User:Vermontbilllamb/sandbox

= William Emerson Lamb = Summary:

Navy fighter Ace: 5 in WWII, 1 in Korean conflict

Shot down over Japanese-held Philippines and MIA for 3 months in WWII

Career Naval Officer and teacher.

Early years of life
Bill was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was a local physician and his mother a housewife. They divorced early in his childhood. After attending the U.S. Navy prep school, Bill competed for and received a congressional appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. While there, he was on the wresting team and captained their golf team.

After graduation, Bill spent two years on the light cruiser, USS Brooklyn (CL40). He then started flight training in New Orleans in the summer of 1942. At completion, he reported to VF-27, a carrier fighter squadron. In May of 1944, his squadron deployed aboard USS Princeton and participated in attacks on targets in Micronesia, the Marianas and the Philippines.

WWII - Shooting down the enemy and being shot down
On June 19, after shooting down one Japanese plane, he came upon a MIG heading away from his fleet and chased it. Not being able to catch the MIG, he was heading back towards his squadron when he spotted a flight of nine Japanese torpedo plans heading for the Princeton. Radioing the squadron for help, he shot three down before running out of ammo, and successfully directed his squadron mates to the remaining enemy aircraft. All of the Japanese planes were shot down, and Bill was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions.

Three months later, on September 21st, Bill was, himself, shot down while making attacks on ground targets at an airfield on  Luzon, Philippines. With his plane on fire, he crash landed into Lake Taal but managed to get out of the plane before it sank. Loaded down with his revolver, ammo, and emergency supplies, he nearly drown when his life raft refused to inflate. Seeing Bill’s predicament, his wingman, “Mac” McCarthy, flew by and tossed his own life raft to him. As he was paddling to shore, two young Filipino men came by in a sailboat and picked him up. That was the beginning of more than a month’s saga, hiding with guerrillas and picking up useful intelligence about Japanese operations on Luzon.

Eventually, Bill connected with a U.S. submarine and was extracted from the island. He wanted to get back to his squadron as fast as possible to share the intelligence he had picked up; but the sub’s skipper still wanted to sink some ships. As Bill later related, having no way to get off the sub, he endured a “much too long stay aboard”, including surviving multiple Japanese depth charge attacks. The sub finally docked in Saipan and Bill escaped for the second time. He caught the first airplane to Hawaii, where he quickly ran into his commanding officer from VF-27 and the Princeton who told him know that USS Princeton had been sunk by a lone Japanese bomb on October 24th, just over a month after Bill had been shot down.

Korean Conflict - Yet another kill
Upon being returned to the States, Bill was reassigned to command VF- 51, then reforming in the Seattle area. He deployed with this squadron but saw no combat. Next, he was assigned as Navigator of USS Langely (CVL-27), followed by Postgraduate School in Aeronautical Engineering. He then became Commanding Officer of VF-52, and deployed aboard USS Valley Forge (CV-45). This was a first. The Navy had never before attempted to operate a carrier more than about 100 miles from an emergency field if any appreciable number of jet aircraft were aboard. This was because the jets had such limited endurance that in the event of a fouled carrier deck, some jets might run out of fuel before the deck could be cleared. The latter part of the deployment was occupied with hostilities in Korea. Being early on the scene Bill shared credit for one of the first ever shoot downs of a MIG-15, an aircraft which was superior to the F9F Panther he was flying.

Career moves and retirement
Bill's future duties included: a year and a half on staff in San Diego; Armed Forces Staff College; two years in the Bureau of Aeronautics, where he worked with MacDonnell Aircraft on their development of the next generation F-4 Phantom II fighter; two years on NATO staff in Naples, Italy; and a return to duty at the Naval Academy. There were two tours at the Academy with a year and a half between as Executive Officer of USS Shangri La (CV-38). A three-year tour of duty commanding the NROTC Unit at RPI in Troy, NY, followed. He retired following a year at CNM in Washington.

Bill spent a year at Duke University learning the best approaches to teaching math and subsequently became a mathematics professor at Anne Arundel Community College, near Annapolis. In 1979, he retired to live in Annapolis.

Personal
Bill married Maureen McCann in 1942. There are four children: Carol, Bill Jr., Peter, and Maureen.

Education: United States Naval Academy, California Institute of Technology, and Duke University

Awards and honors: Many, including the Navy Cross

Bill's ashes rest with his wife, Maureen's and those of some of his classmates and close friends at the United States Naval Academy's Columbarium, across the creek from the USNA parade field where he marched as a midshipman and the home where Maureen and he resided while on the Academy's staff.