AOM 2/C Jack Lythgoe Gunner TBM's / VC-94 USS Shamrock CVE-84
.
Jack flew as a gunner in an SBD dive bomber aboard the USS Ranger and later a turret gunner in TBM Avenger. The USS Shamrock Bay CVE-84 was a lightly armored escort carrier, CVE's were known as (Combustible Vulnerable and Expendable and also as Kaisers Coffins). The CVE was designed to be built quickly, to take airpower to the front lines, support troops and protect convoys. These ships could not take much damage from gunfire, bombs or kamikaze and a just one torpedo strike was enough to sink the ship in only minutes. The US carriers lost in the war after 1942 were all CVE's. Jacks cruise took him to Leyte, Luzon, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima to witness the full fury of the Kamikaze campaign against the US Fleet. Unlike his pilot, the set up of the gunners turrett left Jack little time to attach his parachute if his plane was hit and out of control.
Work In progress. 3.9.2003
Jack was born at home in Boothwyn, Pennsylvania on April 4th, 1926. The depression was hard on the Lythgoe family. His father, Peter B. Lythgoe and mother Florence Lois, (Boushelle)
Lythgoe
lost their grocery store in Boothwyn in the depression so the family moved to Centerville, Maryland and later Milford Delaware where Jacks dad worked for a dry goods wholesaler.
Jack: "We later moved back to Chester Pennsylvania after a few years out of the state, and then out to Ogden, PA. (Chester, Boothwyn, Linwood, Marcus Hook, Twin Oaks, Ogden, Trainer all within a five mile radius.
Half the people in the Ogden-Boothwyn area worked at the humongous Sunoco oil refinery plant in Marcus Hook.
I elementary school in Boothwyn, also attended in Centerville, MD
and Milford, Del. before moving back to Chester for the fourth through sixth
at Lincoln Elementary, and then Jr. High at Franklin, also in Chester.
Started high school in Chester, but we moved about halfway through the year
and moved to Odgen, where I attended Boothwyn High School. (Now Upper
Chichester High.)
My brother and I hiked to Erie, PA, then over to Niagra Falls and back to
Chester when I was thirteen. A most fabulous experience for a thirteen year
old. We were in Boy Scout uniforms, and did not 'hitch hike', but accepted
rides when offered. We slept in barns, lofts, fields and anywhere else we
could find to pitch our tent. Before I went into the service I was in the 11th grade at high school,
but had worked as an usher in a movie theatre and later the head usher, a
councilor at a summer camp for underpriveleged children, a hardware delivery
person driving a truck, and I suppose my first job was a soda jerk at the
local drug store in Boothwyn. New Jersey was a big thing for me
when I was just a kid. Atlantic City, Cape May and such. They were the only trips my parents ever made.
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I enlisted when I was only sixteen, but they found out about it somehow
and never did get in then. I went up the day after my 17th birthday and
joined up. I joined the Navy because if I got killed I knew it would be while I was clean, had a good
nights sleep in a clean bunk, and a hot meal the night before. Besides I
liked the uniforms better. My older brother, Harry was a Captain in the Army Corps of Engineers and
saw service in Europe as commanding officer of an all black company. Most of my relatives back East had jobs in war or defense related
industry, or at least those who were not in the service did.
Mother had her two stars in the window from the start to the finish. They knew what carrier I was on, but not the location other than
somewhere in the Atlantic with the Ranger and somewhere in the Pacific on the
Shamrock Bay.
..
News papers and war time posters along with a flag flown in windows for sons & husbands in the fighting.
Jack: "I started at boot camp in Sampson, NY. Then was sent to Ordnance School
in Memphis, (Millington), Tennessee, Bomb and Fuze school in Ayer, Mass,
Aerial Gunnery School somewhere in Rhode Island, and then to operations at
NAS Opa Locka, Florida for flight training.
I was very pleased with all of my training and was glad to be able to be
taught a
'rating' that did not really seem all that difficult.
A MAJOR
part of it was 'recognition' classes. We sat in a darkened classroom where
slides of various German, Italian and Japanese planes were flashed onto the screen, interspersed with American, British and any others they could find.
The classes started out where they would be onscreen for twenty or thirty
seconds while the instructor would tell you about points of recognition you
should look for and how this particular one has this or that. Then the
speeds would increase each time you went to a recognition class until when
they were flashed on for a small fraction of a second, (I want to say a
fiftieth, but am not certain about it), and believe it or not, you could
retain the image and identify the plane shown. All flight personnel went to
these classes, pilots and aircrew alike.
The gunnery started out with
shooting a shot gun the greater part of the day until you felt your shoulder
was going to drop off, starting with low going away shots, then crossing
shots, then varieties coming from any of three or four locations. I can
remember still how many were ready to drop out just because of a sore
shoulder, which I would suppose those running the program wanted those who
were really INTO what they were being taught.
Then we progress to a shotgun
mounted with spade grips similar to a thirty caliber mount which SBD's 
carried before they went to twin thirties. This was a lot easier, and we
felt it was more like what we would be doing, so it really came over as much
fun, which the shoulder mounted shotgun was not after the first few hours of
shooting. From there we were put into various types of turrets to get used
to different control handles and slewing procedures but still with shotguns,
not machine guns. Then we went into quonset huts which were split in the
middle to make two gunnery training units. You sat in the rear seat of an
SBD and shot at planes making pursuit curves on you on the screen which was
in the center of the quonset hut. It was quite realistic, though I am
positive nothing like they use nowadays. Of course you were also supposed
to pay attention as to whether it was a plane you were supposed to be
shooting at, or just one of our own trying to join up with the formation.
They frowned on those who shot at planes which were 'ours'.
We did get to shoot machine guns, but most of the machine gun work was done
in the air. Can never remember shooting at a towed sleeve. Recall mostly
strafing after being assigned to a squadron, and to be honest with you most
all of the actual firing I did while in combat was strafing. Either targets
on the ground, boats or lugers hauling supplies. Always wanted to get a
sub, but we never found one.
There was a safety cut out when firing forward so that you could not fire
into or through the propellor. A little 'cam follower' of some kind hit
something which made the turret bounce back in the opposite direction,
letting you know in a hurry that you were in a 'tight' place. There was also
a cut out to keep the gun from firing into the rudder or the horizontal
stabilizer. You are taught from your first day at gunnery school to be
aware of where you are shooting and not to get 'buck fever' as it is very
easy to burn up a gun barrel with sustained fire. You were told to fire in
short bursts to check your trace and then lengthen them when you were on
target.
I cannot remember too many of my friends in the various schools, thought
I do have photos where I can still remember a few of the names.
After taking my CGT's at Sampson, (about two or three days of tests), a
Lt. jg came into the barracks looking for Lythgoe, J.P. Hald scared me to
death as I thought they were going to kick me out again or something. He
asked me if I had taken the tests before, or was I cheating and copying from
someone? I told him that I had not, and did not. He told me that I had
one of the highest scores on my GCT that he had ever seen and that I had
finished a couple or three of them which were not supposed to be able to be
finished in the time given as that was one of the factors they used in
grading the tests. I then suggested that if I were the only one to have
finished them that it would be pretty hard for me to have copied from somone.
He thought about it awhile and then decided, 'Yes, that's right, isn't it?"
He asked me what I would like to do in the Navy. I told him that I wanted
to fly. He said, "You've got it!", and I was off to Tennesee. Wanted to be
a pilot, but he told me that I could not as a high school diploma was
required and I had quite in the eleventh grade to join the Navy. There was a small graduation ceremony, but impressive.. sorta' like getting out of Jr. High.. not
quite as elaborate and impressive as high school or college.
I then recieved a short leave as I recall, but enough to get home and spend some
time with my parents and girlfriend.
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It appeared that I was going to spend the rest of the war as an
instructor at NAS Opa Locka, but a buddy and myself decided we would not see
action and be heroes unless we got where the action was. So we took turns
making out transfer applications every single day for a couple off weeks
until the Wave officer who was in charge of assigning people finally got mad
at us and put us on the Ranger with VS 41. 
I can not tell you how long, but only made
one 'cruise' on the Ranger when I was taken off and ended up somehwere in
SB2C Helldivers.
From a gunner's standpoint it was nice as it was very
roomy and had hydraulic power to pump down the metal cover for your guns.
