Jake Ussery was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas which is a small town north of Little Rock. His mother's parents lived there and the Ussery family resided with them. The family moved to Monroe, Louisiana in 1929 which was six years after he was born. The family included his father, a carpenter who built houses, his mother, a housewife, and two brothers. The family never moved from Monroe after making it their home. Ussery graduated from high school there in May 1940. The Great Depression was difficult for the Ussery family. Unemployment numbers were staggering. There were no welfare programs like that available today. It was difficult growing up under those circumstances. Families supported one another. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ussery enlisted in the service with two of his friends. The day after the attack on the Hawaiian facilities, President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] made the speech to Congress about the attack being a day of infamy. That fired up Ussery and his two best friends. Before the attack, Ussery did not know where Pearl Harbor was located or anything else about it. Ussery applied to be a flyer because the first military recruiters that came to Monroe were there for naval flight training. The interviewers were not looking for sailors for ships but specifically for men who wanted to be fighter pilots. Ussery enthusiastically agreed that the assignment would suit him. Prior to that, Ussery had never flown in an airplane, but he wanted to fly a Navy fighter. He thought the war would end soon.

Jake Ussery enlisted in Monroe, Louisiana. He was in the Navy but lived in a barracks in Monroe. He trained in a small Piper Cub airplane which was limited to a 60 mile an hour speed. He trained and took courses there for four months. He received his flight certificate for the small airplane there and then was ordered to the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia for physical training in June or July 1942. He was there over a year. He took college courses and received physical training. He participated in sports including football, baseball, and boxing. There was quite a bit of marching training. The men had been issued cadet uniforms unlike the training in Monroe where uniforms were not provided. The most difficult task in the training for Ussery was scaling an eight foot wall. The trainees were also required to carry a 50 pound backpack in certain exercises to test their stamina. After Athens, Ussery was sent to Memphis, Tennessee for his primary flight training. In Memphis, he trained in a yellow biplane called the Stearman. Primary flight was completed near the end of 1944 [Annotator's Note: 1943]. Some pilots could not perform the various spins and flight maneuvers in the Stearman were washed out. For those who could, there was a final test before primary training acceptance which allowed the cadets to move on to advanced training in Pensacola, Florida. Ussery went on to Pensacola for the final flight training program in an SNJ [Annotator's Note: the Navy SNJ is also known as the North American T-6 Texan]. The SNJ was more sophisticated than the Stearman because of its retractable landing gear. The training of the new pilots involved gradually increasing levels of complexity in the aircraft they flew. Both trainer aircraft had the fledgling pilot in the front seat and the instructor in the back seat. Ussery spent two years in training before receiving his commission when he graduated from Pensacola in February 1944. He was immediately assigned to a squadron in Air Group 21 to train to go out. Pensacola at that time was abuzz with the successes of the Americans in the Pacific naval war. The flyers were anxious to get into the action. One of the two friends that had enlisted with Ussery in the naval flight program had washed out and chose to join the Air Force. Having done so, he was shot down and lost while flying a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft]. The second friend who had enlisted with Ussery trained in dive bombers and died during a training exercise. Both of his buddies were killed before they could even get to the war. All the newly trained flyers were anxious to get at the enemy. Before Ussery could do so, he was sent to training to operate off an aircraft carrier. The take-offs and landings were performed on a converted cruiser in Lake Erie near Chicago. After that training, Ussery was assigned to the Langley [Annotator's Note: USS Langley (CVL-27)].

Jake Ussery boarded the Langley [Annotator's Note: USS Langley (CVL-27)] in the United States and joined in operations attacking islands still held by the Japanese in the Marianas. The later attack on Iwo Jima was initiated to gain forward airbases for heavy bombers to facilitate raids on the Japanese home islands. Before the assault on Iwo Jima, Ussery was involved in strafing and bombing runs on smaller islands in the Marianas. Ussery encountered no Japanese air resistance because most Japanese planes had been eliminated except for the kamikazes. There was considerable antiaircraft fire emanating from the ground aimed at the American flyers. Ussery never had an airborne foe to fire upon. Originally, Ussery flew the F4F Wildcat fighter and then progressed to the F6F Hellcat which was a formidable airplane. Ussery flew over Japan in his F6F with his squadron [Annotator's Note: Fighting Squadron 24 (VF-24)] mates composed of six senior officers and 18 ensigns in six flights of four aircraft each. One of the senior officers was lost in action. Ussery was told that he would lead one of the flights even though he was only 21 years old at the time. He took three other ensigns with him so there were four ensigns in the flight into southern Japan to engage enemy airfields to destroy aircraft and facilities. The squadron of fighters peeled off to dive on an airfield. As his plane was streaking downward, the engine resounded with a boom and stopped, but it immediately restarted. It continued to do this through his bomb run. Eventually, he unloaded his bomb and missed the target but pulled out of the dive to attempt to correct the situation. His wingman said that there was damage on the right side of his engine. It seemed to be from antiaircraft fire. On the trip back to the carrier, the engine repeatedly cutout and then just as quickly restarted. It appeared that Ussery might have to ditch his plane near a rescue submarine, but he flew on to reach his carrier. The landing was a concern because if the engine stopped at the wrong time, he could crash land. He was ultimately successful in bringing his hardy F6F back to the Langley. When a mechanic investigated the problem, it was determined that he had not received antiaircraft fire but had damaged two of his 18 cylinders in his steep dive bombing attack. Because the cylinders were not adjacent to each other, the engine would stop and then restart immediately afterward. Had the cylinders been next to each other in firing sequence, the plane could not have restarted. Ussery had not been hit by antiaircraft fire but had picked up too much speed in his dive and blew two of the cylinders. The tough F6F flew Ussery 100 miles back to the carrier and safety. He did not have to bail out and become a prisoner of war in Japan or ditch in the ocean to be rescued by an American submarine.

