American Valor Quarterly Issue 9 - Summer 2012 | Page 31

Bill Davis/Zenith Press

180 degrees, estimated
speed twenty knots.
Acknowledge.”
Again, there was no
acknowledgement
from the American
fleet. Harry sent one
more message and
finished it with the
words, “I am now
going to attack.”
Breaking out of the
clouds over the
Japanese fleet, Harry
Davis in an F6F on the deck of the USS Lexington.
opened his dive brakes
as well as his bombbay doors and armed the bomb. He
Harry Bensen, a dive-bomber pilot, had headed straight for one of the carriers,
the exact reverse happen to him. His with Zeros on his tail. Nearing the carrier,
fighter escort had engine trouble, and he he released his bomb, closed the dive
went on the search alone. However, he brakes, and pushed the throttle against the
had unexpected luck. He was to search stop to try to outrun the Zeros. They
the area two sectors west of me, and near chased him for fifty miles, but gave up.
the end of his first leg he spotted a His rear-seat man saw smoke rising from
Japanese fleet coming down from the the carrier.
home islands. The fleet was protected
with a swarm of Japanese fighters.
Returning from the longest flight I had
ever made from the carrier, I arrived at
Fortunately, there was cloud cover, and the rendezvous point, only to realize the
Harry quickly pulled up into the clouds worst fear of a naval pilot: the carrier
to make his contact report. He did this wasn’t there. One of the search planes
so that if he were shot, down our had spotted another Japanese fleet west
command would know there were Jap of the Philippines, and our fleet had
ships coming down on them.
already turned west to close with it.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to search long,
“Contact, contact, this is Mohawk Twelve, and landed aboard. I caught a wire and
Japanese fleet, approximately twelve let the plane roll backwards so the crew
ships.” Harry gave the distance and could disconnect the hook from the wire.
direction in code. He waited for an Once my plane was free, the signalman
acknowledgement but didn’t receive one. gave me the sign for full power. I opened
the throttle and the engine quit; I was out
Circling in the cloud for a few minutes, of gas. Crewmen had to push my plane
Harry dove from a different direction past the barrier.
and took a longer look at the ships, pulling
back up before the fighters arrived. Harry The moment Harry Bensen came aboard,
the admiral sent word to report to the
got on the radio again.
bridge immediately. Harry presented
“Amplifying report, confirm twelve ships himself to the admiral, who addressed
including four carriers, two battleships, him:
two cruisers and four destroyers. Course

“Lieutenant, I want to congratulate you
on your action. It is above and beyond
the call of duty.”
“Thank you, sir,” Harry replied.
“You got off a very quick contact report,”
the admiral continued. “I imagine you
were in some peril at the time.”
“There were Zeros hounding us, yes sir.”
“Then you sent an amplifying report, then
a further report.”
“Yes sir.”
“You never indicated you received our
acknowledgement of any of these
reports.”
“That’s right, sir,” Harry answered.
The admiral continued. “You realize that
if we hadn’t received your reports and
you got shot down, we wouldn’t know
the Japanese were out there. Since you
didn’t know we’d received your reports,
your first duty was to get away and get
the information to us.” Harry just stood
there, not knowing what to say. The
admiral looked Harry in the eye. “You
know we did receive your contact
reports. If you tell me you received our
acknowledgements, I’m going to
recommend you for the Congressional
Medal of Honor for attacking the
Japanese fleet single-handedly. Did you
receive our acknowledgement?”
Harry didn’t hesitate. “No, sir.”
The admiral stood for quite a while
before putting his hand out and shaking
Harry’s.
“I admire your guts, and I sure as hell
admire your honesty.” The admiral
awarded Harry the Silver Star anyway.
While Harry was going through his session
with the admiral, the rest of us grabbed
a quick bite as the crew prepared our

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9/4/2012, 11:04 AM