William Cart was born in April 1922 in Charleston [Annotator's Note: Charleston, South Carolina]. He grew up on the west side by the Ashley River. He grew up in the river; he had a boat and fished. His father owned a jewelry store on King Street. Cart had five sisters. Only one sister is still alive and she is 103 [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. He was the youngest and was spoiled rotten. The jewelry business was maintained during the Great Depression. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks the interviewee if he remembers where he was when heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Cart was at The Citadel [Annotator's Note: The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina] finishing up his sophomore year. He came home from chapel, his father told him to come in quick, and they heard the announcement. His brother-in-law was there. He was a Marine stationed at the naval base [Annotator's Note: Charleston Naval Base; closed in 1996]. He did not say a word. He went upstairs, came down in uniform and left for the Navy Yard. Cart was 18 and knew he would be involved. His father asked him what he wanted to do. He said he would like to go as far as he could in school before getting called. He said he would like to talk to his father first when that time came. At the Citadel, everybody was upset. Some juniors left, went to Canada, and joined the RAF [Annotator's Note: British Royal Air Force]. Cart thought that was foolish.

[Annotator's Note: William Cart was a student at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] William Cart's father was in the Reserves during World War 1 but never saw combat or actual service. During Cart's sophomore year, they were told they might be able to finish their junior year. If their class was called, they would automatically go into the Army. He talked to his parents and told them he would rather go in Naval Air flight training. He signed up for V-7 [Annotator’s Note: V-7 US Navy College Training Program, 1940 to 1945] and his parents agreed. He stayed at The Citadel and then reported to the Navy in July 1942. He went to preflight at the University of Georgia [Annotator's Note: University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia]. He learned aerodynamics and went through boot camp. He then got orders to Saint Louis, Missouri, Lambert Field. He was assigned to a German instructor who had left Germany when Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] came to power. His name was Heineman. He taught Cart well. Cart learned to say "you are a dumbass" in German. Cart then went to Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida]. He flew the BT-13 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft], the Vultee Vibrator, in formation flying. He also did aerobatics and instrument flying. From there he learned to fly the PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat], and then the SNB, twin-engine Beechcraft [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft Model 18; also called Twin Beech]. He graduated as a Naval Aviator, was selected for the Marine Corps, and became a Second Lieutenant. He then went to Miramar [Annotator's Note: Naval Auxiliary Air Station Miramar, Miramar, San Diego, California].

[Annotator's Note: William Cart graduated flight training then was sent to Naval Auxiliary Air Station Miramar, in San Diego, California.] They were standing by for orders. There was a VMJ [Annotator's Note: Marine Utility Squadron] squadron there flying R4Ds [Annotator's Note: US Navy and Marine Corps designation for the Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. They were told they might as well get some flight time in them. Cart was flying with a major who had been at Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943; Solomon Islands] and was an ace [Annotator's Note: military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft in aerial combat]. He asked him if he was satisfied with what he was flying. Cart said "no", he wanted to fly either fighters or dive bombers. In two days, he was a El Toro [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Orange County, California] in a training squadron flying SBDs [Annotator's Note: Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bomber]. From there he was put into a squadron that had been beaten up on Guadalcanal, VMSB-141 [Annotator's Note: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 141 (VMSB-141)]. They were the ones on Henderson Field [Annotator's Note: Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] when the Japanese shelled the island [Annotator's Note: 13 and 14 October 1942]. The squadron lost its officers, half of its pilots, and all of its aircraft. They were technically wiped out. They flew for quite a while there. They had a skipper, John McInerny [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity], who was a captain, as their commanding officer until they got Colonel Cargill [Annotator's Note: likely US Marine Corps Colonel Wayne M. "Bud" Cargill], who was a great guy. The Marine Corps trains like they fight. They went to Ream Field [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Ream Field, Imperial Beach, California] and did bounce, field carrier landing practice, every day and then flew back to Gillespie [Annotator's Note: Gillespie Field, El Cajon, California]. Within about five weeks, they went aboard a jeep carrier [Annotator's Note: escort aircraft carrier; hull class CVE; also called baby flattop]. That is where he was qualified for carrier operations. They got notice they were going into Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber aircraft]. The SBDs were being retired for being too slow and they wanted to make dive-bombers out of the Corsairs.

William Cart was sent down to Gillespie [Annotator's Note: Gillespie Field, El Cajon, California], an outlying field near San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. It had been an airport where they had trained Marine Corps paratroopers. They were flying SBDs [Annotator's Note: Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bomber] at the time. When they switched to Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber], they found they could not dive at 70 degrees. They could not stay on the target for any amount of time due to severe buffeting. The only way to slow down was to put the landing gear down. They complained to the aircraft maker about it. They said they were working on that. They did solve the problem. They trained with some fighter pilots. They lost some good people in training. The Marine Corps trains like it fights. Cart's roommate was killed. Cart had to take him home and bury him in Charleston [Annotator's Note: Charleston, South Carolina]. About three weeks later, his dear friend who had lived just four doors from him was killed when he was rammed by a P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] in a dogfight [Annotator's Note: training dogfight]. Cart took him home and buried him. Cart's mother asked him if he was coming home in a box. He told her "no ma'am." They lost another who crashed on the runway. They were standing on the porch at the officer's club and the pilot's wife was there watching the planes come in. He made a short turn, got too slow, and crashed. He burned to death. They tried to take her inside, but she said no, and stood right there.

William Cart and his squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 141 (VMSB-141)] were going to get on an APA [Annotator's Note: attack transport ship] and were at the docks in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. There was a Union strike and they would not load the ships. Major Cargill [Annotator's Note: likely US Marine Corps Colonel Wayne M. "Bud" Cargill] strung out about six of the ground crew with automatic weapons and told the union people they had ten minutes to clear out and let them load their own equipment. They left. They loaded the USS Gallatin (APA-169) themselves. They went to Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. It had been secured [Annotator's Note: Battle of Kwajalein, 31 January to 3 February 1944] but it was a mess. There were no trees left. They stayed there a short time as replacements. Then they went to Majuro [Annotator's Note: Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands], now the capital of the Marshall Islands. There were two Marine dive-bomber squadrons there flying Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber]. Cart started out in VMSB-331 [Annotator's Note: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 331 (VMSB-331)] flying Corsairs. As the Japanese lost the islands of Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Tarawa Atoll, Kiribati, Gilbert Islands], Kwajalein, and Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands], there were four bypassed islands. The squadrons were there to ensure nothing came in or out of there. One, Ujelang [Annotator's Note: Ujelang Atoll, Marshall Islands] had been a seaplane base. Wotje [Annotator's Note: Wotje Atoll, Marshall Islands], Maloelap [Annotator's Note: Maloelap Atoll, Marshall Islands], and another were the other islands. They started out flying familiarization around their island. The first time Cart flew the Corsair, he went up to 25,000 feet with instruments attached to the plane. He flew for about a half an hour and then landed. Marines came charging out and he thought something was wrong. They jumped on the wings and opened up the panels. He found out he had ammunition and two guns, the rest of them were full of beer. Ice was a scarce item there. They had not told him it was in there, if he had run into anybody up there, he would have been up a creek. They never had any air opposition there but there were a lot of ground targets. Every now and then they would catch a 50 or 60-foot boat running between the islands. The natives would bring them information on the Japanese. The Marines would hit different islands each day to keep them guessing as to where they were coming. They would come in on the deck [Annotator's Note: at ground level]. Cart caught four [Annotator's Note: people] on the beach one morning and took them out. The Naval officer wanted to know if they were Japanese or natives. Cart said all he knew was they should not have been there. At 400 miles per hour, he did not care what they looked like.

[Annotator's Note: William Cart was assigned to Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 231 (VMSB-231) on Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, flying a Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber in 1944.] They were switched to the SB2C Helldiver [Annotator's Note: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, or Curtiss A-25 Shrike, dive bomber] which was the worst airplane the Navy ever bought. They called it the "son of a bitch, second class." They had some accidents with it. It was very unstable. It had a great big cockpit. It did not fit the bill for what it was designed to be but they put up with it for a long time. His roommate, Chip [Annotator's Note: unable to verify identity], had a mid-air [Annotator's Note: mid-air collision] with another airplane on the way to a strike. He bailed out and his chest strap hit him in the mouth, splitting his lips. He landed in the water and the CO2 [Annotator's Note: Carbon-dioxide gas] bottles did not inflate his vest. Every time he tried to blow it up manually with the tubes, he could not hold his lips together. The crash boat picked him up. Later that afternoon, a corpsman asked him to help him with Mr. Chipman, Chip, he was a big man. They were trying to repair tendons in his hand and every time they tried to spread his fingers apart, he would throw them across the room. Cart talked him down, he was out of his mind on the medications. They gave Chip a rubber ball to use to get his feeling back. He asked them what would happen if he did not use it. They said he would be sent home. He threw the ball into the lagoon. That did not work, and he went to Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi, Caroline Islands].

As the war was nearing its end, some of William Cart's friends were sent to China but he went up to the Roi fighter strip [Annotator's Note: with Marine Fighting Squadron 155 (VMF-155)] on Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. They would fly CAP, Combat Air Patrol, as a safety patrol. They were bringing in B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. They were concerned about other islands where the Japanese were. They thought the Japanese were so resourceful that they could take parts [Annotator's Note: of wrecked aircraft], put them together, and make kamikazes to wreck a bunch of bombers. The way the planes were lined up on Kwajalein, that would have been a disaster. They would send two of them up to Roi in the late afternoon. They would stay up all night and the ground crews would keep the engines warm. Every now and then, R4Ds [Annotator's Note: US Navy and Marine Corps designation for the Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] would fly in without the IFF [Annotator's Note: Identification Friend or Foe system] on. They would have to intercept them. Once the R4D saw their exhausts, it would turn it on and Brother Stallion, what they called the radar operator, would call them and say it was one of ours. They would stay up all night and then do a CAP patrol that next day in the early morning. They would fly a pattern around the island at 18,000 to 20,000 feet. One day, he and a guy named Hedrick were flying and Hedrick got a blip on the horizon. Cart did not see anything. They asked Brother Stallion for a sweep, but he did not see anything. Hedrick said he was looking right at him, so they said to attack. They were going over 400 knots and Hedrick started making wild turns. Hedrick then lost him. They went back and landed. They went and got a cold beer, and Cart asked what happened. The Corsair had a big, thick glass to protect the pilot. Hedrick saw something moving around and it was a fly that was between the canopy and the glass. Cart told Hedrick, "if these people do not kill you, I am going to kill you."

William Cart switched from SB2Cs [Annotator's Note: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, or Curtiss A-25 Shrike, dive bomber] to Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber] when he went to VMF-155 [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 155 (VMF-155)] at Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. The last squadron he was in at Majuro [Annotator's Note: Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands] was 231 [Annotator's Note: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 231 (VMSB-231)]. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings.] Cart recently saw a couple of their aircraft at the airport and he wrote their skipper. That squadron was formed in 1919 and is the oldest in the Marine Corps. He went back down to Majuro around the time they dropped the first bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945]. He was back in the SB2Cs. They lost a pilot the day before the war was to end. They lost four pilots while there due to AAA [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire]. The Japanese had plenty of ammunition and he does not know how. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him what some of his attacks in the area were like.] The had plenty of AAA. The first time he went into Wotje [Annotator's Note: Wotje Atoll, Marshall Islands], he thought it was such a beautiful island that there could not be anything bad there. Right about then a burst went off. And they all went downhill for a high-speed approach. The Japanese would start shooting above them and try to bring it down to the aircraft. Out of the corner of his eye, Cart could see a little vapor shooting straight up. He got hit once but did not know it. They would get through the dives, then jink left, right, left and go in different directions. Then they would join up to fly back. While jinking, if they saw anything, they would strafe it. He thinks the Japanese would leave the actual compounds and build huts, but they would shoot them all.

William Cart flew the SBD [Annotator's Note: Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bomber]. It was easy to fly, and he enjoyed it. It was tough. You could put a 1,000-pound bomb on it which made it sluggish getting off the ground. On Majuro [Annotator's Note: Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands], the strip was only 3,000 feet long. With a 1,000-pund bomb, you would stagger off the end of the runway. It dove like a bullet and was very accurate. It was the airplane that won Midway [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942, Midway Atoll]. It was more accurate than the Corsair Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber]. Cart flew the SBD-5. The SBD-4 had the telescope [Annotator's Note: the telescopic bomb sight]. He never flew that one, but pilots said the telescope was not practical. He had electric gun sights in the SBD-5. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer and interviewee discuss different aircraft The National WWII Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana have or might get.] When the war was over, they were still flying SB2Cs [Annotator's Note: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, or Curtiss A-25 Shrike, dive bomber]. They would shoot seagulls. Going from the SBD to the Corsair, was like getting out of a golf cart and into a Ferrari. The first time he flew one was at El Toro [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Orange County, California]. When he got off the ground with that 2,000-horsepower engine, "it was like a homesick angel." He loved it. The Corsair killed a lot of pilots. It was not fair to pilots right out of flight school. If they got too slow, it had a terrible stall characteristic; the left wing would stall first due to the engine torque. The manufacturer made a fix that helped. You did not get in the Corsair, you strapped it on. Cart flew an F6F [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft] and it was very docile. [Annotator's Note: Cart speaks in great detail about the handling characteristics of the Corsair for some length of time.] The Corsair was not an accurate dive-bomber because it was so fast. They had to dive at slighter angles. They also carried rockets. They could take a barge out with just one rocket. He did not like the SB2C. It had an electric propellor. He remembers coming out of Majuro and pulling back the pitch back and nothing happened. The engine went into too high RPM [Annotator's Note: revolutions per minute]. He was able to land it. From then on, they switched to hydraulic propellors. They were constantly changing and trying to fix the SB2C. Cart describes the purpose of the variable pitch propellor. If you are in a situation to land on a carrier, and get a wave off, you need immediate power. Even in a dogfight, you would have to have maximum power. The Corsair was an excellent ground attack airplane. He practiced that a lot. They trained with panels that were different colors to gauge accuracy. It was a steady, accurate platform to fire from. Cart does not really remember how many missions he flew because they did not count the patrols they flew. For actual strikes, he thinks it was about 15 to 20. There were four islands [Annotator's Note: that they patrolled.]

[Annotator's Note: William Cart served in the US Marine Corps as a pilot in Marine Fighting Squadron 155 (VMF-155) flying from Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands.] A lot of funny things happened. A lot of the refrigerated ships were sunk. For two or three months they did not have any meats or fruit. It was all canned stuff. Finally, a ship from Australia came in with frozen mutton. The Japanese could have taken that island with a whip because everybody was violently ill. It was terrible. When they would hear of a ship of any description coming near, they were sent to intercept it. Flying the SB2C [Annotator's Note: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, or Curtiss A-25 Shrike, dive bomber], he had a backseat gunner who had an aldis lamp [Annotator's Note: signal lamp] for morse code. He would flash the code for the day to the ship. They were supposed to flash back. They were on patrol, saw a ship, flashed it, and did not get a reply. They flew around the other side and did it again. Still no flash. He came around and opened the bomb bay doors. All kinds of lights started flashing from that ship then. Another time he was in an SB2C that had a bad vibration. They were given a document [Annotator's Note: before each flight]. The navigation board slides up under the panel. He put his away. He had a 1,000-pound bomb on. He was taking off and the paper [Annotator's Note: with the navigation route] came out and hit him in the face. He threw it down but did not see where it went. He landed. The military police came to his plane and told him to identify himself. They arrested him and took him to the island commander. The commander handed him the paper and asked why he had thrown it out. Cart told him, and the commander asked him why he did not stop and pick it up. Cart told him he would have blown up the end of the island. Cart was arrested. For ten days, he could to go to the mess hall and to the bathroom but could not fly. He had a wonderful time. The guys kept bringing him Scotch [Annotator's Note: whiskey].