The pilots however did not seem to care for them. Made perhaps a dozen or so
training flights in an SB2C 
and then received orders to report aboard the USS
Shamrock Bay at Norfolk. We went through the 'locks' right in back of the
Missouri and it amazed me how few inches they had to spare in getting it
through. Our beam was nothing like the Missouri's.
I was assigned to
shipboard ordnance to start with as VC-94 did not board as I recall until we
got to Hawaii. The red hats were ordinance people... bombs, rockets, machine guns, depth charges, torpedo's and such were all the responsibility of the ordinance dept. The supply, mounting, maintenance of both the ordinance itself and the systems within the planes upon which they were mounted, or which determined how they were dropped, (controlled by a unit called the 'intervalometer' which could be set to space the bombs being dropped from the twelve shackles within the bomb bay at a predetermined distance apart), the belting of ammunition and loading same into both fighters and torpedo planes.. all fell within the duties of ordinance personnel. Removal of 'hot' rounds from the chambers in all machine guns of all planes and removing any bombs or rockets left after landing was also the responsibility of shipboard ordinance. I was assigned to fill up the crew for Joe Cox. He only
had a radioman and no gunner. Really don't know what happened to his
gunner, if he ever had one.
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The small CVE's built by Kaiser Shipyards.
Jack: "I had a small spot at the forward end of the carrier which was some sort
of ventilation intake. Don't know how I ever found it, but I used to poke
around the ship whenever I had some free time, which as you may well suppose
is often when you are at sea for extended periods of time. Learned a lot
about the ship and still have no idea as to how I ever managed to locate this
little private spot, which was just about the only spot on the ship where you
could be alone. I would lay there on a small pad that I had built up and
watch the flying fish rise up out of the bow wave and take off in either
direction to avoid being 'run over' by the ship. That was my main
relaxation spot. Enjoyed playing basketball on the hangar deck, but it was
rare we could do this while underway.
I can never remember having bad food anywhere during my time in the
service. Of course it was not like mom cooked at home, but it was filling,
you had plenty of it, and I was exposed to some items which I never had at
home. For a Northern boy who had never had corn bread it opened up a new
world for me. Still love to bake up a batch of cornbread once in awhile.
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CROSSING THE LINE
Jack: "Crossing the line was a big thing aboard most Navy ships as tradition hangs on forever. It started a week or so before we actually crossed the line when every man aboard ship who had not crossed the line before received a summons to appear before, as I remember it, Neptunis Rex the Lord of the Sea.
Coming out of the 'chute' & the ships Exec. Officer getting his haircut.
Jack: "You were identified as a Polywog and if any Shellback, (those who had managed the 'crossing' before), should happen to ask you WHAT you were when they passed you on deck and you should answer anything other than, "A lowly polywog", or words to that effect there was always the threat of some form of response and expectation of mild punishment or embarrassment from the Shellback. Like possibly having to drop a bucket into the water from the flight deck on the port side and carry it over to the starboard side in order to equalize the water on both sides of our ship. (All CVE's were build symmetrically and when they plumped the 'Island' down on the starboard side of the ship it gave it a built in, always there slight list to the Starboard... hence the 'leveling' of the ship!) I might add that this would always be between off duty personnel. The 'hazing' or whatever you choose to call it NEVER interferred with those on duty or the security of the ship.
As I recall... You started by running down through a rather extended lane of very hefty looking pirates with paddles, one at a time, so they would not be tempted to miss someone on the way through while occupied with the preceding initiate. Then you headed for the opening of the target sleeve, (which is like a very large windsock and towed behind planes for aerial and shipboard gunnery) which as aforementioned was loaded down with any garbage which they could find and replenished frequently.
On emerging from the 'sleeve' you were hit with a heavy pressured hose, which did at least manage to get rid of a bit of the refuse which may have taken up residence in your clothing. (Did I mention the official uniform of the day for Polywogs was t-shirt and skivvie shorts?) Shellbacks were costumed in the closest thing they could find to pirate garb. After getting washed off a bit there was another double line of paddles to negotiate. The faster you went and the less noise you made, the better off you were. The sequence of the rest of the initiation eludes me, but you stopped and visited with the Royal Chaplain who gave you a Sympathy Chit.
The Royal Chaplain & Mr. 'Peepsight', our engineering officer being treated to
a haircut and a facial massage.
