CALLED HOME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 August 1943, Page 4

CALLED HOME

DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN AIRMEN.

TO ASSIST IN TRAINING NAVY PILOTS.

(By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. United States naval air aces who won glory during the first Solomons campaign have returned to America to help with the Navy's programme of training 30,000 pilots a year. Among them according to a war correspondent with the United States Pacific Fleet, are Lieutenant-Commander William Burch, who led his squadron against two Japanese aircraft-carriers in the Coral Sea bauie, sinking both; Lieutenant Wilmer Gallagher, who led the bomber squadron of the aircraft-carrier Enterprise in the Midway battle and in the Gilbert, Marshall, Wake and Marcus Islands raids; Lieutenant-Comman-der Mike Sanches, who led a fighter squadron from the aircraft-carrier Hornet at Midway and Santa Cruz, and Lieutenant Donald Mason, of “sighted sub, sank same” fame. With them are senior officers who distinguished themselves in the Southern Pacific, including Rear-Admirals John McCain, who commanded the naval air forces in the Solomons; George Murray; commander of the aircraitcarrier Enterprise in the Tokio raid and later Pacific batues; Elliott Buckmaster, commander of the aircraftcarrier Yorktown in the Coral Sea and Midway battles.