Interviewer: Arlene Lane
Transcribed by: Steven Woldridge
Proofread by: Ellen Bassett

ARLENE: This interview is taking place on February 11th, 2005 at the Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, Illinois. My name is Arlene Lane. I am interviewing Richard Blaha, a veteran of World War II. Richard's daughter Cynthia Hahn is also present. Richard learned about the Veterans History Project through our library. I am very happy to have Richard here today. This is Richard Blaha's story.

ARLENE: Richard, when did you enter the military?

RICHARD: It was back in 1942 it was after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and I probably would have been drafted but I didn't want to be an infantry man on the ground. I wanted to be a pilot above the ground. So I enlisted in the Navy Air Corps and, let's see, I became a fighter pilot in the Navy, after I got my wings.

ARLENE: Where did you go to training camp?

RICHARD: In Florida…there was a place, I was in Illinois at the time but they sent me to Florida…Sanford, Florida.

ARLENE: And what was that like? Was that pretty tough?

RICHARD: Yes, the first part of the training was very tough because they were...they wanted to get only someone who was physically qualified. So they had a really tough training program that was designed to eliminate those that could not stand a lot of physical stress.

ARLENE: Well you must have been pretty tough then, because you survived that didn't you?

RICHARD: Well, yes I was in good training because I was a fighter. I had fights many times and in the ring and was in good training and in good physical condition.

ARLENE: Oh you were a boxer?

RICHARD: I was a boxer.

ARLENE: Wow.

RICHARD: I had a lot of medals from that. I was the best in my weight class at any rate. Through the CYO Catholic Youth Organization where you had to fight several persons of equal weight to get to the finals. And I made it to the finals and managed to win the top honors in my class.

ARLENE: That's wonderful.

RICHARD: I think I weighed only about 112 lbs. at that time.

ARLENE: So you did pretty well in your training camp. Was that a flight school too or did you go on to a flight school?

RICHARD: It was a flight school and mainly this first time, when I first went in, it was a physical training camp that they didn't want anyone to go into the pilots training without first being physically qualified. So, for four months we would we running and boxing with other people and going through a lot of hikes and things that would separate the men from the boys. So that they knew that you were able to physically to complete this training class which is they claim they were going to spend a lot of money on you; making you into a fighter pilot. So they didn't want to be taking on those that would not be able to complete the course.

ARLENE: So you completed that course and then did you go to a flight school in Florida too, or did they send you somewhere else?

RICHARD: I did go to Sanford, Florida and was there for probably four months I suppose; flying fighter planes, before I was sent out overseas to the Philippines. In the Philippines and that's where I joined this squadron where some fighter pilots were killed because I was a replacement for one of those guys…one of the fighters, pilots that were shot down and was killed.

ARLENE: So you were sent to the Philippines?

RICHARD: Philippines, yes.

ARLENE: And where were you based? Were you based on an island or were you on an aircraft carrier?

RICHARD: The Admiralty Islands is where we first landed and I was training there. It was a squadron oh, probably thirty other pilots, to see who was physically able to be a fighter pilot. And if you were washed out of that, you would then become a seaman, second class. Anyway, it took about three months I guess worth of training.

ARLENE: How is that training like? You had never been in a plane before? Was this your first experience in a plane?

RICHARD: It was not my first experience but I was still a neophyte, I guess you would say, I was not physically qualified to fly these Navy fighter planes that they wanted me to fly so I had to go through three or four months of training before they would let me take up one of their planes and fly it because they were supposedly expensive and they needed all the planes that they had for the war against Japan.

ARLENE: How was it like flying those planes? Was it pretty tough to fly those planes? Was the training easy?

RICHARD: No, the training was tough. In fact it was designed to be tough so that you would be washed out if you didn't get through this training. They didn't want someone that was not physically qualified to risk one of their planes with them so they made it very tough and you had to do a lot of hiking and a lot of running through forests and over ground that was very tough to get through. So that they knew you were capable in case you did get forced down in the islands out there why you would be able to take care of yourself because the Japanese were all around the area, out in the Philippines.

ARLENE: Which island were you on?

RICHARD: Well I was on the Marcus Island for one. In the Admiralty Islands is where
I was sent out to that, it's just a little spot of… a piece of land that's in the middle of the Pacific.

ARLENE: Was that near Wake Island or Midway Island?

RICHARD: It was very close to Wake Island.

ARLENE: Wow you were right in the middle of the ocean, weren't you?

RICHARD: Yes, it was in the middle.

ARLENE: And there were Japanese occupied islands all around you?

