John "Jack" Raquepau grew up on a farm in Michigan in the Saginaw Valley. The area is noted for navy beans [Annotator's Note: variety of edible bean]. They did not raise them though. The farm had passed down from his grandfather who came from Quebec, Canada about 1855. All of his brothers and sisters were born there. His father took care of his semi-invalid aunt. His father was born in 1875. Raquepau was the last one in the family when his father was 47 years old. He graduated from high school in the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. He went through the grade school through the worst of it. He worked to get his clothes for high school. He left the farm after high school. He started working for Hudson Motor Car Company [Annotator's Note: in Detroit, Michigan] who had a contract to run the Naval Ordnance Plant. Raquepau was hired as an apprentice draftsman. They were making ammunition and guns for different companies. He worked there for a couple of months and along came 7 December [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was mind boggling. He knew about the war in Europe. Winston Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945] was trying to get Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] to get in the war. We supplied the British and the French. He was not in the draft when he signed up. He liked airplanes and figured he could do that. He and a high school buddy went to the Naval Recruiting Station. Raquepau was told he needed two years of college or would have to take an exam. He passed the exam and signed up.

John "Jack" Raquepau got called to go to Preflight School in early November 1942. He went to boot camp which was called Preflight School at the University of Iowa [Annotator's Note: in Iowa City, Iowa] for 13 weeks of outlandish drudgery for 16 hours a day. They had a three part curriculum that was academic, military, and athletics. The athletics was a real grind. He had to pass a Class A swimming test. A lot of guys flunked that and had to get out. That started at six o'clock in the morning after five o'clock reveille [Annotator's Note: a signal sounded to wake personnel]. After dinner, they had study hall from seven to nine o'clock. The next step was Primary Flight Training. There were 60 people in his platoon and 32 of them made it through. Primary training lasted from February 1943 until the end of June. Corpus Christi [Annotator's Note: Corpus Christi, Texas] was next for Advanced Training in the AT-6 Texan [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. On the way there he detoured to his old home and took his girlfriend out dancing. He got engaged and went back to training. He graduated on 23 October 1943. One of his graduates in his class was Tyrone Power [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Major Tyrone Edmund Power, III; American actor]. When they first got there, they all had to get through some preliminary stuff. They were asked what they would like to fly when they graduated. Raquepau's fifth choice was the TBM torpedo bomber [Annotator's Note: Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber] and that was what he got. Tyrone Power joined the Marine Corps at that time. About a third of his class chose the Marine Corps over the Navy. From there he went to Advanced Training in the TBM and learned to drop torpedoes and bombs in Opalocka, Florida. He was there until just before Christmas [Annotator's Note: of 1943]. Then he got leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] for the first time that year. The day after New Year's [Annotator's Note: 2 January 1944], he went to Glenview, Illinois. For two weeks, they practiced landing on ships. In January, there were icebergs floating all over and they had to make eight landings on carriers to qualify. Four of them in TBMs went out and four guys in F6F fighters [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat carrier based fighter aircraft] went out. Raquepau had to circle waiting for them to land. The first guy landed out of control and was hanging over the side. He got through that and then had to Floyd Bennett Field [Annotator's Note: now Floyd Field Historic District in Brooklyn, New York] in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He picked up a TBM and flew to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. Raquepau replaced a guy who had gotten lost. The carrier [Annotator's Note: the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)] was in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. He got on the Breton [Annotator's Note: the USS Breton (AVG-23] and caught up to the Task Force [Annotator's Note: Task Force 58] toward the end of April or early May [Annotator's Note: of 1944]. He was ordered to the San Jacinto with an airplane. That was his first cable launch, and it was a thrill. He had not made a landing since January, and he had to go land on the San Jacinto. The flag men were all different. Raquepau landed and got his room assignment. There were four men to a room.

