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Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier (Part 2 of 3)

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Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier (Part 2 of 3) The American Fighter Aces Association Oral Interviews The Museum of Flight Seattle, Washington Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier (Part 2 of 3) Interviewed by: Eugene A. Valencia Interview Date: circa 1966 Abstract: In this three-part oral history, fighter ace Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier is interviewed by Eugene A. Valencia about his military service with the United States Navy. In part two, Cormier continues to describe his experiences with Composite Squadron 1 (VC-1) and Fighting Squadron 80 (VF-80) during World War II. He also discusses his postwar assignments, including his time with the Blue Angels and his time at the 5th Air Force Headquarters in Seoul during the Korean War. Cormier also shares stories about the life and military career of fellow fighter ace Patrick D. Fleming, who died in a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crash in 1956. Biography: Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier was born on December 19, 1919 in Centralia, Washington. He joined the United States Navy in 1941 and was designated a naval aviator the following year. During World War II, Cormier served several combat tours, first with Composite Squadron 1 (VC-1) aboard the USS Card and then with Fighting Squadron 80 (VF-80) aboard the USS Ticonderoga and USS Hancock. He remained in the military after the war and continued his naval aviation career with Fighter Squadron 2A (VF-2A), Fighter Photographic Squadron 61 (VFP-61), Attack Squadron 113 (VFA-113), and Air Group 11. He also commanded the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration squadron, during the mid-1950s and served as executive officer aboard the USS Wasp. Cormier retired as a captain in 1964 and passed away in 2001. Biographical information courtesy of: Boyce, Ward J., ed., American fighter aces album. Mesa, Ariz: American Fighter Aces Association, 1996. Rights Statement: 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 Index: Desire to become a carrier pilot ...................................................................................................... 4 Anti-submarine assignment in the North Atlantic .......................................................................... 4 End of World War II ....................................................................................................................... 7 Remembering Patrick D. Fleming .................................................................................................. 8 Postwar assignment in Guam ........................................................................................................ 18 Joining the Blue Angels ................................................................................................................ 18 Time in Seoul during the Korean War .......................................................................................... 20 Blue Angels show at Los Alamitos ............................................................................................... 21 Richard L. “Zeke” Cormier (Part 2 of 3) [START OF INTERVIEW] 00:00:01 [Desire to become a carrier pilot] EUGENE A. VALENCIA: These will be the questions that I'll ask Captain Cormier and will not necessarily be in order, but included as inserts. As inserts. This is reel two. Reel two. Three- and-three-quarters. Zeke, why did you choose the Navy—while you're in the California National Guard at Oxnard decided, by god, the Navy was going to be the thing? RICHARD L. CORMIER: Well, you got to go back a little bit now in the CPT training. I was introduced to the aviating business through the Civil Pilot Training right here in Chula Vista. And the thrill, even flying those old ancient Cubs that we had, really captured my imagination and a great desire to do more flying. And after having a taste of the ground foot-soldiering, why, I was more convinced than ever that flying was the only way to go if you have to go to war. 00:01:08 RLC: And then I equated the whole big picture, both from the—it was the Army Air Corps— and from the Navy standpoint. And the prospect of landing aboard a carrier, that alone was inducement enough to want to go into the Navy. And of course, my aim from the very beginning, the first day I signed up in the V-5 program, was to become a carrier pilot. EAV: All right. So this, again, gets back to that added ingredient you mentioned earlier about the extra hurdle to round out a pilot. RLC: Yeah. It's a—you know, it's a real challenge to an aviator, I feel. This is why that some people were successful in being carrier pilots and others, after one tour, found that they'd had enough of it and went on to other things. I have very—I am sure you do, too—lots of friends who started out in the carrier business as a single engine and went on to multi-engine patrol or into the utility groups. [Anti-submarine assignment in the North Atlantic] EAV: Zeke, what was your first thought when after going through ACTG in San Diego, you qualified as a carrier fighter pilot, when the escort carrier headed towards Panama and, hence, the North Atlantic? RLC: [laughs] Well, that's the, uh—of course, we were all surprised. Being a young ensign in those days, you weren't really aware of all the inner circle of activities, nor of communications. And even though you knew they existed, why, the mystery of orders and changing of orders was always something that was left to the hierarchy. And we were all terribly surprised because we kind of trained and had whetted our appetite for looking at the South Seas. And after reading all the accounts of Guadalcanal and Henderson Field and all the romantic spots in the South Pacific and the great flying that had been going on there, we were ready for it. I mean, we weren’t really prepared to start thinking in terms of flying in the North Atlantic with the cold water and the round-the-clock type of operation and searching out the only subs that we knew existed. But, um—and it had become a real problem, of course, and a tremendous menace to the total war effort in Europe. But we hadn't trained in that direction. And we, uh—this came as like a rude shock to everybody, particularly the young ensigns in the JO bunk rooms. EAV: They're always the last to get the word. RLC: Always the last. EAV: When did you first get the information? 00:04:03 RLC: Well, we'd sortied from San Diego and from all sources that we could, uh—even from the mess cooks—we thought we were going to go out to Pearl. And we'd been at sea about a couple of days and the captain of the ship—the name I can't recall at the present time. He was the captain—oh, what the hell is his name? Well, anyway, a great skipper, but an old time-type Navy captain, got all the crew together and he said, "Our orders are now to proceed through the Panama Canal into Norfolk to join the anti-submarine warfare group.” EAV: Hmm. RLC: In Norfolk. And the air group will be offloaded at a little field just south of Oceana. Um, Oceana and, uh—gosh, my memory's leaving me today—Pungo. Pungo Field was the name of the joint. We were trained there in anti-submarine warfare and then joined the force on convoy duty. So our faces fell about 10 feet, you know. [laughs] EAV: Did you enjoy you first flight in the TBM from the F4F? Was there any…? RLC: Well, we—you know, we made one cruise in the—we were aboard the USS Card. Now, this was a jeep carrier. We made one cruise with our full complement. We had 12 F4Fs and 12 TBMs. We had transferred into the TBM when we were at Norfolk. And we took one cruise out to about mid-Atlantic with a convoy and turned it over to another convoy group that took them on into, um—across and into England. And we found that we couldn't do the job with that many fighters aboard. And there was no purpose of having them aboard. And I went—all of this was— anti-submarine warfare was all brand new to everybody in those days, you know. They didn't know what combination to send. Two TBFs and one fighter or two fighters and one TBF. But as it turned out, why, they needed more of the torpedo bombers to carry the depth charges than they needed fighters. There wasn't that great a need for them. So they selected some of the hotshot fighter pilots in the squadron and said, "We need six volunteers: you, you, you, and you." And I had just happened to be one of those “yous.” So we started training immediately in the TBFs. Of course, I had always pictured myself as being the “scarf and the goggles” fighter pilot, you know. And so they gave us this great big hog to fly. Why, the only thing that really saved it was the fact that we did a lot of flying and everybody was anxious to be as much in the air as possible. And we flew two and three hops a day there for months on end. Special training and we went to special school for anti-submarine warfare schools and listening to sonobuoy patterns and, you know, fish gurglings and that sort of thing. We spent a hell of a time—lot of time brushing up on Aldis lamp of the light signals and the hand signals and any other kind of signals. And went to sea as a bomber pilot. And of course, when we got into the convoy duty, actually into the duty itself, and we joined up with a convoy, why, our work really just began because we flew constantly. We had airplanes in the air almost 24 hours a day for there—for many days on end.
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