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks William Cart what the accommodations were like at the bases he was stationed at in the Marshall Islands.] A lot of them were rustic, but they would correct a lot of it. On Majuro [Annotator's Note: Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands], they were given regular Army cots. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] tipped them off; they got lumber and made platforms. They cut apart old inner tubes from tires. They took a Coca-Cola bottle top and a nail and made springs from them. It was pretty comfortable. They had a good supply of cold beer. A lot of the enlisted men would come around late at night and they would give them beer. They had to depend on them to get out and back, so they were good to them. Majuro had a laundry that would boil their clothes for them. Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] did not have any of that so they built a frame and set up a washing machine with a propellor, pipes, a beer can, and a drum. They would fill it with soap and would use the wind to wash the clothes. It rained every night and they would use that to rinse them. Food was mediocre. They ran out of meat and fresh vegetables once. The only time he got fresh vegetables was at Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands] on a submarine they were doing some training on. Food on a submarine is top drawer; it was the first time he saw real eggs. They took the sub crew up in their airplanes and made them all sick.

William Cart completed V-7 [Annotator’s Note: V-7 US Navy College Training Program, 1940 to 1945] school and chose the Marine Corps. His brother-in-law was in the Marine Corps and had landed on Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea]. They had to crawl across the Owen Stanley mountains [Annotator’s Note: Owen Stanley Range, Papua, New Guinea]. He wrote Cart and told him he might have made a mistake. Cart admired him and also thought that if he was going to get in and fight, he might as well get into something that is going to fight. He figured that if they were going to screw up his life, he was going to go into something he was comfortable in. He did not want to go in the Air Force. In the Air Force then, the cadets were commissioned in nine months. It took Cart a year and then they were supposed to go to a training squadron. Cart did not though because the Marine Corps was short of pilots which was another reason he had chosen the Marines. 141 [Annotator's Note: Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 141 (VMSB-141)] was formed after Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943; Solomon Islands] for that reason. Cart was lucky to have men in his squadron who had been at Guadalcanal. If you screwed up, they told you. Cart said he wanted to be in dive-bombers or fighters and was told they would put him where they wanted him. He waited to find out at Miramar [Annotator's Note: Naval Auxiliary Air Station Miramar, San Diego, California]. While doing that, a pilot who was an ace [Annotator's Note: a pilot with five or more confirmed victories in air to air combat] came there. Cart told that pilot what he wanted to do and that is how he got to do both. He enjoyed the dive-bombing. At El Toro [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, Orange County, California], there were some fighter training squadrons. A fighter pilot asked to ride with Cart in the dive-bomber. They would dive on plastic slicks on the water. They had a practice bomb that would drop a gold dye. [Annotator's Note: He describes the process in detail.] The dive brakes on the SBD [Annotator's Note: Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bomber] were great. In a 70-degree dive, you are really vertical. If you are sitting in the seat, you are not steep enough. They would try to pull out around 2,000 feet. When they returned, Cart asked the fighter pilot what he thought. He told him he thought they were out of their minds. [Annotator's Note: Cart laughs.]

William Cart and some other men who worked on the carrier [Annotator's Note: USS Yorktown (CV-10), on display at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina] as volunteers make a lot of trips every year. They went to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, Port Royal, South Carolina]. They had to stay at the airfield. Cart told the guys there he had been a Marine pilot. He was asked the next day to get in the simulator [Annotator's Note: flight simulator] of the F-18 Hornet [Annotator's Note: McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet multirole combat jet aircraft]. A pilot was there to help him. Cart has a pilot's license, a commercial license, a seaplane license, and a multi-engine license. He flew it and the exercise was to find a ship with contraband on it. They had orders to blow it up. Cart did a "Split S" [Annotator's Note: air combat maneuver] and saw the ship. He hit the ship and headed out to make a night landing on a carrier. There were no lights on the carrier. They use center-line lights that only the pilot can see. He slowed down and caught the fourth wire [Annotator's Note: arresting cables on an aircraft carrier that slow, or stop, the airplane when it lands; most have three or four, with four being the last one]. The pilot told him at least he did not get wet. Cart said that there is no pressure on the stick or rudder [Annotator's Note: flight control mechanisms] because the computer is handling everything. Once they get off the deck, they grab the stick. There are back-ups on everything.