John "Jack" Raquepau does not know if he got the same bunk that was used by the pilot he replaced [Annotator's Note: after he joined Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51]. His name was James Wikes [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity]. Later on, Wikes' brother would come to the reunions after Bush [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] got in the White House [Annotator's Note: the official residence of the President of the United States, Washington, D.C.]. Raquepau does not recall his first engagement. He guesses that it was three or four weeks before they got into any engagement. They did some practice as they were all new. All the TBM [Annotator's Note: Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber] pilots went through Opalocka [Annotator's Note: Opalocka, Florida]. Joe [Annotator's Note: no last name given] got there and graduated about six months after Raquepau did. The Gilbert and Marshall Islands [Annotator's Note: Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, November 1943 to February 1944, Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands] were their first engagements. They then went to the Marianas [Annotator's Note: Marianas Islands, 21 May 1944] for a long time and then Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau]. The first Battle of the Philippine Sea [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944] was there. They then went to the Philippines for two or three months. They next went to Chichi-jima [Annotator's Note: Chichijima or Chichijima-rettō, Japan; 2 September 1944]. George was the only VT pilot that got shot down and they might have lost a couple of fighter planes. They returned to the Philippines, then Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], and Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] was the last before he got to go home. That was a long time from 1944 to 1945. He has been married 62 years and got married in January 1945. Raquepau stayed in the Naval Reserve after the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] for about 5 years. He was Commanding Officer of an anti-submarine group. He flew TBMs when he first started and then the Martin Mauler [Annotator's Note: Martin AM-1 Mauler carrier-based attack aircraft] which was a tremendous aircraft. It had a 2,800 horsepower engine. He then flew the Skyraider [Annotator's Note: Douglas A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft], which came out during the Korean War. In the late 1950s, they were changed to the F9F Panther [Annotator's Note: Grumman F9F Panther jet fighter aircraft]. The two major aircraft in the Korean War were the F9F and the Skyraider. His base did not have long runways and it was tight landing an F9F there. They took them away and turned the base into an anti-submarine warfare outfit. Raquepau had done that from 1948 to 1950. He flew the P2F [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-2 Neptune maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare aircraft]. They would drop sonobuoys [Annotator's Note: expendable sonar system] for submarines. For training, they took the group to South Weymouth, Massachusetts and did war games with the Navy submarines. Raquepau was promoted to Commander in 1959. He did that for five years and passed his 20 years' service. He was about 42 and became an instrument instructor. Every Navy pilot had to get an instrument rating. He was based at Grosse Ile [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Grosse Ile, Michigan]. At age 45, he was no longer a Class-1 Aviator. He was Class-2 and could no longer fly combat aircraft, so he retired. He was going to be separated anyway because he lost his hearing in his left ear. That was in 1968.

The major air base in the Gilbert [Annotator's Note: Gilbert Islands] and Marshall Islands was at Truk Island. John "Jack" Raquepau thinks that was his first bombing engagement [Annotator's Note: as a pilot in Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51]. Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands] was not far away, and troops eventually took it back. They did not take Truk back. [Annotator's Note: Raquepau asks the interviewer to let him stop so he can look at a magazine to refresh his memory.] They spent a long time in the Marianas [Annotator's Note: Mariana Islands] with Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Mariana Islands] which got taken back while they were there. Saipan was the island was where the Marines went ashore in the south. At the north end was a cliff that was almost a straight drop-off. The Marines drove the Japanese Army to the cliff, and they went over and committed suicide. Raquepau saw all of the bodies lying down there in the rocks. They went down and hit Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau] where they lost a couple pilots. [Annotator's Note: Raquepau says he could remember which ones if he could get a picture. He gets up and the tape cuts.] The second Battle of the Philippine Sea [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944], he [Annotator's Note: person is identified shortly] forgot to lock his harness on a torpedo run. He got shot down and landed in the water. He hit his head on the instrument panel. The crewmen got the life raft out and put him in the raft. They got picked up that same day. He had a headache and got stitches. His name was Richard Plaisted [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Richard Barry Plaisted]. Just like in an automobile, you have to strap your harness on. You have about two minutes before the aircraft sinks but they got him in the raft. Raquepau says his memory is slipping away.

