Meet Lt. Preston, one of the only PT crewmen to be awarded the MOH

On Sept. 15, 1944, the thirty first U.S. Infantry Division landed on the southwestern seaside on the island of Morotai, Indonesia, which was deemed crucial as a base to help the upcoming marketing campaign within the Philippines. This step throughout the South Pacific was garrisoned by solely 500 Japanese troopers and was just about taken with no combat.

In distinction, the close by island of Halmahera had 37,000 Japanese troops and ample artillery, however the Individuals contented themselves with bypassing it. On Sept. 16, nevertheless, a seventh Fleet process group of escort carriers underneath Rear Adm. Daniel Barbey bombed and rocketed the remoted installations on Halmahera, unwittingly triggering one of many struggle’s excessive dramas.

It started shortly earlier than 7 a.m. when eight FM-2 Wildcats of Navy fighter squadron VF-26 from the escort provider Santee strafed three barges east of Lolabata. One FM-2 was hit by antiaircraft fireplace and its pilot, Ensign Harold Thompson, was blown out of it at 350 toes altitude with a mangled hand and a lacerated leg. Thompson landed 50 yards from the enemy-held coast in Wasile Bay and took cowl behind a lugger that, luckily for him, was unoccupied and camouflaged with palm fronds.

Regardless of harm to his life vest, Thompson discovered {that a} tide was slowly carrying him seaward, the place a Consolidated PBY-5a Catalina noticed him and braved Japanese antiaircraft fireplace to drop a one-man raft, which unluckily landed among the many enemy.

Making an much more daring second run, the PBY succeeded in dropping one other life raft 50 yards from Thompson, who swam to it. In the meantime, Thompson’s squadron mates saved Japanese troops distracted till 9:30 a.m. when their gas and ammunition gave out, however their locations had been taken by 4 Wildcats of composite squadron VC-66 from the escort provider Fanshaw Bay, led by Lt. J.P. Fox.

The hours that handed noticed extra rotations among the many escort provider planes in opposition to the Japanese gunners, the latter taking their toll on pilots grimly decided to save lots of certainly one of their very own at any price. Ensign Jesse McNinch of VF-37 from the escort provider Sangamon was bombing Japanese installations at Galela when he was shot down and killed. A Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat flown by Ensign Paul Lindskog of VF-60 from the escort provider Suwannee was hit by a 5-inch shell, however he managed to bail out unharmed in safer waters and was rescued. Much less lucky was Ensign William Bannister of VF-60, whose F6F-3 crashed within the water 100 yards from Thompson, however by no means emerged from his sinking fighter. Oil hunger compelled one other VF-37 pilot from the Sangamon, Ensign Merville Knackstedt, to ditch at sea and spend the night time in a life raft.

At this level, with Thompson nonetheless trapped inside Wasile Bay, Barbey requested help from a brand new supply: With Morotai secured, 41 patrol torpedo boats in 4 squadrons, supported by PT boat tenders, despatched 16 boats out on their first in a single day patrol.

That patrol order, nevertheless, quickly become the command to carry out a seaborne rescue proper from underneath the enemy’s noses.

Lt. Arthur Preston, commander of motor torpedo boat squadron Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 33, stepped ahead to guide the try and shortly gathered volunteers.

Born in Chevy Chase, Maryland on Nov. 1, 1918, Preston attended the Phillips Academy in 1931, adopted by examine at Yale College and the College of Virginia College Regulation. He was a practising legal professional in 1938, however in September 1940 he joined the U.S. Navy Reserve. Wartime discovered him commanding a PT boat and in the course of the Solomons marketing campaign he was mates with PT-109′s commander (and future president) Lt. John F. Kennedy.

When Preston led his two wood craft into the bay at 1350 hours, Thomas, his raft and the lugger by which he hid had been nonetheless solely 200 yards from the seaside. Preston known as for a smoke display from the plane and Lt. George Stouffer, piloting a TBM-1 Avenger, accommodated him whereas the PTs once more entered Kao Bay and turned east into Wasile.

Over the following two and a half hours, PT-489 and PT-363 dodged shells via the bay whereas a TBM, piloted by Lt. Dwight Lengthy, laid extra smoke between the PTs and the questing Japanese gunners.

Because the boats lastly reached their goal, they discovered Thompson too exhausted to make the ultimate 5 yards to achieve them. With out hesitation, PT-489′s intelligence officer, Lt. Don Seaman and Motor Machinist 1st Class Charles Day dove overboard, minimize the rope by which Thompson had certain himself to the lugger and returned to the boat. As they departed, nonetheless underneath fixed shelling, the PTs bid the enemy goodbye with their 40mm cannons, setting the lugger on fireplace earlier than departing.

Miraculously, solely minor harm was inflicted on the boats and not one of the collaborating rescuers had been harm. After 11 hours within the water together with his hand and leg wounds, Thompson remarked on reflection that it “positive was an exquisite present to observe.”

For his or her roles in Thompson’s rescue, Seaman and Day had been awarded the Navy Cross, whereas Preston acquired the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman on Dec. 19, 1947. He’s certainly one of solely two PT boat crewmen awarded his nation’s highest honor throughout WWII.

Preston retired from the Navy as a commander in 1953 and labored as a banker thereafter, earlier than his dying on Jan. 7, 1968. He’s buried in Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.