{"id":81613,"date":"2018-09-04T13:39:19","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=81613"},"modified":"2018-09-04T13:39:19","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T17:39:19","slug":"last-living-member-of-marine-aviation-legend-joe-foss-flying-circus-recalls-guadalcanal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=81613","title":{"rendered":"Last living member of Marine aviation legend Joe Foss\u2019 \u2018Flying Circus\u2019 recalls Guadalcanal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sam Folsom had never flown an airplane above 10,000 feet, or fired the weapons on the F4F Wildcat he would soon fly into combat, when he arrived on Guadalcanal in September 1942.<\/p>\n

The battle for the strategic Pacific island was raging, as Folsom and most of his green fighter pilots joined squadron VMF-121. <\/p>\n

They were tasked with finding and destroying Japanese G4M medium bombers \u2013 nicknamed \u201cBettys\u201d \u2013 that had been wreaking havoc on American Marines on their first major offensive in the Pacific theater during World War II.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in combat immediately with no experience,\u201d Folsom, 98, recently told Stars and Stripes. \u201cGreen as can be \u2013 very few of us had any real flight experience. I guess I had 12 or 14 hours in the F4F when I got into combat.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It showed from the outset, he recalled.<\/p>\n

Stars and Stripes<\/a> reports just days after reaching Guadalcanal, Folsom found himself piloting his Wildcat upward of 25,000 feet when a formation of Japanese A6M Zero fighters and Betty Bombers approached. <\/p>\n

For the first time, Folsom maneuvered his fighter into position, moving onto the tail of an enemy plane to line up the sights for the six M2 .50-caliber machine guns mounted on his Wildcat\u2019s wings. He pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing happened,\u201d Folsom recalled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Folsom\u2019s squadron had covered its guns in lubricant before he took off, but at altitude the coating froze, rendering the machine guns useless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember anything except thinking, \u2018Jesus, are these damn guns going to fire?\u2019 \u201d Folsom said. \u201cVery frustrating. Causes bad words to come from your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would happen twice more to Folsom \u2013 and dozens of additional times to his squadron mates \u2013 before the unit realized the cause. <\/p>\n

Folsom would leave Guadalcanal with three air-to-air kills \u2013 after downing a pair of Betty Bombers and a D3A Type 99 \u201cVal,\u201d a carrier-based Japanese dive bomber.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To the best of his knowledge, Folsom said, he is the only living member of his fighter squadron.<\/p>\n

In honor of his 98th birthday, Folsom took the field Aug. 14 at Los Angeles\u2019 Dodger Stadium, where the Major League Baseball team celebrated him as its Hero of the Game.<\/p>\n

It was a moment, like so many others in his life, he said he would treasure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Talk about on the job training. Bravo Zulu, Mr. Folson, one of America’s Greatest Generation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Folsom had never flown an airplane above 10,000 feet, or fired the weapons on the … Last living member of Marine aviation legend Joe Foss\u2019 \u2018Flying Circus\u2019 recalls Guadalcanal<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-skies","category-marine-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}