- Thread starter
- #21
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
Thanks for helping me！
1/48 VF-10 Grim reapers F6F-3 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Skywalker Jin
- Start date
Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
- Thread starter
- #23
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
thanks，I wonder whether I could buy it……
- Thread starter
- #25
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
well I had just checked and bought one，if everything is OK it would be the last one on amazon
R Leonard
Staff Sergeant
And there's this one from the F4F days
Also this
Somewhere around here I've originals of Flatley's tactical doctrine manual for VF-10 and his famous circular "quit your complaining and let's get on with it" letter regarding F4Fs. Flatley was director of training at ComFAirWest in the summer and fall of 1943 before going back out as Ops Officer for Mitscher in TF-38. While at ComFAirWest, his assistant for VF training was my father and together they rewrote the fighter section of the 1944 USF-74 carrier plane doctrine . . . I have an original rough draft of that with both Flatley's and my father's hand written notes and hand-drawn diagrams. These document are all from the 1942-1944 time period and are somewhat fragile; I keep them packed away and untouched to preclude damage.
Also have a 1943 first Edition of the above Johnston's The Grim Reapers.
Also this
Somewhere around here I've originals of Flatley's tactical doctrine manual for VF-10 and his famous circular "quit your complaining and let's get on with it" letter regarding F4Fs. Flatley was director of training at ComFAirWest in the summer and fall of 1943 before going back out as Ops Officer for Mitscher in TF-38. While at ComFAirWest, his assistant for VF training was my father and together they rewrote the fighter section of the 1944 USF-74 carrier plane doctrine . . . I have an original rough draft of that with both Flatley's and my father's hand written notes and hand-drawn diagrams. These document are all from the 1942-1944 time period and are somewhat fragile; I keep them packed away and untouched to preclude damage.
Also have a 1943 first Edition of the above Johnston's The Grim Reapers.
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
R Leonard
Staff Sergeant
After digging around a bit on an old storage drive, looking for something else altogether, I found these, mentioned above plus a small write up on gun cameras. Evidently never made a copy of the 1944 USF-74 VF write-up.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #28
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
Plz accept my gratitude Mr Leonard!! Those info are treasure to my research!!!
- Thread starter
- #29
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
From wiki I got this:
So your father worked with Jimmy and Jimmy applied the experience on his service onboard CV-10, that was the man from Yorktown to the Fighting Lady
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
R Leonard
Staff Sergeant
Associations with Jimmy Flatley and Jimmie Thach.
Flatley was a LT and XO of VF-2 when Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. By 1 Jan 1942 he was a LCDR and OIC of the VF-2 detachment at ACTG San Diego as VF-2 transitioned from F2As to F4Fs. He was briefly TAD to VF-3 and then headed west, arriving on Yorktown (CV-5) for duty with VF-42 on 24 Apr 1942. Some shuffling of personnel occurred, when the dust settled Flatley was XO of VF-42, replacing LT Vince McCormack who bumped down to the FO slot.
This was my father's first exposure to Flatley, just in time for the Tulagi raid on 4 May and the Battle of the Coral Sea, 6-8 May.
After the battle Yorktown went to Tongatabu for such repairs as could be accomplished and a sorting of personnel. Flatley left the ship to board a transport (amongst others, Swede Vejtasa and Fritz Faulkner from VS-5. John Leppla from VS-2, and Dave Pollock, assistant Air Officer aboard Lexington) bound for VF-10 at NAS San Diego where Flatley was to be the commanding officer. That was the last time my father served with Flatley until he (my father) returned from a Solomons tour in VF-11 in late July 1943.
My father stayed in VF-42 aboard Yorktown, returned to Pearl Harbor and in less than a week went back out as the senior of sixteen pilots from VF-42 TAD to John "Jimmie" Thach's VF-3 for the Midway deployment. After the death of LCDR Don Lovelace in a tragic flightdeck crash on the day Yorktown deployed from Pearl Harbor, as the next senior officer in the squadron, he fleeted as Thach's XO, in the exalted rank of LTJG. My father reported aboard VF-11 in August 1942. The squadron worked up at NAS San Diego, then NAS Maui where they filled some personnel blanks with transfers from Butch O'Hare's VF-6, then on to Guadalcanal for a combat tour from mid-April to mid-July 1943, arriving back stateside in August.