Jake Ussery was aboard the Langley [Annotator's Note: USS Langley (CVL-27)] following the American recapture of the island of Guam from the Japanese. Ussery was given the opportunity to visit the island. This was during the period when preparations for the invasion of Iwo Jima were underway. The strategy was to provide a closer airbase for the B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] to fly from in their raids on Japan. Iwo Jima and Okinawa were slated to be closer bases for the bombers. Had American leadership known that the atomic bombs would be successful in helping to end the war, they may have decided that the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa would not be necessary since the B-29s with the atomic bombs flew off an island in the Marianas. They could not forecast the capability of the bombs prior to the two costly invasions. All they knew was that the invasion of Japan could have cost a million lives. Prior to the invasion of Iwo Jima, Ussery in his F6F [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft] fighter would strafe and bomb the island to soften it up. He made six missions prior to the beginning of the assault. With the Japanese entrenched in caves, it was hard to see any humans above ground. During the assault, Ussery flew over the landing craft and dropped ordnance which was mostly napalm on the enemy lines. The extent of the Marines' advance was demarcated by yellow indicating lines. That let the fliers know that any targets beyond the yellow indicators were the enemy. In the movie by Clint Eastwood on the battle of Iwo Jima, that detail was omitted. [Annotator's Note: Letters from Iwo Jima was directed by Clint Eastwood and released in 2006.] That surprised Ussery because of the level of detail covered by Eastwood in the movie. A couple of weeks after the Marine landing, Ussery and the Langley left the area in preparation for Okinawa.

Jake Ussery and the Langley [Annotator's Note: USS Langley (CVL-27)] began to prepare for Okinawa soon after departing Iwo Jima. The carrier stood offshore of Okinawa far enough to protect the ship and its aircrew. During the softening up process prior to the invasion, there were more Japanese civilians seen than on Iwo Jima. Propaganda told the civilians of the inhumanity of the American troops. That resulted in many suicides as the civilians feared the American enemy. There were many American ships off the coast of Okinawa. That was when the kamikaze aircraft significantly appeared. They did considerable damage to American ships. It was surprising to see the enemy crash their aircraft into ships and end their life as a result. Prior to the Okinawa invasion, Ussery was preparing to takeoff from the carrier when a kamikaze alert was given. The pilots were ordered to shut down their engines and leave the aircraft. The attacker was shot down close enough to splash water onto the Langley's deck. There were over 1,000 kamikazes at Okinawa. The American pilots had been told on Guam how deadly it was to deal with the Japanese. Ussery never wanted to be a prisoner as a result. The kamikazes could be compared to the terrorists in the Middle East who are willing to give their lives for their cause. There were very few enemy prisoners from the capture of Iwo Jima. The Japanese troops had been told to stay on Iwo Jima and expect to die.

Jake Ussery and the Langley [Annotator's Note: USS Langley (CVL-27)] were ordered back to San Diego. That was his base when the first atomic bomb was dropped. The bomb was considered as a possibility to end the war. The next bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Ussery was relieved that the war was going to end. While the Langley aircrews flew missions over the Japanese home islands, they experienced no real opposition. With the war coming to a close, Ussery was given the word that he would be discharged. He had a reserve officer commission and would have liked to have remained in the Navy. His wife did not approve of that career path. They returned to Monroe, Louisiana and Ussery was trying to decide on his next career move. He received word from the Navy that he would be given a permanent officer commission if he would attend Tulane [Annotator's Note: Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana]. It would have been equal to a graduation from the Naval Academy. He could have been a carrier commander in the war in Vietnam. His wife did not want the Navy life. He chose to study pharmacy and built a career in that discipline. The memory of V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day] is very remote to Ussery. During his war years, Ussery maintained mail contact with his family. His mother was in Monroe and his father was in Biloxi working in shipbuilding. His two brothers were in the service. He visited one brother in Mobile who had reached the rank of Captain while Ussery was only a cadet in Pensacola. Ussery jokingly refused to salute his brother even though he had a higher rank than he. His other brother flew B-25s [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber].

Jake Ussery is humbled and honored to provide his story of the Second World War. He honors those pilots he flew with that did not return. He felt young and invincible as a pilot but realized the seriousness of the situation when he lost two close friends he enlisted with in 1942. He is honored by his descendants attending The National WWII Museum with him. The story of the war to end all wars needs to be continued to be told to future generations. Although there are many patriotic young people, there are others that need to be educated through the Museum. We need to keep the history alive. That is important even as the veterans of the war pass on. A critical message to remember is that America is about democracy and free enterprise. Any individual can pursue his or her own particular way of life. Many immigrants come to this country with that in mind. It is a very fortunate thing to have been born in this country even though there are both good and bad times to live through. This is the land of opportunity. It is worth fighting for because we are opposed by people who are willing to give their lives in a war against different religious faiths. It is troubling.