John "Jack" Raquepau was just bombing in the Gilbert [Annotator's Note: Gilbert Islands] and Marshall Islands [Annotator's Note: as a pilot in Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51]. They only used torpedoes on the Japanese ships. They mostly dropped 500 pound bombs. They would make a couple of runs if they were bombing before troops went ashore. They had four to use and then would go back home. They would shuttle back and forth from 40 or 50 miles away. Raquepau says a couple of years ago he would have a better memory. There are only five pilots left from his group besides George Bush [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States]. That includes all of the replacement pilots. His memories are getting fleeting. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau to talk about a time he could not drop his torpedo.] That was in the Philippines when they were bombing and dropping torpedoes on merchant ships before the invasion of Subic Bay [Annotator's Note: Subic Bay, Luzon, Philippines] and after Leyte [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944, Leyte, Philippines]. They only went back to Leyte when MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] walked off the ship [Annotator's Note: 20 October 1944 on the beach at Leyte, Philippines] and they flew overhead. At Subic Bay, Raquepau made his last torpedo drop. It got hung up because the switches were wired incorrectly. He was trying to figure out how to get rid of it, so they did not have land with it. He eventually dropped it over open water. He wrote his report and his CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] asked him why he did not drop it on the target. He got miffed about that and walked away. Later on, he got a bad letter from the Bureau of Personnel. He sent back a reply and it was the last he heard of it. He did not lose a promotion. Raquepau had his mechanic check the plane out and found out the wires went to the wrong switch. The emergency cord would not drop it even though he had both feet on the instrument panel trying to pull it. He was relieved when it left the airplane.

John "Jack" Raquepau and his group [Annotator's Note: Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51] bombed Clark Field [Annotator's Note: now Clark Air Base, Luzon, Philippines] that the Japanese took over. On the way back from that, they were flying back to their Task Force 38.2 which was under siege with the first kamikaze attack [Annotator's Note: at the Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944]. They were told the fleet was under attack. Raquepau could see the ships and the airplanes, but it looked normal since the CAP [Annotator's Note: combat air patrol] flew cover all the time. He saw the planes dive down into the cloud cover. He watched to see if they pulled up but saw two billows of smoke come up. The Franklin [Annotator's Note: the USS Franklin (CV-13)] was hit in the magazine [Annotator's Note: ammunition storage area]. The Belleau Wood [Annotator's Note: the USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24)] was hit in the fantail which is where the ready room is. According to Raquepau, "That bastard went right in there and wiped about 30 some odd people." They all now had to get aboard two aircraft carriers. As soon as they landed, they were stopped. Later, they got a citation because they got so good, they could land a plane every 17 seconds. After the kamikaze, the airdale [Annotator's Note: nickname for any naval crewman involved in flight operations] gave him the signal to cut the engine, so Raquepau did. He was told to get out of his plane, so they could push it overboard. They took the worst planes and pushed them overboard. Two kamikazes landed on each side of the forward bow and the carrier [Annotator's Note: the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)] went through all the debris that landed on the flight deck. Raquepau had a cousin who was a cook on that ship. His station was on the forward antiaircraft battery on that ship as an ammunition loader. A piece of the debris hit him in the head and knocked him out cold. He was the only casualty on the San Jacinto which was Raquepau's ship. Raquepau did not know his cousin was aboard that ship at first. He had to go get a parachute harness fitted and just happened to see his cousin frying pork chops. Raquepau snuck up behind him and surprised him.

John "Jack" Raquepau and his group [Annotator's Note :Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51, USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)] went to Chichi-jima [Annotator's Note: Chichi-jima or Chichijima-rettō, Japan], but was not with George [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] when he got shot down [Annotator's Note: on 2 September 1944]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau to wait to tell that story and to talk about the aircraft he flew.] The Grumman Avenger [Annotator's Note: Grumman TBM and TBF Avenger torpedo bomber]. Grumman was a big supplier of Navy aircraft for combat. It had a torpedo bay but also had bombs. They could carry up to 2,000 pounds. On submarine patrol they did not carry any ammo. Somebody had to do that every day. They had four aircraft in the air all day during daylight hours, four torpedo-bombers and four fighters. Raquepau never remembers running into a Japanese submarine. The TBM did all of that. There was a pilot and two crew members. One was a gunner and a radioman who also had a gun in the tail. The gun only pointed down. The gunner could swing around a full 360 degrees. His radio operator never fired his gun. He does not know what his gunner ever hit if anything. It was a good aircraft, stable, and easy to land on a ship. There were only two guys in his squadron who never scratched an airplane and Raquepau was one. Borand [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] who later got killed, once came in with no flaps or hydraulic pressure and made a crash-landing at about 105 to 110 [Annotator's Note: knots, which is one nautical mile per hour]. If you got past four cables [Annotator's Note: arresting cables to stop the landing aircraft], you went into the barrier. Borand caught the fourth or fifth wire [Annotator's Note: or cable] and ended up in the barrier [Annotator's Note: net at the end to keep aircraft from going off the ship].

John "Jack" Raquepau first saw George Bush [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] in the ready room [Annotator's Note: aboard the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)]. Raquepau had brought his aircraft to the ship. Later in the afternoon, he went to see the ready room and there were some pilots in there. He did not know anybody. Everybody had to go to general quarters when they were launching aircraft. The pilots all went to the ready room. That morning the CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] called him up so everyone could see him. After dinner, he started meeting the other guys. He thinks he met George the following day out on the main deck where the antiaircraft guns were. Most of the antiaircraft guns were on the destroyers and cruisers. His ship had two 40mms [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft autocannon] on the bow and one on the stern. George was a friendly person. They talked a little bit. Raquepau and Bush were sports-minded people, and they organized a softball game their first time ashore.

John "Jack" Raquepau went to get his harness fit and there were enlisted people living on that deck. They had about five bunks up. After they got up, their bunks were moved against the wall to create a passageway. About a month after Raquepau joined the squadron [Annotator's Note: Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51, USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)], George [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] got a book from his grandmother. His grandmother's neighbor in Kennebunkport [Annotator's Note: Kennebunkport, Maine], Kenneth Roberts [Annotator's Note: Kenneth Lewis Roberts; American author] wrote historical novels. The first one she sent was "Northwest Passage" [Annotator's Note: published in 1937]. After he read it, he lent it to Raquepau. She sent "Arundel" [Annotator's Note: published in 1929], which is a story about Benedict Arnold [Annotator's Note: American military officer who defected to the British in 1780]. Another was "The Lively Lady" [Annotator's Note: published in 1931] which was good. The books got passed around. He was probably the best friend Raquepau made on the ship [Annotator's Note: USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)]. Another guy was a chess player who was named Carl Way [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity]. They played "Acey Duecey" and gambled. Raquepau never won. There was not a lot of recreation. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau to talk about when Bush was shot down.] The only thing they knew was the rescue right away. He did not get the story until George got back with them after about 30 days. He could have gone home, but he chose to come back. They all went home a couple months after that. Bush was a nice guy and good aviator. He was probably the best-liked guy in the whole bunch. Raquepau never talked to Jack Guy [Annotator's Note: US Navy Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Jack Oswald Guy] at all as well as several others. There were not many ways to get together, and a lot of the guys did not play softball. They only had 16 pilots. They played a few games in the Admiralty Islands [Annotator's Note: Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea] at a resupply base. Every time they would go ashore, they would have a game between the crewmen and the pilots. It was sad watching people and then all of a sudden, they were gone. Everybody had a nickname. Raquepau was called "Raq". George was called "Skin." You have no control over that. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau about a ball game with a lot of beer.] That was at Ulithi Atoll [Annotator's Note: Ulithi, Caroline Islands]. After that, the limit was four. Raquepau could not get drunk on beer, but the guys did. They could go about two months before they ran out of food. They spent most of their time at sea.

