U.S. MILITARY HISTORY MUSEUM STUDY:
YANKS AIR MUSEUM: LT. ALEX VRACIU’s F6F-3 GRUMMAN
Location: Chino, California
The good thing about conducting survey and study of American military history museums is that you can have the opportunity to have “up close and personal” of the military aircraft that became part of history, particularly those who were used in WWII campaigns.
One of those opportunities was the F6F-3 Grumman of Lt. Alexander Vraciu, America’s 4th highest ranking naval ace pilot, who survived the war.
Lt. Vraciu is connected in our WWII History, as an American ace pilot that became an American ace guerrilla with a rank of Captain. On December 14, 1944, in conjunction with the combat operations in the island of Mindoro, Lt. Vraciu’s unit; Fighting Squadron 20 (VF-20), from the carrier USS Lexington, was tasked to conduct early morning fighter sweeps at Clark Air Center. USS Lexington (CV-16) was part of Admiral William Halsey’s Third Fleet Fast Carrier Task Force TF 38.3 (TF 38.3 was under Rear Admiral Frederick Sherman, with Lt. Vraciu’s Fighting Squadron VF-20 under Carrier Air Group CVG 19.
Flying his F6F-5 Grumman (with reported Bureau Number BuNo. 58831), Lt. Vraciu with his Fighting Squadron VF-20, was conducting fighter sweeps on Japanese airfields and facilities around Clark on early morning of December 14, 1944, when, he was hit by anti-aircraft guns over Bamban Airfield.
The Japanese Army Air Service, after experiencing numerous American naval air bombardments since September 21, 1944, had fortified Bamban Airfield (as well as other satellite airfields of Clark) with well-emplaced anti-aircraft batteries from light to heavy AA guns and the Japanese by the time, had become effective gunners that had become effective in providing anti-aircraft defense.
On that day, a number of American naval aviators from the Admiral Halsey’s Fast Carrier Task Force TF38 were shot down by Japanese AA gunners around Clark Field; Lt. Vraciu became one if the casualties but fortunately, he was able to bail out of his stricken F6F Grumman above the Bamban and parachuted, landing at the barrio if Caranto, Capas, Tarlac. Lt. Luis Ramos, an officer of the Capas Battalion, Bruce Guerrillas, led a rescue team that brought the American pilot to Captain Alfred Bruce at the latter’s HQ in Malasa Mountain, Bamban; where he became an officer in the guerrilla force.
Lt. Vraciu’s Grumman F6F-3 (No.19, was flown by him during his stint with the VF-6, USS Intrepid in February 1944) in display at the Yanks Air Museum is a remarkable museum artifact, of the American naval ace pilot that saw action in Clark-Bamban air campaign and became a guerrilla in December 1944 and January 1945.
An aircraft model of the same Grumman F6F-3 (No. 19) piloted by Lt. Vraciu is hang on the ceiling of Bamban WWII Museum as part of the WWII historical exhibits.
*All photographs from Rhonie Dela Cruz, except photo of Lt. Alexander Vraciu; from Military History Network.
Rhonie C. Dela Cruz
Bamban WWII Museum/Historical Society
Bamban Center for Pacific War Studies
WWII Remembrance Network – Hell Ships Memorial
PGT – Tarlac Provincial Tourism Office
Bamban LGU – Bamban Tourism Office