Flatley, in the meantime, was working up his VF-10 and then completed a combat tour off Enterprise and from ashore at Guadalcanal (October 1942 – January 1943). From there he went on to CVG-5 at NAS Norfolk where he was CAG starting in February 1943 and eventually on another combat tour operating from the new Yorktown (CV-10). Flatley left the CAG-5 job in July 1943 and became Director of Training at ComFAirWest where he reached out to BuPers to snag my father as his assistant as Director of VF Training.
Their ComFAirWest sojourn, if my father's pilot's log is any indication, meant flying almost every day, travel to other west coast stations where squadrons were working up, interesting experiments with RATO units for carrier launches, re-writing the fighter plane portion of the USF-74 carrier plane doctrine manual, and, though author Steve Ewing reported he could not find in Flatley's pilot's log where he partook, some time flying the A6M2 recovered from the Aleutians. Flatley left ComFAirWest in July 1944 to become Operations Officer for 1FastCarrierTaskForce/TF58 under VAdm Mitscher. His assistant ops officer was Frank Quady, a VF-6, then, VF-11 veteran.
After Midway, Thach, who was like Flatley was a LT on 7 Dec 1941 and was, likewise, promoted to LCDR on 1 Jan 1942, spent most of his time in the Training Command at NAS Jacksonville. He was Gunnery Officer there in August 1942 and became Chief of Training in February 1943. Around the end of July 1944, Thach was selected to be Operations Officer for the 2FastCarrierTaskForce/TF38 under VAdm McCain. Thach originally arranged for LCDR Gordon Cady, like my father a VF-11/Guadalcanal fighter pilot alum, and by then the squadron commander, to come to the staff as his assistant, but Cady, unfortunately, was killed in an F6F midair crash at NAS Alameda on 30 Aug 1944.
Thach shopped around to see who else might be available and found his old Midway XO, my father, at ComFAirWest, now working for Capt John Crommelin. "Uncle John," as he was known around my house, Crommelin was trying to arrange for my father to get one of the new air groups being formed, but Thach convinced him throw support behind my father as his assistant ops. McCain, Thach and company went west to Hawaii and off to sea, but my father had to wrap up business at ComFAirWest while BuPers did their paperwork magic and so did not join up until just days after Leyte Gulf in October. He stayed on the staff through the end of the war and then in a couple of weeks into Adm John Towers' tenure before going off to TacTest at NAS Patuxent.
I don't remember ever meeting Jimmy Flatley; he died when I was six. I do remember Jimmie Thach, a very rare but welcomed visitor to our home . . . very tall and always kind to inquisitive youngsters. I remember he wrote a "Dear Billie" congratulatory note to my father upon his promotion to Rear Admiral that included "Thank God. I was beginning to lose faith." Got that around here someplace.
Flatley was a LT and XO of VF-2 when Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. By 1 Jan 1942 he was a LCDR and OIC of the VF-2 detachment at ACTG San Diego as VF-2 transitioned from F2As to F4Fs. He was briefly TAD to VF-3 and then headed west, arriving on Yorktown (CV-5) for duty with VF-42 on 24 Apr 1942. Some shuffling of personnel occurred, when the dust settled Flatley was XO of VF-42, replacing LT Vince McCormack who bumped down to the FO slot.
This was my father's first exposure to Flatley, just in time for the Tulagi raid on 4 May and the Battle of the Coral Sea, 6-8 May.
After the battle Yorktown went to Tongatabu for such repairs as could be accomplished and a sorting of personnel. Flatley left the ship to board a transport (amongst others, Swede Vejtasa and Fritz Faulkner from VS-5. John Leppla from VS-2, and Dave Pollock, assistant Air Officer aboard Lexington) bound for VF-10 at NAS San Diego where Flatley was to be the commanding officer. That was the last time my father served with Flatley until he (my father) returned from a Solomons tour in VF-11 in late July 1943.