RICHARD: All around, yes. We were trained to physically, hand to hand combat because there were a lot of Japanese around and if you tangled with them you would have to be able to hold your own. So it was a real tough rigid disciplined training camp that we had to get through before you get your wings and it took two and a half years I guess of training to get your wings and learn to fly this plane that you would be flying and landing on a carrier, on a ship out in the middle of the ocean.

ARLENE: Was that really different, and hard to, to land and take off on a carrier?

RICHARD: Oh yes, landing on a ship and taking off is a lot harder because when you land on land, if you land too long it doesn't matter, if you land too short, you got a lot of room to land. On a carrier, you just got a little hundred yards to land on and that's it. If you don't land right you go off the end of the ship or…you don't make it. So the Navy training was excellent, they had trained for a year and a half before they let us take one of their planes because these planes were expensive and they were needed during the war so they didn't want you to come and wrecking any of their planes. They gave us a lot of training.

ARLENE: What kinds of planes were they?

RICHARD: Like the plane that I flew, which was an FM-2 which is the nomenclature given to a fighter plane that the Grumman had made and had given to the, or sold to the Navy Air Corps. That was the only planes that we had at the time that the war started, they were not very good because they were…we had to crank up the wheels. And the power…there wasn't enough power to really get off the flight deck on a carrier, where you just have 50 feet, or 50 yards I guess it is, to take off. It's difficult to do unless you are trained and you wind up full throttle and when you're at full throttle then you let your brakes go and hopefully you can get up in the air and have enough flight…enough airlift so that you can fly off of the carrier instead of falling off the carrier, as I did do a couple of times.

ARLENE: Oh you did?

RICHARD: Yes, the planes were not too good, they were good enough that they needed a little more power, and the plane I used to fly, it started detonating…losing power at the end of the deck it was coughing, sputtering and losing power and finally it just dropped up in the ocean.

ARLENE: How did you get out of that?

RICHARD: I got knocked out because you hit the water just like hitting a brick building. I was knocked out when I crashed into the ocean and when I came to, the water actually brought me to, the plane I was in had to sink straight down to the bottom of the ocean floor. It doesn't still float or anything. I was strapped into it and I was going down down down I had to undo all these buckles that they have to hold you in the plane in case you make a crash landing but I got rid of most of the buckle and the some of the straps, the shoulder straps were holding me down so I couldn't get out of the plane and I finally I found the one that was holding me in and I undid that buckle and started screaming and then I was probably 25 feet under the water I suppose by that time. I knew which way was up so I started swimming. Eventually I came up to the top and the plane when it went down it was full of gasoline when I went in, so a lot of the gasoline came out of the plane. It started to burn…the water burning, the gasoline burning I mean, and so when I got up to the top, I was in the middle of a big circle of fire. So I had to keep splashing to keep the flames off of me and swim under water until I could not do it anymore and eventually I got out to the edge of the circle of fire and I was able to inflate my Mae West and swim. Kept swimming and let go some dye marker so they could find me because out in the middle of the ocean, you're like a little cork, you're nothing. It's hard for them to find you. The carrier knew that I had gone into the drink, so I knew that they would…I supposed that they would be looking for me but I couldn't see anybody and I couldn't see the ship 'cause the ship kept going, it didn't stop. It didn't want to stop because there were enemy ships in the area so they keep going and they sent somebody over there to see if they could find me, some other pilot was flying around looking for me and I guess he saw me, he finally saw me. I was really drowning I think because I had all this gear on me. And I did manage to get rid of my helmet and goggles and the knife and the pistol that you have strapped on you…all that extra weight and anyway so I got rid of all that and tried to swim to where my life raft was floating on the water and where this other part of the plane had broken off and was floating on the water. And as soon as I got to the place where the 55 gallon tank of gasoline was floating on the water, the gasoline that started burning on the surface of the water, was coming up to this tank full of gasoline that I had…was holding onto. So I had to push that away and start swimming away from it so I could get away because I knew it would explode. Eventually it did but I was far enough away from it so that it didn't bother me except I had nothing to hold onto.

ARLENE: So tell us how you were rescued.