William Cart thinks his most difficult mission was to Maloelap [Annotator’s Note: Maloelap or Maleolap Atoll, Marshall Islands] and they lost a pilot. He went down out in the ocean. They flew around him for a while and called in for rescue. They were 150 miles away from the island. They were told they were too far away. Cart went back and he and a friend, Chipman, who used to fly PBYs [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] told them they could take the PBY there and get him. There were not allowed to do it. They said they needed a third man to go with them and they did not have anyone who could do that. They said they were not going to risk three pilots to save one pilot. They never saw him again. That was really tough. Once before in training, another pilot's drive brakes failed. Cart heard him yell to the gunner to bail out. Cart saw the pilot get out. His parachute opened just as he hit the water. It saved him, but he lost the gunner and the airplane. Diving over water is dangerous. If you do not have a reference other than the water, you do not know how high the waves are. They had one guy fly straight into the water. Cart's roommate, Rusty Powers, got disoriented in an SBD [Annotator's Note: Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bomber]. It was in the morning and there was sea fog that went right to the deck. They were at about five or six thousand feet. They started doing slow rolls. For some reason, Powers went into the clouds. He tried to dive through it, hit the water, and blew up. All they found was about 28 inches of his left leg. Cart lost another friend training in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida]. They were flying PBYs and would be gone most of the day taking turns. There was an OS2U [Annotator's Note: Vought OS2U Kingfisher catapult launched observation floatplane] observation aircraft along. The planes were loaded with depth charges [Annotator's Note: anti-submarine weapon] in case they came across any submarines in the Gulf of Mexico. They got into bad weather and had a head-on collision. The depth charges went off and killed them all.

William Cart thought the PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat] was a truck, but it was interesting. It was hard to land at night because they were not to use lights. That is where he really learned to use instruments. They used to joke that the PBY would cruise or dive at 150 knots. They were used as bombers and did a hell of a job; the Black Cats [Annotator's Note: Patrol Squadron 33 (VP-33)] were in the Pacific. All of that training was hurry up. Now it takes about two years. They had no leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Sunday was like Monday except for Chapel in the morning. Cart got his first leave when he got his commission. He went home for about ten days. He then got travel orders to California. He remembers hearing about Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] dying [Annotator's Note: 12 April 1945]. They got word a day or two after. When they got the word on the German surrender, they thought it was good that they would have all of those guys come help them. They did not have as good equipment [Annotator's Note: in the Pacific Theater as opposed to the European Theater]. The Japanese equipment was good, but not that good. The Zero [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] was a deathtrap. In the first part of the war, it was a killer. It was light. One was captured in Alaska and taken back. Word was sent to the pilots that if they could dive straight down and make a righthand turn, the Zero could not follow. They did not have balanced ailerons and would come apart. The Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bomber] had rearview mirrors. If he saw the Zero break off the dive, nine times out of ten, he could come around behind him and nail him. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells of "Koga's Zero", also called the "Akutan Zero" or "Aleutian Zero" that crash-landed on Akutan Island, Alaska and was found by the Americans in July 1942.] Cart says they had a funeral for a pilot whose skeleton was found near Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. The toughest duty there is facing the family. Cart had to do it twice during the war. He had grown up with both of the boys. One of them they had begged to get out of dive-bombers. They thought he would be better off in transports. His reflexes were not fast enough. He thinks that is what happened when he went into the overcast [Annotator's Note: and crashed].

