Distinguished Flying Ace Alexander Vraciu

The US Navy's "indestructible" aviator...

(US Navy Fighter Ace Alexander Vraciu)

Recalling when he heard of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, future US Navy fighter ace, Alexander Vraciu, said he “thought the broadcasters were trying to pull some kind of hoax – Y’know, similar to the one with Orson Welles and his ‘War of the Worlds’…”

(Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941)

Less than a year later, 23-year-old Vraciu had earned his coveted gold wings designating him a naval aviator and, shortly after they were pinned to his chest, was assigned to the revered and battle-proven unit, then designated Fighting Squadron 3.

It was there where he was made wingman to the already legendary pilot, Lieutenant Commander Edward “Butch” O’Hare, the latter of whom not only taught Vraciu his “trade”, but also, how to apply it when he flew his Grumman Hellcat fighter into combat in the summer of 1943.

(Alex Vraciu’s famous Grumman Hellcat F6F G-BTTC photographed in the present day following its extensive restoration. The aircraft now flies with the Fighter Collection based at the Duxford Aerodrome in Cambridgeshire, Great Britain)

In the months that followed, Vraciu quickly showed himself as adept in the air as his teacher, and, in so doing, soon distinguished himself in multiple engagements.   

Then, however, he was hit by a tragedy that no amount of training could have prepared him for, when, in late November 1943, he learned that his friend and mentor had been reported missing during a night intercept over the Gilbert islands, and presumed killed in action.

(Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare. Awarded the Medal of Honor “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in aerial combat… as section leader and pilot of Fighting Squadron 3 on February 20, 1942”, “Butch” O’Hare was a celebrated combat aviator in his own right long before Alexander Vraciu joined him as his wingman. Upon completion of his pilot training in May 1940, his then Executive Officer - then Lieutenant John Smith Hatch - took him under his wing, and soon discovered his noted “exceptional flying abilities.” Just three months after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, O’hare’s aforesaid abilities notably came into their own, when, as the USS Lexington steamed towards the Japanese base at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, he took to the skies to intercept a stream of Mitsubishi G4M1 “Betty” bombers dispatched to destroy the Lexington. By the end of the engagement, O’Hare had downed 5 Japanese aircraft and damaged a sixth – Thus making him the Navy’s first fighter ace of the Second World War. Today, he is not just remembered by his surviving comrades as “a hell of a fine man” but, he is also honored as one who “gave a battered nation a hero just when it needed one the most.”)

Notwithstanding the emotional impact the loss of his comrade had on him, Vraciu had no time to grieve for him.

Instead, he embarked upon mission after mission in his wingman’s name; scored a myriad of victories in his honor; and then, on June 19th, 1944, recorded a triumph that, in later years, he said he “would never have achieved, had it not been for the lessons” he received from "Butch" O'Hare.

Dispatched to defend the US 5th Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, he not only downed six Yokosuka dive bombers in just 8-minutes but, he succeeded in doing so while suffering from a litany of mechanical failures, which caused oil to spill onto his windshield, and thus, forced him to fly blind in the face of the Japanese.

(Yokosuka D4Y “Suisei” dive bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, similar to those shot down by Alexander Vraciu)

Although he was then given the opportunity to return home, he chose to remain in the Pacific, where, after he was shot down over enemy-held Luzon on December 14th, 1944, he remarkably evaded capture for more than 5-weeks, and even established his own band of guerrilla fighters there.

Rescued by General MacArthur’s invasion force in January 1945, Vraciu was subsequently shipped back to the United States, where he spent the remainder of the war serving at the Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, before then retiring as a commander on December 31st, 1963.

(Alexander Vraciu photographed as a commander toward the end of his military career)

Despite being one of America’s highest-scoring airmen with 40 destroyed aircraft to his credit, and, in spite of being one the Nation’s most highly decorated, Commander Alexander Vraciu always maintained that he “never did any more than any other flyer…”

“Our job was to clear the sky”, he said in an interview shortly before his passing on this day in 2015.

“I was just one of the lucky ones who made it back alive.”

(Alexander Vraciu being interviewed in his later years in the city of Hayward, California)