Captain Ward welcoming Davy Jones & crew aboard & The Royal Family and kissing of the Royal Babies tummy. Note two 'attendants ready to swat the kisser and baby's tummy smeared with grease.
Jack: "The Royal Family was there, of course, with the Royal Baby, ( A Chief Bos'un, if I recall properly) with a fat tummy smeared with grease. You had to bend over and kiss the tummy, and of course someone with a paddle was there to surprise you and straighten you up in a hurry from that kiss.
You were asked numberous times, "What are you?", and always responded properly fearing another go round if you did not. You have grease smeared across your face and put into your hair, (the less liked officers and upper ranked enlisted men fairing poorly in these events) Then you were bulldozed into a chair of sorts at the edge of the elevator pit where you were given a haircut by the Royal Barber, and a squirt of that exquisite substance in the grease gun. "What are you?" You responded, "I am a Polywog." They gave you another shot of vinegar and pepper! "What are you" Again the proper response, "A Polywog." Then another smear of grease or something equally repulsive. "What are you?" ........ If you were smart enough by then to realize that you have gone through the initiation and were now a SHELLBACK and told them so, the chair was tipped back and you were heels over head back into the humongous tank of water which they had rigged on deck. Then you could move around freely, shake hands with the Shellbacks whom had been torturing you for several days and watch the agony of the others who had not yet, 'made the trip'.
Jack: "Another Polywog becomes a Shellback. Now you tell
me that Navy people are not resourceful? A swimming'
pool on a partially lowered elevator for canvas and netting?"
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I may have been the only person during
the entire war who managed to inflict weapon damage on the Shamrock Bay. I accidently fired four or five rounds from the folded wing of an FM through the
flight deck. One of which destroyed a wind recording instrument on the level
just below the flight deck which an officer had just finished bending over to
take a reading from. They traced a couple of the other shots, but it
appeared that the main damage was to the wind recorder. I was summoned to the bridge IMMEDIATELY. After telling my story, the mechanic who had charged the gun which I had already cleared was chastised for not knowing his port from his starboard.
Jack: "While in between operations we would go to a supply area such as Manus
or such. The aircrew stood machine watches on deck as Japanese would drift
out under a box, flotsam or such and then through grenages up on deck.
Anything which moved close enough, or against the current was promply
riddled."
Our plane was damaged several times, but we were extremely fortunate in
that none of us were even hit by enemy fire. I was bloodied a time of two
with hard landings, but nothing more than a few stitches could handle. We were under attack and at GQ's several times with Kamakazie,
and once in anchorage where we were lit up like a Christmas tree when all of
the other ships in the anchorage had doused their lights. We were having a
'happy hour' on the forward elevator and the m.c. had announced not to worry
if we heard the GQ sound during the show as it was only a part of the show.
Some of us were sitting up on the flight deck, looking down at the show from
above and when GQ sounded, I could not relate it to anything happening in the
show, and all the lights on the other ships were going to black. Those of us
on the hanger deck ran around screaming for the lights to be put off and
finally they were. I think that is the night that one of the first line
carriers got hit, but am not sure. We
visited Mog Mog once. They were serving beer, which I did not particularly
care for. Still have many sea
shells which I picked up on the island. There was not much to do except
drink, swim and sun. About like Gilligan' Island, but with no other people
than who you came in on the landing ship with.
..
[ The P1Y1 Frances Bomber and the fleet recreation center on the island of Mog Mog in the Ulithi Atoll. There wwere still Japanese on these islands. ]
[At the fleet anchorage of Ulithi the Japanese staged one of their first long range kamikaze strikes utilizing twin engined Francis P1Y1 bombers loaded with explosive and stripped of armament. One did strike the USS Randolf, but most crashed in the darkness. ]
Jack: "In the Lingayan Gulf we were under attack, the plane which struck the Kitkun Bay originally started down at us. I
had a 'SAFE' spot picked out on the port side of the ship all the way aft and
figured out that I was never going to get killed by a suicide plane. If it
hit the aft end or the port side I would just run across the flight deck.
If it looked like it was going to hit the flight deck I would dive into the
LSO's net and roll under a humongous girder where I should have been
reasonably safe from getting hurt. We had lttle or no planes on our flight
deck but evidently the Kitkun had a deck full, or for some other reason, he
just decided he liked them best!
