You had no provision for
jettisoning the hood in an emergency. The
pilot’s seat was too low relative to the location
of your head.
An early problem was the tendency of
the Wildcat’s .50-caliber Browning M2 guns
to jam for no visible reason. In early carrieroperations, the problem went unnoticed, but
in the harsh conditions of tropical combat
more than one Zero pilot escaped with his
life because the Brownings wouldn’t shoot.
Navy ordnance men suggested a solution that
divided the ammunition trays to keep belts
from shifting. This modest change worked
and was adopted.
We expected to go to the Pacific when VF-
went aboard the carrier USS Ranger (CV 4).
Instead, I saw my first combat in November
1942 during Operation Torch, the invasion of
North Africa. While many naval aviators were
confronting Japan’s vaunted Mitsubishi A6M
Zero, I was in the Mediterranean wondering
how my Wildcat would perform against a
German Messerschmitt. Several Wildcat pilots
in my squadron racked up aerial victories,
not against Messerschmitts but against Vichy
French pilots flying the Curtiss Hawk 75.
We came home and were berthed at Naval
Air Station Oceana in Virginia. They said
we’d be converting to F4U Corsairs. Instead,
VF-9 became the first operational F6F-
Hellcat squadron in August 1943. Grumman
built 12,275 Hellcats between June 1942
and November 1945, the largest number of
fighters ever to be produced at a single factory.Lt. Hamilton “Mac”
McWhorter of VF-9 in his
F6F-3 on February 19, 1944
after scoring two kills and
becoming the first Hellcat
double ace. He scored two
further kills with VF-12 to
finish the war with 12 aerial
kills. (Photo courtesy of
Jack Cook)