Word Celebrity Blog

Commander Alex Vraciu, USN


Alexander Vraciu was born in 1918, of Romanian immigrant parents, in East Chicago. Indiana.  Alex grew up enthralled by the exploits of aviator Charles Lindbergh and World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker

He won a scholarship to DePauw University. Like many of his contemporaries, he saw the war coming and obtained his private pilot's license under the government's Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) program at Muncie, Indiana, during the summer vacation between his junior and senior years.




























Vraciu pulled a prank during a psychology class he was taking at DePauw University in Greencastle,. The course, in part, dealt with a human's ability to observe, and accurately recall what was observed. During a slight lull in the lecture of one of Professor Fay's psychology classes,aand  to the complete consternation of both the professor and his fellow classmates, Alex got up stating, "I can't stand this any longer" and jumped through an open window. Coeds screamed and the shaken professor and the class rushed to the window. They found Vraciu sitting in a tarpaulin held by his Delta Chi fraternity brothers.Vraciu's legend on campus was cemented: "I got credit for everything crazy that happened from that point on".

























Following his university graduation in 1941, he entered the service as pilot candidate just before Pearl Harbor and our entry into the war. He proudly received his wings as a Naval Aviator on June 24, 1942.

With planes and aircraft carriers scarce in the earlier phases of the war, he was finally given the opportunity to carrier-qualify on the USS WOLVERINE, a converted excursion ship, on Lake Michigan. He qualified on eight straight passes in my F4F Wildcat, demonstrating an early affinity for carrier duty. He was to fly the premier fighter off Navy carriers in the Pacific, the Grumman F6F Hellcat.



















Alex finally got to the fleet and served in Fighting Squadron Six (VF-6) in early 1943 and was fortunate to have one of the Navy’s legends as his squadron commanding officer, LCDR “Butch” O’Hare. Many of you will recognize the O’Hare name, both as one of the Navy’s early Medal of Honor recipients during the WW II Pacific campaign and as the name of one of the world’s busiest airports, O’Hare Field near Chicago. It was while flying as section leader in LCDR O'Hare's division on October 5, 1943, that Alex scored his first aerial victory over a Japanese "zero" at Wake Island. He notched three Zeroes and one Rufe in a wild dogfight at the first Truk raid on February 16, 1944 as part of a 72-Hellcat fighter sweep at the Japanese Naval fortress. It was a new and enjoyable experience for the F6F pilots... an all-fighter raid with no bombers to protect. That night, Air Group Six aboard INTREPID, was forced to retire from the combat zone when the carrier was torpedoed by a Japanese Kate.





















By mid February, 1944, Vraciu's record of enemy aircraft shot down had climbed to 9. By any standards, his success as a naval aviator and having served aboard two torpedoed carriers had earned him a well deserved rest and rotation to the States. However, characteristically for LTJG Vraciu, he requested continued combat area assignment to another carrier squadron, VF-16 aboard the USS Lexington when VF-6 was returned stateside.

When his squadron returned to Stateside, Vraciu requested continued combat duty. The Navy obliged by assigning him to Fighter Squadron Sixteen aboard the LEXINGTON, where he added two more Zeroes at the second Truk raid on 29 April. My 12th kill, another Betty snooper, was shot down north of Saipan on 12 June. Betty's (big, fat-bellied, versatile Japanese bombers) were my prime preoccupation after being told that it was a Betty that had shot down Butch O'Hare on a strange night encounter. On June 14, qhile participating in a strike against enemy shipping in the harbor, Vraciu sunk a large enemy merchant ship with a direct hit on its stern.

It was during this carrier duty with VF-16, in what was later popularly labeled as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," that his best known exploits were to occur. On earlier flights he had brought his total victories to 12 enemy aircraft. But on June 19, 1944, Alex achieved the almost unbelievable -- he shot down six aircraft in eight minutes in a single mission.




















Pilot Combat Report

"As part of the American task force protecting the Saipan landings, we were expecting an attack by over 400 Japanese carrier planes on the morning of 19 June 1944. I was leader of the second division of a standby group of 12 Hellcats launched from the LEXINGTON to supplement the combat air patrol already aloft. The full-power climb was too much for some of our tired engines, so I radioed our predicament to the FDO who ordered my group to orbit at 20,000 feet. A short while later we received a new vector of 265 degrees when the radar screens began to show another large force of enemy planes approaching. Taking that heading led us directly to a rambling mass of over 50 enemy planes 2,000 feet below, portside and closing -- a fighter pilot's dream. In the next eight-minute tail chase, I was able to splash 6 Judy dive bombers, chasing the last two right into the task force AA fire. Looking around at that point, only Hellcats seemed to be remaining in the sky. (LTJG Vraciu might have added that having to work in closely due to his oil-streaked windshield, I amazingly used only 360 rounds of ammunition that morning to shoot down the six planes)."

Pilot's Notes on Aircraft Flown in Combat













"Throughout the war I flew the Grumman F6F Hellcat, which was designed to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, the dominant plane early in the Pacific war. The Hellcat gave us not only the speed, range and climb to compete successfully against the Zero, but it could dictate the rules of combat. It had a rugged dependability, a solid and stable gunnery platform, and distinctly was more of a pussycat than a Hellcat in its carrier operations. What better success could be attributed to the F6F than to acknowledge its kill-to-loss ratio of nineteen to one."


The next day brought his final confirmed 19th kill. His personal achievements added to one of the most noteworthy victories at "The First Philippine Sea Battle." Alex became the Navy's top ranking “ace” for four months ending the war as the Navy's fourth highest scoring ace. In addition to his 19 aerial victories, he had destroyed 21 enemy aircraft on the ground.

