[ The Kitkun Bay survived several attacks: 25 October 1944: During the Leyte Gulf battle a Zero fighter plane struck the port catwalk killing 1 man and wounding 16. Repairs at Pearl Harbor completed 17 December 1944.
Under attack again on January 8 1945 and severely damaged by kamikaze during Lingayan Gulf campaign. 8 January 1945: At 18:57 an "Oscar" Kamikaze struck the portside amidships at the waterline. Almost simultaneously, a "friendly-fire" 5-inch shell struck her starboard side. The resultant fires and flooding were brought under control but 16 were dead and 37 wounded. The following day with a list and only one engine operating she withdrew and proceeded by stages to Leyte, Manus and Pearl Harbor, finally arriving at San Pedro on 28 February 1945. Repairs took two months.
See Kamikaze Damage to US and British Carriers .]
Jack: "It could have easily been US instead of
THEM. Another time we had a flight of Japanese planes approaching from the rear
and it looked like the lead plane had selected us. I was standing right in
the middle of the aft end of the flight deck again, and this time when the
five inch gun crew was given the command to fire.... they didn't.... I
looked over the rear edge of the flight deck to find out why they didn't...
AND THEN THEY DID!!! The blast picked me right up in the air and dropped me on my fanny.
They also hit the incoming right in the middle of the prop! The gunnery crew
as later awarded a citation. ONE GREAT shot!
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The Pacific Theater and main campaigns of WWII.
Jack: "Our squadron started in the Phillipines.. Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima,
Okinawa and a few strikes against Saki Shima. Most of our ground support
work for the Marines was at Okinawa, though we did have some missions where
airfields, lugers,
(Diahatsu barge)
(small boats used to carry supplies), and such were bombed
and strafed. Though we saw many Japanese planes we were fortunate enough to never
have been under direct attack though several were close enough to appear they
were preparing to go into a pursuit curve against us.
When we were doing
ground support work we usually orbited offshore until after we had an
assigned target. Then we would fly directly there, make several to as many
as eight or ten dives on a target or targets, then reform and head back to
the carrier. I could not shoot over the starboard wing in a dive to well but
could shoot in either direction once we were out of our dive. I could strafe
effectively while we were bombing or shooting rockets, by shooting over the
port wing of the plane as I could not get the gun aimed far enough forward
since it was to my left and would limit forward shots. The first time I
strafed trucks and personell on the ground shooting over the port wing, it
startled Joe considerably and he called me to find out if I saw the plane
which was shooting at us. I looked all around in back and then realized
that he had seen my trace coming over his left shoulder - and he thought
there was a Japanese fighter in back of us. Any other pilot would have more than
likely chewed me out for firing without letting him know about it first, but
Joe just said, "Next time let me know when you;re planning to shoot, but be
sure you save ammo for the flight back to the carrier." He got used to it
after awhile. He was a truly great pilot! Never worried about our landings
when I was flying with him.
Our most difficult missions were all the ones against AA installations
on Okinawa as they had a no deflection shot at us and planes would frequently
be hit by flak.
120MM 75MM and 25MM Flak emplacements.
Saki Shima was a shuttle station for japanese Aircraft coming up from Taiwan for kamikaze strikes.
... 
The A6M5 model Zero used for suicide attacks and the purpose built KI-115 Kamikaze.
Jack: "The single most dangerous mission we
flew was against Saka Shima, where the British had pulled back after getting
their butts pretty well shot up. The Japanese had an AA school there and the
instructors were firing the guns. Unbelievable flak all zeroed in and
waiting for us. The first time I was exposed to enemy fire it did not in any way
frighten me or was I scared. By the time you get into combat after Navy
training, everything which you do is more or less done automatically without
having to think about it too much. The lead tables and all come back into
your mind. Short bursts only, etc. I think I was aware of the fact that it
was more or less a potentially dangerous occupation, but apparently when you
are only 17, 18 & 19 you really believe that you ARE immortal and that you
are 'good enuf' to defend against anything the enemy had to throw at you. I
suppose if anything made me nervous it was the tremendous amount of flak and
small arms fire we got from the ground. Flak wasn't too bad because if you
saw it, it was usually too late to hurt you, but when the sky was full it did
make you a bit anxious to get where there was not quite as much of it.