My father stayed in VF-42 aboard Yorktown, returned to Pearl Harbor and in less than a week went back out as the senior of sixteen pilots from VF-42 TAD to John "Jimmie" Thach's VF-3 for the Midway deployment. After the death of LCDR Don Lovelace in a tragic flightdeck crash on the day Yorktown deployed from Pearl Harbor, as the next senior officer in the squadron, he fleeted as Thach's XO, in the exalted rank of LTJG. My father reported aboard VF-11 in August 1942. The squadron worked up at NAS San Diego, then NAS Maui where they filled some personnel blanks with transfers from Butch O'Hare's VF-6, then on to Guadalcanal for a combat tour from mid-April to mid-July 1943, arriving back stateside in August.
Flatley, in the meantime, was working up his VF-10 and then completed a combat tour off Enterprise and from ashore at Guadalcanal (October 1942 – January 1943). From there he went on to CVG-5 at NAS Norfolk where he was CAG starting in February 1943 and eventually on another combat tour operating from the new Yorktown (CV-10). Flatley left the CAG-5 job in July 1943 and became Director of Training at ComFAirWest where he reached out to BuPers to snag my father as his assistant as Director of VF Training.
Their ComFAirWest sojourn, if my father's pilot's log is any indication, meant flying almost every day, travel to other west coast stations where squadrons were working up, interesting experiments with RATO units for carrier launches, re-writing the fighter plane portion of the USF-74 carrier plane doctrine manual, and, though author Steve Ewing reported he could not find in Flatley's pilot's log where he partook, some time flying the A6M2 recovered from the Aleutians. Flatley left ComFAirWest in July 1944 to become Operations Officer for 1FastCarrierTaskForce/TF58 under VAdm Mitscher. His assistant ops officer was Frank Quady, a VF-6, then, VF-11 veteran.
After Midway, Thach, who was like Flatley was a LT on 7 Dec 1941 and was, likewise, promoted to LCDR on 1 Jan 1942, spent most of his time in the Training Command at NAS Jacksonville. He was Gunnery Officer there in August 1942 and became Chief of Training in February 1943. Around the end of July 1944, Thach was selected to be Operations Officer for the 2FastCarrierTaskForce/TF38 under VAdm McCain. Thach originally arranged for LCDR Gordon Cady, like my father a VF-11/Guadalcanal fighter pilot alum, and by then the squadron commander, to come to the staff as his assistant, but Cady, unfortunately, was killed in an F6F midair crash at NAS Alameda on 30 Aug 1944.
Thach shopped around to see who else might be available and found his old Midway XO, my father, at ComFAirWest, now working for Capt John Crommelin. "Uncle John," as he was known around my house, Crommelin was trying to arrange for my father to get one of the new air groups being formed, but Thach convinced him throw support behind my father as his assistant ops. McCain, Thach and company went west to Hawaii and off to sea, but my father had to wrap up business at ComFAirWest while BuPers did their paperwork magic and so did not join up until just days after Leyte Gulf in October. He stayed on the staff through the end of the war and then in a couple of weeks into Adm John Towers' tenure before going off to TacTest at NAS Patuxent.
I don't remember ever meeting Jimmy Flatley; he died when I was six. I do remember Jimmie Thach, a very rare but welcomed visitor to our home . . . very tall and always kind to inquisitive youngsters. I remember he wrote a "Dear Billie" congratulatory note to my father upon his promotion to Rear Admiral that included "Thank God. I was beginning to lose faith." Got that around here someplace.
- Thread starter
- #31
Skywalker Jin
Airman 1st Class
- 194
- Oct 23, 2025
Thanks a lot，really helps
VF-2, known as the Flying Chief, no wonder Flatley became an ace
And how about another ace in VF-10? Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa, he dogfought with Zero in his SBD,which proved that the "slow but deadly" wasn't sitting ducks,and he shot down 7 Japs in single action during battle of Santa Cruz. I tend to the opinion that "It was the desperate air defense of VF-10(and so do USS South Dakota) that allowed USS Enterprise to survive."
About Thach I will pick your brains when I finish my wildcat.
Thanks again for everything you have done.
Last edited:
Lovely!
