First Blood – Medal of Honor Recipient “Zeke” Swett’s fight for survival

Our stubby little Grumman F4Fs couldn’t out-maneuver a Zero in a turning fight, but they could absorb a lot of punishment and dole out just as much with their six .50-caliber machine guns. (Photo by John Dibbs/The Plane Picture Co./Planepix.com.)

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IN NOVEMBER 1942, I had been assigned to VMF-221, not as an original member of the squadron but as a replacement pilot for all the men who had gone through holy hell at Midway. The group had lost a tremendous amount of pilots and planes on the tiny Pacific island, as they stood and fought the Japanese onslaught. After my advanced fighter training in Hawaii, I was sent to a place in the south Pacific...

PARDON THE INTERRUPTION

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