A shot of ol' 89... As you can tell by the bombs on the side of the plane, it was one which had been around for a spell.
Assuming our plane was hit badly enough to justify bailing out it would
have in all probablity also made the aircraft quite unstable. The pilot was
in his chute and harness. The radioman was right down in the lower part of
the plane where he could reach up, snap his chute on before we were hit in
perilous situations. (Which my radioman did on several occasions.) For the
gunner to get down out of the turret, get the parachute off of the bulkhead
near the door and then get out the door would only be possible if the pilot
could manage to maintain a reasonably stable flight path. In other words, if
the plane was in anything other than a more or less steady and regular flight
attitude it would be very unlikely that the turret gunner would get out of
the plane.
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The prime reason for taking the Iwo Jima was for the basing of B-29 escorts and having a base for cripples to land.
. Jack: "Flying from a carrier you rarely had opportunity to see much of
anything other than the carrier and the areas you flew over We did make one
landing on Okinawa at Yonton air strip where we saw many damaged Jap planes
and pulled a fifty from the wing of a Val
to take back to our ship's gunnery
officer who had always wanted one to compare how the Japanese were able to
adapt our fifty to a more efficient machine gun.
We had the best basketball team on the ship, (VC-94 Aircrew), and several of our members played on the ships team when we hosted visiting ships teams aboard.
Our tail insignia was a white shamrock with crosse white shileighly and long clay Irish pipe
My rating was AOM 2/C Aviation Ordnanceman second class.
Enlisted men pay scales and ratings in WWII.
On leave after my second tour of duty. (Leyte, Luzon, Okinawa, Iwo Jima.) I had a thirty day leave during which I found out that my girlfriend whom I
thought I would be marrying when I got back had gotten tired of waiting.
The photo above was taken while at sea in the North China Sea aboard USS Shamrock Bay.
Left to right: Jack Lythgoe AOM 2/C Gunner
Norman Smith ARM 2/C Radioman
Lt. jg Joe Cox Pilot
We flew as a unit. When Joe flew, Smitty and I flew also. The plane we flew in would vary and were as assigned by engineering, our CO or the CAG.
We were a rather tight little group, and to my knowledge there were only two flights where the regular aircrew did not fly with their assigned pilot. One was a message drop on a cruiser, which I flew with Lt. Crabtree, and the other was a tow hop which was flown by Lott, AOM 1c, and in which he received injuries which resulted in his death. Joe Cox's son, Joe Jr. sent me a copy of his
father's log. it seems like we had 32 carrier
take offs and landings. I did have a few other flights, not necessarily in harms way, but
with other pilots as a volunteer. I was one of those, "If you need somebody
for something, pick me." type persons. In other words I did not have the
common sense I was born with.
Though most all of my major combat flights were in TBM's it was the most
'natural' for me. The SBD was the best dive bomber in the world. I think
considerably better than either the German Stuka or the Japanese Val. it
could go straight down and still manage to get out the dive before hitting
the ground. I would have liked to have flown the SBD, or stayed in it for
the entire war, but the mortality rate was much higher in dive bombers than
it was in TBM's. We could not dive at the steep angles of an SBD, but we
had pilots who could skip a bomb into a Japenese tomb on Okinawa and hit the
opening more often than not.
One of the Okinawan tombs I mentioned. The Japanese used to set up AA guns and machine guns there and then pull them inside of the tombs themselves when under fire. You can see where they are very heavily constructed and serve as excellent fortifications. They would set the guns up in the entry way.
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>
WARS END
My discharge was on March
18th, 1946 - just a couple of weeks short of three years. You got so many points for overseas
combat duty, so many points for length of time in, etc. Most everyone in
our squadron had more than enough points to get out with the first
discharges, but it did take awhile for them to get things 'caught up' and
organized.
I served on only two ships. The USS Ranger and the USS Shamrock Bay.
I had volunteered to go back out again into the Pacific theatre, but while we
were in training with many new pilots and crews at Pasco, Washington the war
in Japan ended. I had my first taste hard liquor on VJ day. I had two Southern Comforts and gingers
with a few of the pilots from our squadron at the local VFW club and when I
got up I could harldy walk.
