WIX Archives

Recent Contact With History In Person

Posted by Mike Henniger on Thu May 29, 2003 06:27:46 PM

I was on a cruise for a vacation earlier this month. During the cruise my wife and I were assigned to a specific table for our formal dinners. Catherine and I were seated at a table with a nice younger couple from Toronto, and a more... mature... couple from Florida, Jim and Angelina Boniface. Everyone, around the table was enjoying the conversation. I had the impression Jim had been in one of the services and so I asked him where he had served. He said he was in the Navy. I related something like my Grandfather had been in the Canadian Navy. So I asked him if he served on land or on a ship. He indicated he had served as a radio operator on a ship... the Yorktown!!! If it wasn't for the fact that I had been seated my jaw would have been on the floor. When he saw my surprise he clued in that I knew at least a little about the Pacific war history and said, "Not the one that sunk, the other one CV-10". We had fantastic conversations about TBMs, Corsairs and F6Fs during following dinners. By the end of the cruise we had exchanged mailing addresses. My wife and I miss not having regular conversations with Jim and Angelina.

Jim recently sent letter and I quote the following... "She (the Yorktown) has 32 battle stars to here name during WWII, and yours truly participated in three of them. The late Phillipine offensive, the Okinowa offsensive and the raids upon Tokyo. The CV-10 was active during WW-2, the Korean action, the Vietnam War, and was a recovery ship for Apollo 8 NASA mission and picked up the Astronauts. Some ship eh?" I tend to agree with Jim.

I am putting together a collection of photos of surviving F6Fs, TBM/TBFs and Corsairs for Jim. I promised I would be sending him a package of photos after the summer's airshows (and it will give me some time to have prints made).

Here is my question for the WIX. Does anyone know if any of the F6F, Avenger or Corsair survivors surviving served from CV-10. How would I go about finding out? Where do I even start?

Thanks in advance for any tips that you can provide.

Regards,

Mike

Follow Ups: