All,

Yesterday was a pretty darn cool day.  My Mom, Dad, Uncle Rich and Cousin Daniel made the trip yesterday to meet with William J. Schaeffer.  BJ, as he is known, was my Grandfather’s tail gunner in the SB2C Helldiver aboard the carrier Essex in WWII, and he resides about 45 minutes from my parents in Pennsylvania.  Also in attendance was BJ’s daughter, his nephew (who made the initial connection) and several other family members, as well as a reporter from the Reading Eagle, a local newspaper.  My Dad presented Mr. Schaeffer with my 1:48 scale Revell Pro Modeler Helldiver model that took 2^nd place at the regional convention that we hosted in 2009.  Per my grandfather’s logbook, tail number 134 is the bird that my Grandfather and Mr. Schaeffer were flying in on April 7, 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa when my grandfather was emerging from cloud cover and was starting a run on a heavy cruiser when he caught site of the bow of the largest ship he had ever seen emerge from beneath a cloud.  He changed course in mid-dive to attack the IJN Yamato.  Diving through heavy anti-aircraft fire he scored a direct hit amidships and believed he put it down the smokestack.  He noted there was no damage on her prior to his run and believed he scored the first direct hit.  For his actions that day he received the Navy Cross, an award ranking just below the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He and Mr. Schaeffer both received the Distinguished Flying Cross and several Air Medals during the campaign.

Ironically, in later action, my Grandfather got into a dog fight with a Japanese Zero fighter and shot it down, a feat he was prouder of that than the attack on the Yamato.  Not bad for a dive bomber pilot.

It was a privilege to be able to thank Mr. Schaeffer for keeping the Zeros off my Grandfather’s ass.  If he had failed, I wouldn’t be here today.

The in the photo “Grampa Ready Room”, that’s my grandfather in the middle and Mr. Schaeffer is on the far right.  I’ll forward the link to the newspaper article once it is published.

Dave