I met my ex-wife Joan in Pasco, WA after returning from my second tour of duty. She worked at NAS Pasco, but I met her
at the USO in town. We had 4 children
Jack R. Lythgoe... Endodontist,
Jay T. Lythgoe... Retail store manager,
Jerry L. Lythgoe.. Teacher,
Jan L Lythgoe Teacher,
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Had there been no war I wanted to teach Science, Biology, Chemistry & Physics and coach
football. I had little fear as the Navy provided training which made you feel that
you could handle whatever happened regardless. The most frightened I ever
was happened on one of our strikes against Okinawa. As we were recovering
from a dive and a drop I noticed what must of been at least a dozen large
guns on a little island off the coast, apparently all shooting at us as I
could see the flashes from them. I remember scrounging down in my turret as
low as I could get. I called them to Joe's attention and he called them in
and asked permission to bomb and strafe same from Whiskey, our ground
control. They told us, "Negative... they are Marine batteries bombarding
the mainland." So the thing which really gave me chills was really no threat
to us at all.
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I do not myself think what we did was all that glamorous, it was just what we were trained to do. But I was glad to have a machine gun to shoot back with when someone was making runs on you in the air, which none of the squadron personnel had when we were under attack on the ship. We were just like 'surplus' people who would stand around and watch with a feeling of helplessness.
Navy Good Conduct Medal - WWII Style (Est 1888)
Criteria: Outstanding performance and conduct during 4 years of continuous active enlisted service.
Air Medal (Est 1942) Criteria: Heroic actions or meritorious service while participating in aerial flight. Devices: Bronze Oak Leaf, Silver Oak Leaf, Stars
Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal - WWII (Est 1942) Dates: 1941-46 Criteria: Service in the Asiatic-Pacific theater for 30 days or receipt of any combat decoration.
European - African - Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (Est 1942) Dates: 1941-45 Criteria: Service in the European - African - Middle Eastern theater for 30 days or receipt of any combat decoration.
American Campaign Medal - WWII (Est 1942)
Dates: 1941-46
Criteria: Service outside the U.S. in the American theater for 30 days or within the continental US for one year.
World War II (WWII) Victory Medal (Est 1945) Dates: 1941-46 Criteria: Awarded for service in US Armed Forces between 1941 and 1946. Notes: None.
Philippine Liberation Medal - World War II (Est 1945)
Criteria: Service in the liberation of the Philippines between 17 October 1944 and 3 September 1945.
Devices: Bronze Star
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POST WAR
Jack: "I learned to fly in the Navy really, but transitioned to low horsepower,
believe it or not in Bridgeport, NJ in Aeronca Champs and Chiefs. I liked the
Champs best as they had a stick instead of a wheel. Still fly a stick
better than a wheel Have flown just about everything there is up to a six
place twin. Had my own plane back in the seventies, a Maule 220, 
which was
one terrific airplane for Idaho. STOL aircraft and most wonderful for back
field strips. Am currently rated for single-multi engine land and seaplanes
and also glider.
I wanted to be a
teacher so tried to get into Westchester Teachers College. They laughed at
me and said they had been full up.... Enrolled in Pennsylvania Military
Academy in Chester in Chemical Engineering.. Played football and basketball
and then had to drop out of college as the government was not sending
promised financial assistance. About two months after I dropped out they sent me a
check, then they mailed me a letter a few weeks later saying that they
paid me to much and to please send them back so much.... (don't remember how
much) I told them to go to h...... Worked as a chemical analyst at
American Viscose in Marcus Hook, Pa. Played semi-pro basketball and football
to supplement my income, and then two years of professional football with the
Wilmington Clippers of the old America League. By that time I had been
promoted to Supervisor in the Mech. Dev. Dept. of American Viscose. We were
workingon a new way to manufacture rayon. My wife had an asthmatic
condition and we needd to relocate. Could not find a chemist job out here in Idaho so
out of the cold blue I decided that I would be a magician.
.....