William Cart was on Majuro [Annotator's Note: Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands] when he heard about the atomic bombs being dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He thought it was great. They were back in the SB2Cs [Annotator's Note: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, or Curtiss A-25 Shrike, dive bomber] after being on Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands in Vought F4U Corsair fighter-bombers]. He did not like that airplane. Cart was on Kwajalein flying CAP [Annotator's Note: combat air patrol]. They got brand new Corsairs and were waiting for an aircraft carrier. He had qualified for a carrier [Annotator's Note: for flying from aircraft carriers] so he would have gone to an island south of Japan to take an airstrip and get off the ship. They were worried about kamikazes, so no ships were going stay in the area. Cart thinks the kamikazes were crazy to sacrifice themselves for the Emperor. Cart would not do that for the coon [Annotator's Note: derogatory term for Black people] in the White House [Annotator’s Note: Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States]. He loves his country but has no love for that guy. He feels he has lost his country. He feels that maybe he has gotten too old. Cart never thought the United States would not win the war in the Pacific. After the Japanese surrendered, some of the guys went to China. Cart stayed on Majuro for a little while doing weather hops, but no patrolling. He stayed there until transports were sent. Who ever had the most points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] could go. He got on a Martin Mariner [Annotator's Note: Martin PBM Mariner flying boat] seaplane to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. From there he got on a jeep carrier [Annotator's Note: escort carrier, or escort aircraft carrier; hull class CVE; also called "jeep carrier" or baby flattop] and came home. He got leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and then was sent to the closest place to be separated. He was sent to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, Port Royal, South Carolina]. Cart was the only fighter pilot there. There were some brand-new Corsairs there. They let him fly one around. He had a wonderful time. The plane had no numbers. A friend's father owned a towboat on the river. Cart came across low to avoid radar and dropped to about ten feet off the water. He went by the towboat company, wagged his wings, flew under the bridge, pulled up and did a "Split S" [Annotator's Note: air combat maneuver], and then went back under the bridge. He figured he was pushing it at that point.

William Cart returned to the United States in January 1946. If Cart was going to be in a dogfight, he would have preferred a Corsair [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter bomber] over the F6F [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft]. The Corsair would have killed you, but they did a good job of telling them what to watch for. Landing it was tricky, it would not fly really slow. Cart thought about staying in the service after the war. It was the biggest mistake he ever made. Colonel Cargill [Annotator's Note: likely US Marine Corps Colonel Wayne M. "Bud" Cargill] came to him and invited him to have a drink. He wanted Cart to consider staying in the Corps. When he came home, his mother wanted him to take on the family business. His father was ailing and none of his brothers wanted it. He did not either but was sold a bill of goods. It was his fault, he said he would do it. He stayed in the Reserves and flew SNJs [Annotator's Note: US Navy and Marine Corps designation for the North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft] for a long time on the weekends. He lost the canopy off one when he dove too fast and it blew off. He left active duty as a First Lieutenant. He stayed in the Reserves for ten years and retired as a Captain. He had trouble transitioning to civilian life. He did a lot of self-searching. He did not like the retail business. He stayed in the jewelry business until his father passed away and then he got out and went to work for a structural plywood company. He traveled for the company in their airplane. He had trouble with nightmares but no survivor's guilt. He would wake up in a cold sweat, but it would subside. He would have them for some years after but very seldom. He learned to live with it. He knew what it was. He bought his first house with a G.I. loan. He wanted to go back to college but was too busy in the business.

William Cart fought in World War 2 because he "did not have a hell of a choice." He was 18, in good health, and they were all psyched up to get over and get it done. It was a stupid way to look at a war. What would you do if you did not go? Everybody else was going so he was to. The war made him grow up real fast. He was more aware of responsibility and for not only yourself but for everybody else. He got married and had children. It hit him like a ton of bricks. He had to do it [Annotator's Note: raise kids]. He thinks it is important for there to be museums like The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, for two reasons. It helps the young children when they look at plaques about a bunch getting killed, or this bunch was lost. He also does not feel the love of country is sold enough and it gives them the chance to do it. A lot of them come on the carrier [Annotator’s Note: USS Yorktown (CV-10), on display at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina] and do not know what the war was about. He has an opportunity to talk to them. He tells them that when you fight for your country you put your life on the line. [Annotator's Note: There is a cut in the video.] He would tell future generations they better learn to love this country if they do not already, because it is the best country in the world. All other countries are lacking something that they have because they are American citizens.