The Quest for Witnesses of Dec. 7, 1941 Aerial Combat

As it developed when I began my quest for witnesses to the aerial combat Ken and George were engaged in during the Pearl Harbor attack, I located a 47th Squadron member who had a list with some phone numbers and addresses of those there on Dec. 7.

These contacts produced nothing. The 47th men were scattered all over the island and understandably, with some 386 Japanese aircraft attacking both military and civilian targets in waves from their carriers at sea, those on the ground probably were not gawking at aerial dogfights.

I talked by phone to Kermit Tyler, operations officer at Wheeler Field that day because Ken said he and George had conctacted him by radio after they took off from Haleiwa Field. Tyler, who became one of the scapegoats of that day for blowing off the call from the radar operator reporting numerous dots on his screen, said he had no memory of this. Considering what had just happened at Wheetler with aircraft and buildings burning everywhere (see photo on this site), that's understandable.

Maj. Gen. Gordon Austin USAF Ret., then a major and squadron commander, had gone deer hunting on a neighboring island and did not return to Wheeler until after the Japaneses planes had left for their carriers. (Austin went on to have a distinguished career in aerial combat on the other side of the world.) In an email to me, Gen. Austin said after landing at Wheeler he was ordered to join his squadron at Haleiwa. Driving there, he met Taylor and Welch on the road leaving the base to look for some the the Japanese attackers they had shot down. Together the three men walked about a hundred yards from the road, finding the remains of a Val bomber.

Former Sgt. Raymond Turley, a crew chief in the 47th, said from Haleiwa he saw nothing but Ken and George taking off in their P-40s. (More on Sgt. Turley elsewhere on the site.)

Trying To Find the Action

The island of Oahu is 607.7 square miles. It is established that Ken and George first flew to Wheeler after taking off from Haleiwa and, finding no action there, headed across Oahu towards the Ewa Marine base where a dozen Japanese bombers were poised to attack. Getting in line with the bombers, both American pilots began firing and downed their first aircraft. After that dogfight they returned to Wheeler, as the DSC citation says, to rearm with the more powerful .50 caliber ammo rather than the .30 caliber gunnery practice rounds the planes had when leaving Haleiwa.

In "December 7 1941 The Day The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor," a Gordon Prange book, on pages 287-289 (Warner Books, 1988), he writes that "a large, excited goup of spectators (at Schofield Barracks) watched as 2nd Lt. Philip M. Rusmussen engaged another Japanese in single combat over a pineapple field at Wahiawa."

Sixty-five years later I am not one to in any way disagree about what Dr. Prange has chronicled about the attack in his books. But with the military installations on Oahu under attack that day, this story begs two questions.

First, why were the soldiers not at their posts doing their duty instead of standing around watching a dogfight?. Second, how were personnel at another Army facility able to identify the U.S. Army plane as being Lt. Rasmussen's at that altitude? Dr. Prange does not give an explanation, but a few pages later describes a bombing and near total chaos at Schofield. Other than that the Japanese plane was downed and Rasmussen's plane was found very badly damaged after he landed. (I have made numerous efforts to contact Lt. Rasmussen but have failed.)     

I think it is clear those on the ground below where Ken and George were shooting down Japanese, even if they could watch a few minutes, did not know who was who. If Navy or Marine survivors were located lthey ikely could not state more than that there was some aerial combat above them.

Thus my long and exhaustive search for survivors who could provide statements as to the Taylor/Welch heroism disapointedly ended with no success.

                                                               -- JMM

   Over the years numerous stories, some major and some minor, about Ken and George in books, movies, news stories, cartoon and other media coverage simply are not the way it happened according to my many conversations with Ken. Here are a few:

• The two pilots were not standing outside the Wheeler Field Officer’s Club, after playing poker all night, when the Japanese attacked the base. Ken said they were in bed by about 3 a.m. and awakened around 8 a.m. by the attacking aircraft.
• Ken and George were not dressed in khakis as if they had just come from the parade ground when they took off in their P-40s. Ken put on ruffled front formal shirt and tux trousers (black tie dress was required on Saturday niight at officer's clubs in Hawaii at that time) he had been wearing Saturday night because they were at his bedside.
• The Buick Ken owned, which he drove from Wheeler to Haleiwa Field where their P-40s were based, was not a convertible as portrayed in "Tora! Tora! Tora!."
• George was not a member of the wealthy Welch grape juice/jelly family. He was from Wilmington, DE where his father worked for DuPont.
• There is no actual evidence yet found that George, but not Ken, was written up for a Congressional Medal of Honor. Surely Gen. Gordon Austin, 47th Squadron commander on Dec. 7, would have known if George had been singled out for the MOH. It is most unlikely that with World War II started, and the possibility the Japanese might again attack Hawaii, the U.S. Army command on the island had no certain knowledge of the number of enemy planes downed by either Taylor or Welch. As for who downed the first plane in aerial combat in World War II, Ken said he and George had an agreement: the survivor among the two could claim that honor.

                                                            -- JMM