Burning to enlist after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, George Bush was barely out of high school when he volunteered for the Navy’s flight training program on his eighteenth birthday—June 12, 1942. “[T]hough I know I can never become a killer,” he wrote to his mother on Thanksgiving Day 1942 from the Wold-Chamberlain Naval Air Station in Minneapolis, “I will never feel right until I have actually fought. Being physically able and young enough I belong out emphasis role="txit">at the front and the sooner there, the better.” Bush received his wings in June 1943, becoming one of the Navy’s youngest pilots. Less than a year later he was aboard the USS San Jacinto flying combat missions, and it was proving to be a sobering introduction to warfare. “Oh mum,” he wrote on June 26, 1944, “I hope John and Buck [his brothers] and my own children never have to fight a war. Friends disappearing, lives being extinguished. It’s just not right.” Five weeks later Bush almost became a casualty himself; on September 2, 1944, he was piloting an Avenger torpedo bomber when it was attacked just off the island of Chichi Jima. As the cockpit filled with smoke, Bush called to his crewmates John Delany and Ted White to bail out. Bush jumped from the plane, striking his forehead on the tail, and parachuted into the ocean. Injured but conscious, he was picked up hours later by the submarine USS Finback. (White and Delaney, much to Bush’s great distress, were never found.) During the thirty days he was with the Finback, Bush regularly typed letters to his parents. The following was written on September 16, two weeks after he had been rescued. (Bar is his fiancée, Barbara Pierce; Nance is his sister, and Pres is his oldest brother.)
Dear Mum and Dad,
Several days have slipped by since I last sat down before this machine-days not without excitement, but unfortunately the details will have to remain unrelated for the present.
Gradually I am becomingmore used to this life. At first I missed my daily bath but now I am used to my weekly one. I will say that I certainly do look forward to the day when my bath is due. Today was the big day. Water is precious , but soap is plentiful,so I soap and soap and finally rinse. It is amazing how much better I feel after this weekly pleasure. With my bath comes a clean set of clothes. I hate to have to borrow other peoples things,but unfortunately I came equipped only with pants,drawers and flying jacket. They have a laundryman aboard which helps some.
I have been on the mid watch for the last few days. That puts me on watch from 12–2 at nite and from 12–3 during the day. This way I get a little sun once in awhile. If we are submerged I don’t stand a watchfor obvious reasons.
There is a fellow aboard here named Jerry Redmon. He graduated from Harvard in ’42.They live right next door practically to the Lovetts on Long Island-Glen Cove I believe.
The food continues to be excellent. I have not beeen sleeping as well lately,and I am sure it is because I never get any exercise. I could take calisthenics I suppose. I better start soon because I really do feel sluggish and rotten without at least a trot down the old flight deck.
I am certainly eager to get back to the squadron now. It seems like ages since I have been back. I can just picture the letters on my desk and I long to be able to tear into them. I haven’t heard from Bar in almost a month now. Did I tell you about my gotee. It started off beautifully, but gradually developed into a joke-sort of like Gruff’s moustache, so today off it came. If worse came to worse ,however, I am now convinced that I could grow a fairly presentable gotee,given plenty of time. Most of the enlisted men aboard here have big full faced beards. It is indeeed quite a sight.
I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately. Retreat From Rostov;and Dos Passo’s “Number One” plus “Captain from Connecticut” and now “The Robe”.The latter appeals to me a great deal. So far I have only read a hundred pages or so but it has been deeply absorbing.
I wonder if you have seen Bar since you have been back from Maine. I imagine so if she didn’t go back to college. By now Nance is undoubtedly back at college and Buck and John almost rady for school now. Wheere is Buck going to go?In one of your letters you said that Pres was coming North for a week or so to see about his eyes. I wonder if he made it. I feel so darn out of touch with you and I hat that feeling. This great distance seems so much closer when I have your letters to fall back on.
My eye has completely heeled now-there is no scar and the only visible sign of the accident is a big bare spot where eye brow should be growing. They were all kidding me because I have no scar or evidence of my wound now by which I can claim the PURPLE Heart.
I still think about the accident a good deal. So many thing that I could have done come to my mind and bother me. It was a terrible thing alright.
Getting on to another subject. Did you ever see that Oakes girl with the funny nick-name,I can’t remember it for the life of me. She was my downfall. I hope your last letters have included bits of news about Ed,Vinny,Red Dog,etc. Perhaps some day I will run inot them out here. I hope,however,that it will not be out here,but at the Field Club or some such spot.
Well,I have rambled on long enough,and shall secure for now. The steaks are on the table. Much much love to all the afmily and to yourselves,
Pop
Foregoing a rotation home, Bush rejoined the USS San Jacinto in November. (After the war, Bush learned that the Japanese commander in charge of Chichi Jima was tried and executed for eating the livers of captured American pilots. “I like to tease Barbara,” he later recalled, “that I almost ended up becoming an hors d’oeuvre.”) Bush returned to the States on Christmas Eve 1944, one week before marrying Barbara Pierce. He later received orders to head back to the South Pacific for the invasion of Japan, but, when the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, Bush was able to stay home with his new wife, begin college, and start a family. (George Walker Bush, their first child, was born July 6, 1946.) Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, George Bush flew fifty-eight combat missions in the war. He went on to serve as a representative in the U.S. Congress, ambassador to the United Nations, liaison officer to China, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, vice president of the United States, and president.