Jack in the early days of his magic career, The Merry Milkman, and interviewing Ronald Reagan on Idaho TV in the 1950's
[ Jack certainly has had a varied career and life experiences. He was Idaho's Jack Lythgoe "The Merry Milkman," on a kids show. photo courtesy of Tim Hollis. ]
Jack: "I did magic for a
few years, including a telivised kiddie show for a few years and then started into hypnotism also and would do magic and puppets
for elementary level schools, hypnotism for secondary schools and colleges,
conventions, parties etc. The TV show was a half hour to start, but was quite successful, so we added a bread sponsor for another half hour.) I was thinking about several different possibilities for a TV character, and Mr. Dougal who at that time was the Divisional Mgr. of Beatrice Foods was the one who came up with the title. Since we wanted to sell MILK, so why not, The Merry Milkman? I am not positive, but think he applied for a 'patent' 'trademark' or whatever it is on something like that.. as I was informed that I could not use The Merry Milkman title when I left the company. I used, Formerly, The Merry Milkman!
It was a fun period of my life as I love children, and it did give me an opportunity to spend more time with my family. Did much better financially after leaving the company and going back on the road again.
I am still working. Not quite as full a tour as I would normally do,
nor as many states as I used to book for my agency whom I have been with for
more than fifty years now. I still like to free dive whenever possible and SCUBA once in awhile, but
it is not nearly as much fun as it used to be as they have become more and
more restrictive over the years. (I am a certified PADI dive instructor and
had my own dive operation in Mexico.)
[ Some of Jacks diving efforts paid off in finding a wreck. ]
Jack: "I had been running a dive operation for four or five years on Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Others had found the ship I was diving on was coming from Spain to the new land, not a treasure ship heading back to Spain, so they lost interest after about ten or fifteen minutes into the dive.
We dove it every day for a week or two when I finally decided that we were ruining more artifacts than we were getting out in one piece.
When you dive a three hundred some odd year old wreck, you do not swim around inside of what appears to have been a ship. You are working on top of a pile of stones, (ballast rocks for the ship), with nothing around which even resembles a ship, except for a few canons, which you have to look at carefully to ascertain that they are canons, as they two are heavily coated and camoflauged with coral and plants. You stand and hit the built up deposits of coral with a very large sledge hammer until you see something which resembles a shape you are looking for. Then you settle down with a smaller sledge to break it out. The first day we used the metal detector we found one little lump of material which we chiseled out and took topside and got 28 perfect crucifix's out of. Had we hit that chunk with a big sledge it would more than likely have broken at least half of them.
JAck cleaning some of the artifacts and a few examples of the crosses. He also participated in the Idaho Senior Olympics up in Boise this past September 2002 medaling in swimimg and track and field.
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He still enjoys flying and had an experience many USAF and NAVY pilots today would have traded place to enjoy.
Jack: "I was one of the very few Americans who have ever flown a MIG 29. Did a couple of days of 'manual' in Budapest, then flew to Kiev Ukraine on a commercial flight and from Kiev to Kirovsky AFB in the Crimea of the Ukraine. Just a few miles off the Black Sea. More training in ejection procedures, take off and landing protocol, etc.. training areas aloft and what manuevers you could do in what order. Flew an L30 Albatros first, (a Czech trainer used by the former Soviet Union), than the big boy, a MIG-29. My God! What a plane that was, and what a fabulous flight. 45 minutes total aerobatic....... terrific experience. Anyhow... this is me waiting to go after my L-39 flight and my MIG is sitting in the background. After I finished all of the maneuvers that were on
our flight plan we still had about seven to ten minutes of time before I had
to head back and land....my instructor had me doing one loop after another, and for no
other reason than seeing if I could hack it. Think he was trying to prove
that 'Uke'. or former USSR pilots were much sturdier than we weak Americans.
Any-how, it only took me about five or ten minutes before all of my internal
organs went back to their original point of orgin........ but without the
pressure suit I would have been in la la land.
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A Few Links & Credits
VC-94 Squadron Contacts
Jack Lythgoe
Box 5761
Twin Falls, Idaho... 83303-5761
( e-mail to Icancanoo@aol.com )
USS RANGER Web page
US ESCORT CARRIERS WWII Web page
VC-94 Web page
TBM-3E Avenger
in Detail
by Cal Cochran
CVE-84 Shamrock Bay
Back to the MAIN INDEX PAGE
Accurate Minatures plastic models produces a 1/48 scale kit of a TBM in VC-94 USS Shamrock regalia. REVIEWER:
Peter Fey
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