But Vraciu's war effort did not just end at that point. After rotating stateside for a few months, he talked his way back out into combat. On December 14, 1944, while strafing over Luzon Island in the Philippines, Alex aircraft was struck by anti-aircraft fire and he was forced to parachute safely from his damaged aircraft.

He was subsequently reported as "missing in action," but Alex was neither "missing" nor was he "not in action." He succeeded in evading capture by Japanese ground forces with the help of USAFFE Filipino guerrillas and spent the next five weeks with them awaiting General MacArthur's promised landing. Though he had grown a beard and let his normal well groomed Naval attire slip a bit, he was happy to eventually meet with the advancing Americans who had landed at Lingayen Gulf leading his 180 man guerrilla group, he was identified as a naval aviator and returned to the Navy off Luzon, sporting a Luger and carrying a Japanese sword.

Forced to return home due to regulations, he would not be able to make the first Tokyo raid.

















Several times, Vraciu nearly lost his life. He had to ditch his Hellcat in the ocean twice because of battle damage or mechanical failure. In addition, two of the Navy carriers he served on were torpedoed (but not sunk) by the Japanese.
























Alex Vraciu poses with his plane  Note the 19 kill markings beneath the cockpit


After surviving service on six carriers, two of which were torpedoed, two ditchings and two parachute jumps -- to be known as Grurnman's Best Customer -- Vraciu's war was over. For the last few months of the war he served as a test pilot at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland, helping to evaluate tactical performances of U.S. and enemy aircraft.


























Alex Vraciu in 1957, at the end of his career as Commander of VF-51, an FJ-3 Fury-equipped fighter squadron


Alex continued his career in the Navy and served as a test pilot at the Naval Aviation Test Center in Patuxent River, Maryland, with assignments at the Naval Post Graduate School and various shipboard and shore assignments. He was also rewarded with what he considered his ultimate desire, that of command of his own fighter squadron, VF-51. It was during that tour of duty and his flying in the Navy's 1957 Naval Air Weapons Meet, that he won the High Individual Air-To-Air Competition, outshooting all Naval and Marine Corps pilots for the honor.. In his congratulatory message, the Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet commented "Congratulations on being Top Gun in jets in peace as you were with Hellcats in war."

For his services on behalf of our nation, Alex Vraciu was awarded the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two gold stars, Air Medal with three gold stars and numerous other awards. One of the highest honors bestowed on Alex was his recommendation for the Congressional Medal of Honor for "special achievement and outstanding acts of services: throughout a given period in June, 1944. The citation enumerated four separate missions totaling eight enemy aircraft shot down, a large ship sunk, and materially assisting our bombers in the sinking of an enemy aircraft carrier while escorting our bombers on a record long-range strike against the Japanese battlefleet. All five on-the-scene Naval Commanders strongly recommended approval of the medal, but a reviewing armchair admiral at headquarters, Pearl Harbor, inexplicably downgraded the award recommendation to a Navy Cross. Comparing the squadron recommendation with the final approved version, it could be noted that one of the four flying missions was deleted and the Navy even listed the wrong fighter squadron and wrong aircraft carrier. So much for an incredible standard or review for evaluation of the Nation's highest award!

In 1947, the Navy Department Board of Review for Decorations and Medals, on its own, tried to "right-the-wrong" after becoming aware of the Navy's inconsistencies in WW II in the awarding of Congressional Medal of Honors to fighter pilots -- 10 for the Marine Corps and only 2 for the Navy. It also called attention to the fact that the majority of the fighter pilots received the CMH, for acts performed either in a single combat or throughout a given period, for only four or five planes destroyed. Resubmission to the senior admiral -- presumably out of Naval courtesy -- gain was returned unfavorable in spite of earlier Navy precedent and the additional "strongest possible" recommendations by two more firing-line Task Force Commanders involved in the First Philippine Sea Battle. The senior member of the above Post-war Board of Review stated after the Board was dissolved that he did not concur with the admiral and felt that an injustice may have been done in this instance. In 1990, a subsequent strong effort was mounted by an Indiana businessman and historian and a Congressman to see the navy's earlier error corrected, but the Navy again backed away from the issue hoping that it goes away.





















Along the way, Alex Vraciu and his exploits have become a well-known part of Naval Aviation history and the stories of his action in the Pacific are in almost every book about World War II. Two F6F Hellcat aircraft are currently memorialized in flying museums with Alex's name and personal markings on them -- one at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas, and the other, surprisingly, at Duxford, England, as part of the Fighter Collection of the British Imperial War Museum. Of particular interest in the later Hellcat is the fact that seven of Alex's first nine victories were actually in the cockpit of that aircraft.

Following his outstanding naval career and retirement as a Commander, Alex retired in the San Francisco Bay Area and entered into a second career in commercial banking, as Trust Officer for Wells Fargo Bank, retiring a second time in 1983.

He and his wife Kay have a beautiful home in the foothills in Danville, California. They are also the proud parents of five children and nine grandchildren.

Alex Vraciu is still going strong, with a speaking schedule that keeps him busy. Although he is best known for his six-kill mission at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and his exploits during World War II, Vraciu also played a pivotal role in establishing the Navy and Marine Corps Air Reserve programs.

 On April 2, 2010,  Alex Vraciu, who is now 91 years old, tells a reporter, "I didn't fight a war for medals and I didn't fight it for money."