RICHARD: Well after I was swimming for a long time and they were trying to find me, the carrier and some seaman that were good swimmers, dove in the ocean and were swimming around trying to find me and I figured they were trying to find me but I couldn't see 'em. They were yelling to me and I couldn't hear them or anything. I was drowning I think. Finally, someone grabbed me around the waist and I realized that they finally found me and I told them, "I can't swim anymore, I'm too tired." So they were good swimmers and they held me up and kept me afloat until a destroyer came over and threw life preservers to me and another seamen dove in and between the three guys they managed to keep me afloat until the destroyer came around close to me and they put a strap around me so that they could pull me out of the ocean and up onto the deck of the destroyer. So they did and I was in sick bay for a couple of months because I was slightly burned because of the gasoline that had started burning on the ocean. I was in it for probably 30 seconds or something like that until I managed to swim underwater and get away from it. So I had slight burns and I had swallowed a lot of gasoline and saltwater so I was not too physically…not physically good enough to fly again right away. So, I was in sick bay for about a month I suppose until I was better and then I…they needed me so I didn't particularly want to go up again but had to…they needed me. So I went up…that's right…that was...the next time that I went up I went in the drink again but this time I knew I was going in because I could hear the motor was missing…making a lot of… it was cutting out and I knew it wasn't going to last. So I turned around and started to fly towards where the carrier was, the ship, so they could find me and pick me up again and finally it coughed and sputtered and the motor just quit. I went down in the water again but this time I was better equipped. I had practiced my swimming in the ocean and I knew where the fire was and I stayed away from that because if you get trapped in the middle of that fire and you have these wings on you, the flotation. You cannot swim under water then and I'd a been fried alive with that circle of fire around me. So I swam up to where the fire was and just stayed away from it and the gasoline would not explode, causing me to burn. I just tried to stay afloat by dog paddling and saving my strength so that they could find me because it's hard to find somebody when they're just a little cork like swimming in the ocean….with big waves.

ARLENE: And they found you a second time?

RICHARD: They finally found me a second time. They put some ropes on me and dragged me up to the top and I was okay. I was in sick bay for a month but I was not too badly burned. Just a little some minor burns from the brief moments that I was in the fire. So anyway I was in sick bay for probably about a month until they let me fly again. I didn't particularly want to fly but they needed all the pilots they could get because they were in the middle of the ocean where the Japanese, we were close enough to the islands where the Japanese were so they could...that their planes could come out and strafe us. So anyway, I was able to…well they picked me up anyhow…

ARLENE: You survived going down twice and that's quite a survival story. Do you have another story that you would like to tell?

RICHARD: Well, you know there was a Grumman TB, Torpedo Bomber from Marcus Island that came to pick us up. The thing is, there was two of us and there was only one seat that was unoccupied that I could sit in and the thing is I was lucky because I was so small that the two of us could fit in this plane that came to pick us up. I guess I was the smallest Naval Aviator in the fleet. I was only 5 feet 4 and ½ inches tall which was actually a half inch below the minimum height for pilots. But the Navy needed me. They gave me a waiver because they were desperate for live pilots. Anyway a pilot who…there was a Lieutenant who outranked me, told me to lie down in the bomb bay of the plane where usually the torpedo was hung. The pilot saw to my dismay that I was laying down in the bottom of this plane that he picked me up in and it was right by the torpedo which was not a safe place to be. Anyways, he said if he had to crash, if he had to land in the ocean, he would try to remember to open the bomb bay doors where I was before it sank down into the ocean and unless it got slammed shut or if he forgot, he said he would be able to hear me screaming so that unless I was knocked out and wasn't able to scream, he would hear me screaming and he would open the bomb bay door so I could get out. He insisted that he would remember, he would be sure he would be okay to pick me up because he had never lost a pilot riding in the bomb bay. I shouldn't have asked him, but I did ask him how many times he had ever driven someone in the bomb bay. And I knew I shouldn't have asked him because he said he never had picked anybody up like that before. Anyway, I crawled under the belly of the torpedo plane into the bomb bay and the doors close and I in the dark for about an hour I guess it was. I was tempted to scream but just to see if they could hear me. But I reminded myself that I was an officer and a Naval Aviator and they don't do that. So anyway then I decided I'd better just start praying and I was praying and praying and convincing myself that everything was okay. And then I thought we'd crashed again. I was convincing myself that everything was okay until we crashed, or so I thought we were crashing because we stopped with a bang and my head hit the bulkhead. I prayed that the bomb bay doors that I was riding in were not jammed and that the pilot was not knocked out and he would remember to open up the bomb bay doors so I could swim out before the plane went down because I knew that these planes would only stay afloat for thirty seconds. I was just about to scream so that he could hear me and remember that I was down in his bomb bay and that he would open the doors there. Then I heard the motor rev up and I felt the plane vibrate and then I felt it was rolling on something solid. I guess we had...I thought that maybe we had hit the deck of the carrier. Unfortunately, is what happened was that the hook had caught a cable…the hook had caught a cable and I did not realize that this was only one of them. Many exciting things that I, or incidents, happened to me while I was on this Marcus Island carrier.

