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The American Fighter Aces Association Oral Interviews The Museum of Flight Seattle, Washington Mayo A. “Mike” Hadden, Jr. (Part 3 of 4) Interviewed by: Eugene A. Valencia and John Florea Interview Date: June 30, 1965 2 Abstract: In this four-part oral history, fighter ace Mayo A. “Mike” Hadden, Jr. discusses his military service with the United States Navy during World War II. In part three, he continues to describe his wartime experiences as a fighter pilot with Fighting Squadron 9 (VF-9). Topics discussed include his combat tour in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS Essex (CV-9), his aerial victories and notable combat missions, and stories about fellow pilots. The interview is conducted by fellow VF-9 fighter ace Eugene A. Valencia and by John Florea, a former war correspondent for Life Magazine who spent time with VF-9 during the war. The interview takes place on board the USS Hornet (CV-12) during a change-in-command between Hadden, outgoing captain of the Hornet, and William M. Pardee, the incoming captain. Some sections of audio may be difficult to hear due to background noise from the ship. Biography: Mayo A. “Mike” Hadden, Jr. was born on August 14, 1916 in Holland, Michigan. He joined the United States Navy in 1941 and earned his Naval Aviator designation the following year. Assigned to Fighting Squadron 9 (VF-9), Hadden served aboard the USS Ranger (CV-4) during Operation Torch, flying missions over Morocco and supporting Allied forces during their invasion of French-controlled North Africa. He remained with VF-9 during their subsequent tours in the Pacific Theater and participated in missions in the South and Central Pacific. Hadden remained in the military after the war and went on to hold several command positions. During the 1960s, he commanded the USS Graffias (AF-29) and USS Hornet (CV-12), then served with the State Department, the Iceland Defense Force, and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He retired as a rear admiral in 1973 and passed away in 1986. Biographical information courtesy of: Boyce, Ward J., ed., American fighter aces album. Mesa, Ariz: American Fighter Aces Association, 1996. Restrictions: Permission to publish material from the American Fighter Aces Association Oral Interviews must be obtained from The Museum of Flight Archives. Transcript: Transcribed by Pioneer Transcription Services 3 Index: Personal background and courtship of Lori .................................................................................... 4 Signing up to become a Naval Aviator ........................................................................................... 8 Experiences during training and postwar assignments ................................................................. 11 Overview of World War II service ............................................................................................... 12 Dogfight over Wake Island ........................................................................................................... 13 Other combat missions and stories from the USS Essex (CV-9) .................................................. 19 More aerial victories ..................................................................................................................... 27 Squadron mates lost during carrier takeoffs ................................................................................. 34 Night fighter training and missions............................................................................................... 36 Thoughts on training, instinct, and personal initiative .................................................................. 39 4 Mayo A. “Mike” Hadden, Jr. (Part 3 of 4) [START OF INTERVIEW] [Begin Side A] 00:00:00 [Personal background and courtship of Lori] [faint audio] JOHN FLOREA: …write your story. When I write your story, not that I’ll bring out any of these things— EUGENE A. VALENCIA: We’re on. JF: But in a given situation, you know, I can tell a pattern in the way you would possibly think. Like from the moment—I knew the moment you said that, you know, you were an independent thinker about politics. So these—all these background facets of your family, everything, your house. What I want to know—is he on now? EAV: Yeah. [overlapping voices/unintelligible 00:00:24] JF: What are your hobbies now? MAYO A. HADDEN, JR.: Oh, athletically, I guess you’d say— EAV: This is going to go fast. This is—all right. 00:00:34 MAH: Golf, if I’ve got any hobby at all. Because it combines exercise with a competitive thing, where you’re fighting against yourself. And when I was a youngster, of course, I liked to build model airplanes. That was natural. And I was in the Boy Scout business from the time I was a Tenderfoot until I made Eagle, until I became a Sea Scout, and that sort of—college, of course—that kind of went by the boards when I got into more team-type athletics. JF: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. So could I—[unintelligible 00:01:13]—would be golf. But you can play golf, huh? MAH: That’s right. 00:01:19 5 JF: Cards? Bridge? MAH: No, very seldom. Only on board ship, for want of something else to do. Sure, I’m very proud of the fact that I have been a three-handicapper and now I’ve skied to a five to a seven. But in my day, I used to play a pretty fair game. JF: I thought I was doing good to get down under 15. [laughs] EAV: I’ve just started. JF: Tell me about your romance. I mean, tell me how you met Lori and what was Lori when you met her and what did she— MAH: Oh, Lori was—her father was one-time plant superintendent, general manager and that sort of thing, of the Ohio Lamp Works, a subsidiary of General Electric. His health went bad— again, with diabetes. And they moved from Warren, Ohio. Lori had been born and grown up in Ontario, when her dad was building the [unintelligible 00:02:17] GE plant. Grew up in Europe until she was about nine years old. Her father was an American, but her [unintelligible 00:02:25], married a Canadian. So she was born in Canada, but of an American father, automatic American citizen, [unintelligible 00:02:33] Act of 1922. Came back from Europe when she was about six years old, went to various schools in Lynn, Massachusetts and Marblehead, Mass. and whatnot. Went to high school in Warren, Ohio, went to Hood College for two years, transferred to the University of Wisconsin. And when her dad’s health— 00:02:53 JF: What did she major in when she was going to college? MAH: Damned if I know. [laughter] But then they moved to a little house down in Fort Lauderdale. JF: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. You met her then? MAH: And Lori worked with Marge Davis, who is Fletcher Knebel’s wife, in Washington, a Washington columnist. And Lori worked with her sometime directing publicity for about six hotels around the Lauderdale area and also worked in a realty office and that sort of thing. JF: Is she business-minded? I mean, to that extent—career-minded, I mean? MAH: I guess she was at that time, and then she made her career snagging me and bless her heart. JF: [laughs] Had she been married prior to you? MAH: Oh, no. No, uh-huh [negative]. 6 00:03:38 JF: So you were her first marriage? MAH: Yeah. No, she was—we were both 25 when we met and married—and I guess maybe we were 24. I had never had any—oh, sure. Romances? Sure. I went with one girl in high school from Findlay, Ohio, where I had gone to high school when they had transferred down there. I went with another gal from Rochester, New York when I was a freshman or sophomore in college. JF: Now, up to this point—I mean, up to the point of your marriage, did you have marriage on the mind and did Lori have marriage on the mind? MAH: I don’t know what Lori had on her mind. All I had on my mind, of course, was girls. I liked them. I still like them. [laughter] JF: That’s good. That’s a very healthy trait. So was it love-at-first sight type of thing or was it just—she finally grind you down? Yeah? MAH: Well, it was an oddball thing. When Lori and I met on, as I told you, on New Year’s Day, and I broke a date the next night, and I went with the O’Neal tribe down at Miami Beach, see. This was the same [unintelligible 00:04:48]. I sent this Marine up to take my place, and he took Lori out with some fictitious excuse. I’ve forgotten what I’d used, but every place they went up and down the beach, the bartenders would always say, “Oh, yeah. Mike and the gang just left here.” 00:05:04 MAH: She’d thought I was off someplace; I had broken this date. So the next night, I went on out to Fort Lauderdale and called on Lori. She barely let me in the door. But most of my friends had already gotten their commissions. I had been held over at Pensacola until after football season, until after we played Jacksonville, which was our main game, see. We won 15 to 7. But anyway, we had to play this football game because the BOQs all had a big bet on it and so did the commandants of Pensacola and Jacksonville. So by the time I got to Miami, all my friends, all my classmates were commissioned. Well, anyway, I had a brand new Ford convertible. So the last—I’m ashamed to say—about the last month that I was at—I met Lori New Year’s Day, broke a date the next night, had a date with Lori the next night, and from then on, although all cadets were in at 9:00, fellows like—oh, Bob MacLeod, three-time All-American at Dartmouth and this kind of stuff, second lieutenant in the Marines, bright, shiny wings on his chest. They would use my Ford convertible and put me in the trunk, smuggle me out the gate.

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