Navy Service
Cleland joined the Navy and became a naval aviator shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He married Ora Lee Cleland during his flight training. After graduation he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Wasp flying the Vought SB2U Vindicator and Douglas SBD dive bombers, providing close air support for the initial Guadalcanal landings. Cleland was on the Wasp when she was sunk in September 1942, spending over 4 hours in the water, waiting for rescue.
Cleland was then assigned to the USS Lexington, becoming a plank owner. During his service on board the "Gray Ghost", he became and air ace, shooting down five Japanese aircraft, unusual for a dive bomber pilot. He and his wingman were also credited with severely crippling the Japanese aircraft carrier Junyō during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1943. For his valor in action, he received the Navy Cross and many other commendations. After returning to the United States, he evaluated captured enemy aircraft as a Navy test pilot.
Read more about this topic: Cook Cleland
Famous quotes containing the words navy and/or service:
“We all know the Navy is never wrong, but in this case it was a little weak on being right.”
—Wendell Mayes, U.S. screenwriter. Otto Preminger. CINCPAC II (Henry Fonda)
“Night City was like a deranged experiment in Social Darwinism, designed by a bored researcher who kept one thumb permanently on the fast-forward button. Stop hustling and you sank without a trace, but move a little too swiftly and you’d break the fragile surface tension of the black market; either way, you were gone ... though heart or lungs or kidneys might survive in the service of some stranger with New Yen for the clinic tanks.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)