ARLENE: Wow.

RICHARD: And that's the end of that.

ARLENE: Not many people can say they've ridden a torpedo. Huh? Wow what an adventure. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about what was life like on an aircraft carrier and you know what about your buddies? Did you have a strong bond or friendship with them?

RICHARD: Yes, everybody is dependent upon the other person protecting him so we protected each other. Flying and some Jap or some enemy plane gets on your tail why it's up to the other person, who is one of your buddies to come and shoot him down, so that you can… you protect each other. That's why you zig zag like this. You keep doing this. So that if there's someone on his tail I could shoot him down and if there's somebody on my tail he could shoot down the guy that's on my tail. So that's why you zig zag like that because you're protecting the other guy's tail in case an enemy plane comes along.

ARLENE: That's interesting. Did you see much combat?

RICHARD: No, they were mainly… the Japanese were actually kamikaze or suicide planes that they would come in and kill themselves and land or fly right into the ship to try to sink our ship. They…the Japanese were losing the war, they felt they were losing the war so they were willing to sacrifice one of their planes and the pilot to sink one of the carriers you know…because then if they sink one of the carriers then you lose 50 planes and you lose about 500 men on the carrier. So they were willing to sacrifice one pilot and one plane to sink a whole carrier of people. So they were desperate. So that's why they had kamikazes which is suicide planes that would just fly right into the ship and kill…the guy would kill himself…a pilot would kill himself to try to sink that ship because they would only lose one man and one plane but if the ship went down you'd lose 50 planes and 500 men so they were willing to kill themselves.

ARLENE: How did you keep your spirits up? Because that seems very frightening to me.

RICHARD: Well they wouldn't give me anything to drink. That would keep your spirits up. We knew we were better pilots in better planes, supposedly, than the Japs had. Though the Japanese planes were not as maneuverable as ours, but we had better armor protection on the sides of our planes. We knew we were better pilots than the Japs. So we thought anyways. The living conditions on board ship were… you didn't have any privacy at all. We all slept one right next to each other on a…it's sort of a little mattress that would just fit your body and you'd have 25 guys in the same room sleeping and snoring and everything so it was tough to sleep with all of these people on a hard floor. But you were so tired out I don't think that… I had no trouble sleeping I don't think. So, really it didn't bother me.

ARLENE: How about the food? Was the food good?

RICHARD: The food was good for us, for the pilots and I think the other enlisted men, their food was good. I guess it was the same food that we were getting; we all got the same food so they must have had good food just like we did. I had no complaints about the food at all.

ARLENE: Did you get letters from home? Were you able to hear from people back home at all?

RICHARD: No, we didn't get any mail. Unless when you were in a base somewhere for several months, you could get some letters. But I was never in base long enough for someone…for me to tell them where I was and for them to write to me. I never really got any letters from home. I was able to get a lot of mail out to them, mailed to them because when you're not flying, all you can do is just sit down and write letters, that was about all there was to do, there was nothing else to do. There's no women around to chase them so.

ARLENE: But you had some leave time on the islands, on San Marcus Island?

RICHARD: Marcus Island was the name of the carrier I was on. The island that I was on was right by Guadalcanal, I forget the name of it. Maybe it was…well the Marcus Island was the name of an island that I guess I was on for a month, that's where I did most of my letter writing from I suppose. That's back when you're in seaside, back in the states, because when you get out on the ocean, you can write a letter but you can't do anything with it. You write it and you just sit on it and wait until you get back into port and then you mail it.

ARLENE: The islands were pretty primitive though?

RICHARD: Yeah they were primitive…they were just...they were an island that we just took back from the Japs. We had the island for a while. The Japs came in and they took it away from us. And then we came back and took it away from them. So you're…it's back and forth with these islands that you're on. So you never have any…you're not in any permanent…you're not there for a long time and when you are there you have to be ready to go all of a sudden…all the time. So it wasn't much…wasn't very good time to write letters. I didn't write that many letters probably. I started them but then I never finished them.

ARLENE: Richard, did you stay on that aircraft carrier through the end of the war?

RICHARD: Yes, I stayed on the carrier and I don't think I managed to have any more exciting events like I didn't lose any planes. I wasn't shot down. I chased some Japanese planes and I fired at them but they were always running away so that I don't think I shot down any Japanese planes.

ARLENE: But you gave them a good scare?

RICHARD: Yeah, I chased them away from the carrier because if they sunk our carrier I would have no place to go. So it was a matter of life and death for me to keep them away from sinking my carrier, which was my landing field.

ARLENE: Did you get any medals or citations?

RICHARD: Yeah, I had some… I think four air medals for what I had done. Mainly, you know, protecting the carrier from enemy planes that they'd come in and they strafed us. The first time I saw a Japanese plane, he came in and he was strafe…he was going to strafe our flight deck and I was on the flight deck. I couldn't believe that he was gonna' just fly right in and try to kill us. So I was standing there watching him like a dummy. Pretty soon I could see that he was firing at us and his bullets were coming close to me, so I went over the side and dove into a room, which happened to be a 40mm ammunition room which was the wrong place to go but that was all that was available at the moment. I just dove in there and eventually I think he was shot down, that plane. We just had…the Japs would… they were not very good pilots to begin with and luckily it was good for us that they weren't because when I tried to get in a dogfight with them, it was not very difficult for me to get on their tail; rather than them to get on my tail. Although their planes were a lot more maneuverable than ours were, but we had better protection on our planes so that if you did get hit with some of their bullets, the plane wouldn't collapse, but if we hit their plane then their planes would just fall apart in pieces, because they were not made of metal, they were just made of balsa wood. I felt sorry for their pilots, they were at a disadvantage except that their planes were very maneuverable and ours were not very maneuverable because ours were a lot heavier but they were stronger so that they're better if you got hit, your plane wouldn't fall apart whereas their planes would fall apart. So they knew that they had very poor planes so they wouldn't get into a dogfight with us because they realized we had the advantage because we were stronger but they were more maneuverable. So they were fortunate in one respect but then it was more risky for them. And we were…

ARLENE: So you were on duty all the time. Twenty-four hours a day it sounds like.

RICHARD: That's right, even though you were sleeping in bed, when we were attacked why then the bell would start clanging, and you'd jump out of bed and you would get on your helmet and hopefully you could find your pistol. Get ready to go up on top, the top deck and jump in a plane. Hopefully you could get off before the Japanese came in and shot your plane down.

ARLENE: And how long did you do this? How long were you on that carrier?

RICHARD: That was about ten or twelve months, it was about a year approximately when we were on the carrier.

ARLENE: And when did you end your tour of duty there?

RICHARD: It was October, 1945. I went in 1942 to 1945. Yeah, '42, '43, '44, '45…yeah. That was about four years total time.

ARLENE: And what happened after that? How did you get back home?

RICHARD: Well after we engaged the Japanese fleet and there was no more Japanese fleet because we had really sunk all the ships that they had. Then we went back to Pearl Harbor and they mustered us out because the Japanese meanwhile had surrendered. So they dismissed all of the pilots, well all the servicemen. So that I then was mustered out, they call it. And I went back to Chicago.

ARLENE: How did you get back to Chicago?

RICHARD: The ship docked at Pearl Harbor and then from there we were able to make arrangements for a plane to come in and land and pick us up and fly us back to Chicago.

ARLENE: And what did you do when you got back home? What did you do right after the war?

RICHARD: Well I got married because I had been engaged to my wife for about a year and a half I think it was. We were…had put off being married while I was in as a pilot on the… (End of Side A)

ARLENE: (Beginning of Side B) So you got married after the war and did you go back to school or work then?

RICHARD: After I got married, I had to go back into the service for a couple of months I believe it was. And then I was able to get out because I had enough points to get out at that time, if you had a lot of action and were in the war for long enough you had accumulated enough points so that you were able to get out. There were people that didn't serve much time, they had to stay in. But anyway, so I was able to get out and get married and had babies.

ARLENE: Wonderful. Is there anything else that you would like to mention? Were you able to stay in touch with anybody from your years in the service?

RICHARD: Yes, there was one fellow that… Doctor Lautermilk(?) is the one that helped me write up my memoirs and we had exchanged a couple of letters but then he went back to Virginia and I went back to Chicago. So we did lose contact with each other. I suppose if we ever have a squadron get-together I'll see him again. I think he is alive. I don't know; but there was nobody else that I was in touch with, no.

ARLENE: Is there anything else that you would like to add? You told quite a story.

ARLENE: Well Richard, thank you very much for telling your story. We appreciate your time and your important contribution to this project and I have to tell you it has been a pleasure interviewing you. I am just so proud of you. I am so proud to have met you and to have interviewed you this afternoon.

RICHARD: I thank you Arlene Lane. I appreciate your willingness to bear with me while I try to recall the events that I'm trying to forget I guess for many years. Thanks Arlene.

ARLENE: Thank you Richard.

1. 2. 3. 4.

1. Richard Blaha as an aviation cadet 2. Richard Blaha during pilot training 3. Richard Blaha, portrait 4. Richard Blaha, portrait taken towards the end of the war