They got rid of the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] on Truk [Annotator's Note: Truk Atoll (Chuuk Lagoon), Federated States of Micronesia], which was the farthest they had any planes. Initially, when John "Jack" Raquepau and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51, USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)] were in the Marianas [Annotator's Note: Mariana Islands], they had planes on Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands], but they did not last long. Raquepau never worried about Jap fighters. There were a lot near the Philippines or their aircraft carriers. After they took Leyte [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944; Leyte, Philippines] after the second Battle of Philippine Sea [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944], they lost a lot of carriers. A couple of CVEs [Annotator's Note: escort aircraft carrier] went down near Leyte. Raquepau only remembers three of ours getting sunk. After that, he never saw them again. They were not in Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. After the Philippines, it was all bombing. The only thing Raquepau remembers about Chichijima [Annotator's Note: Chichijima or Chichijima-rettō, Japan] is shuttle bombing the airport for about one week. They got rid of the airfield and the communication place. That is where George [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] got shot down. They went back to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] and did some bombing. That was their last engagement in late November [Annotator's Note: November 1944] before the ground troops went ashore. Raquepau was home by the time Iwo was taken. After they took the Marianas, Guam became a big staging area. Raquepau's brother was in the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions]. He spent 18 months at Attu [Annotator's Note: Attu Island, Alaska] and then went to Guam. They ran into each other in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] and went golfing. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau to talk about the rockets.] It was the only time he ever shot rockets up to that point. That was November [Annotator's Note: November 1944] when they got new aircraft with rocket rails. He does not know if he hit anything at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. They could not do anything with bombs because it was so steep. They had caves in the sides, and they shot at the doors on them. It took three or four trips to see how far they had to lead it. They had no way to measure the range at the time. They were not large. They did little damage with those rockets. A lot of guys lost their lives there. Around 5 December [Annotator's Note: 5 December 1944] they got sent home. They waited around a couple of days. The food at the air base was terrible. Raquepau had an enlisted cousin there who told him take off his bars [Annotator's Note: his officer rank] and they would go down to the Seabee camp where they had good food. There were B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] there just starting the runs to Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. It was all dehydrated food there. They had pretty good food aboard ship because they had good cooks.

John "Jack" Raquepau got married about a week after George Bush [Annotator's Note: George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States] did. Christmas Eve [Annotator's Note: 24 December 1944], they were dumped in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] and got off the ship about five o'clock. This was December 1944. He had left his winter clothes in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], so he had to go there before he went home. One of the air crew [Annotator's Note: from Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51), Air Group 51, USS San Jacinto (CVL-30)] lived in Burbank, California. Raquepau hitched a ride with him, and the guy only lived four blocks away from Raquepau's sister. His sister opened the door and fainted. He spent Christmas Eve there. The next day he flew to San Francisco and stayed one night. He then flew to Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan] on a DC-3 [Annotator's Note: Douglas DC-3 commercial passenger aircraft] that made five stops, taking 24 hours to make the flight. He had 30 days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Two weeks later, on 13 January [Annotator's Note: 13 January 1945] he got married. A month later, he was in Pasco, Washington [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Pasco] getting ready for the next trip. [Annotator's Note: Raquepau asks what the time is because he has plans for later.]

John "Jack" Raquepau guesses that outside of the Revolution [Annotator's Note: American Revolutionary War, or, American War of Independence, 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783], that [Annotator's Note: World War 2] had to be the most important thing the United States ever got involved with. He would hate to think what would have happened to the country had we [Annotator's Note: the United States] not gone. The majority of the people had no objection. We have had few more since, but nothing that was real. The Korean thing [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] he did not agree with, nor Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. He cannot imagine why we are in Iraq [Annotator's Note: Iraq War, 2003 to 2011]. Anyone who has studied ancient history knows that those are not really countries. They are tribes, especially in the Islamic World. If it were him, we would never have been there. [Annotator's Note: A person off camera interjects and says that if it were not for America getting involved in World War 2 and winning, Americans would be speaking Japanese. Raquepau laughs and says he is right. Raquepau asks the interviewer if he took world history in school and says a lot of this came out of the Bible too.] In the century before and right after Christ [Annotator's Note: Jesus Christ], that part of the world has been in turmoil, right up to today. To go into Iraq and expect to create a democracy is unbelievable. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Raquepau if he keeps in touch with George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States.] Just recently was the first time in a long time. After Bush left the White House [Annotator's Note: the official residence of the President of the United States, Washington, D.C.], all these nice things started going downhill.