Cross posted on the History board.
I went to visit a very old Marine yesterday to wish him a happy birthday on his 101st (yes, born on Veteran's Day). I met him a year ago at a Veteran's Day celebration at the retirement home where he has lived since 1989.
Col Jack Morrison enlisted in February 1940 and was commissioned when he was selected to be an aviator. He earned his wings in December 1941 just days after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Col Morrison flew across the Pacific fighting over every island where the IV Amphibious Corps fought and was eventually based in Okinawa during the final days of the war.
Col Morrison told me that he did not realize it until years later but be believes that an attack that he led by his squadron on 7 August 1945 may have been the last non-nuclear weapons fired in WW II. He has his flight logbooks covering his 28 year career to back up his claim. On the morning of August 7, 1945 his squadron was to make an attack on an airfield on the Japanese mainland. The time on target for the attack was 0930, 1:15 minutes after the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. He and his squadron attacked the airfield and returned to Okinawa having completed an 800 mile round trip.
Upon reaching Okinawa they learned that a secret weapon had been dropped on Hiroshima and that all offensive actions in the Pacific Theater had been suspended. As far as he knows there were no other attacks on Japanese targets between the attack by his squadron and the dropping of Fat Man on Nagasaki on 14 August. While there may have been other actions about which he has no knowledge it is still an amazing story. Col Morrison served for 28 years on active duty before retiring in 1968.
I went to visit a very old Marine yesterday to wish him a happy birthday on his 101st (yes, born on Veteran's Day). I met him a year ago at a Veteran's Day celebration at the retirement home where he has lived since 1989.
Col Jack Morrison enlisted in February 1940 and was commissioned when he was selected to be an aviator. He earned his wings in December 1941 just days after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Col Morrison flew across the Pacific fighting over every island where the IV Amphibious Corps fought and was eventually based in Okinawa during the final days of the war.
Col Morrison told me that he did not realize it until years later but be believes that an attack that he led by his squadron on 7 August 1945 may have been the last non-nuclear weapons fired in WW II. He has his flight logbooks covering his 28 year career to back up his claim. On the morning of August 7, 1945 his squadron was to make an attack on an airfield on the Japanese mainland. The time on target for the attack was 0930, 1:15 minutes after the Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima. He and his squadron attacked the airfield and returned to Okinawa having completed an 800 mile round trip.
Upon reaching Okinawa they learned that a secret weapon had been dropped on Hiroshima and that all offensive actions in the Pacific Theater had been suspended. As far as he knows there were no other attacks on Japanese targets between the attack by his squadron and the dropping of Fat Man on Nagasaki on 14 August. While there may have been other actions about which he has no knowledge it is still an amazing story. Col Morrison served for 28 years on active duty before retiring in 1968.