World War II Hero Found From 1944 Combat Footage 

Help us to Save History! If you know a living World War II Veteran that we might be able to cover (especially relating to the air war), please consider filling out this form - No promises, but we will do our best to try and tell their story! forms.gle/TYUefF5GgwEEKv2R7

Thank you for interviewing my grandfather, and allowing him to share his story. God bless!

don't sell yourself short .You saved injured crewmen , that sailor who died in your arms , didn't die alone , you gave him comfort .. You are a hero ..Thank you for your Service .

Dick Wilson is obviously another shining great example why we refer to all these super brave men and women as 'the greatest generation'!! Jim C.

THATS MY GREAT GRAND UNLCE!!!! My great aunt shared me this video. I want to meet him now if I can ever. It’s super touching to hear I have a family member that is still alive and fought during world war 2! As well as lived he’s my great grandfathers brother. ThANK YOU so much for making this video if it weren’t for you I would of never gotten to hear his voice even I will find a way to meet him some day.

The fact that he used his and his cameraman’s money and time to see this guy and preserve this story…legendary!

TJ: This interview was worth every mile you covered, coast to coast, and every increment of time and energy you invested, to capture this priceless piece of first-person history from Dick Wilson. Bless you both, and bless all the heroes of WWII, which includes my Dad, a now-deceased Navy veteran of Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa. Great piece of story-telling, in every dimension.

THANK YOU ALL. This video was made possible because of one of YOU. Hope you guys enjoy this first episode of my new series, Saving History. Please comment and share this video!

Amazing interview, it really sucks that we are losing so much history with all these incredible vets getting up in age.

Great work. So few of these guys left. You treated the topic, and Mr. Wilson with the utmost professionalism. I can't imagine a big network doing a better job.

TJ, these types of interviews are more precious than an actual documentary. It uses a real life person to describe the horrors of what they went thru. I am also a veteran and his words are right. War is like hell. You see a lot of ugliness, destruction of human life, and you just want to forget it, but you can’t. Also, I wish to offer that navy veteran my salute, my respect and admiration.

God bless this brave man and the wisdom he conveys here. This interview is a prime example of why history should not be altered or eradicated, as there's so much to learn from it. Thank you TJ3, for the most captivating interview I've watched so far this year on 12-23-2022.

Thank you for getting Dick’s story out for us to hear. It’s incredible what they went through, we are forever thankful for their sacrifice.

My father who was a black Navy vet who served on the USS Cabot during the Korean War always told us that you won't know your future if you don't know your past. History is the key to the future. And it's programs like this, that give me hope that this country will be able to come together again not in war but in peace. We Are One.

Interviews such as this, as these veterans become less abundant and, sadly, unable to recall their experiences, are crucial to preserving history. The amount of detail this man is able to recollect is absolutely astounding! This video is beautiful, and thank you for making it. And thank you to your viewer for giving you the opportunity to make it happen.

I can only imagine what Mr. Wilson thinks of people today. His home was just broken into and his computer stolen. He watches monuments get vandalized. It makes me ill.

Interviewing Dick Wilson was definitely worth the trip. He is a true hero!!! I wish my grandfather Edward Houck was still around. He was a Pearl Harbor survivor and seen action in the south western Pacific. He didn't talk much about his service but I've always tried to get him to tell me things. It took three strokes to do what the Japanese couldn't do. He passed away Christmas day in 2000. May God bless all of our veterans living and dead.

Thank you for keeping the history of the greatest generation alive. As a long serving military member myself, I am humbled by the bravery shown and sacrifices endured by this generation of Americans. Once again, thank you.

Thank you so much. I grew without a father and veterans like him taught me everything I know about being a man. Unfortunately they have passed. This brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for preserving their stories. The clock is ticking.

Like so many others writing here I can only say Thank You for speaking with this Sailor and adding another piece to this story. My Father and one of his Brothers served in Europe, and his other three Brothers served in the Navy in the Pacific during WWII. I served with the US Navy in Viet Nam. Saving the history of one of us is like saving the history of all of us.

My pops died 23 years ago. Throughout the time I had my father as part of my life, he shared a great deal of his WWII experience with me. I was in my mid 30’s when he passed and his last year on this Earth was when he shared with me many stories that he had never previously shared with anyone. I’m confident that the two of us seeing Saving Private Ryan together was the catalyst for his opening up and recounting some very painful, traumatic memories. He served in the North African and Atlantic Theaters of operation. He too was a USN Corpsman like Dick Wilson. Dad knew that it was a matter of when and not if that the Draft Board would call up his number. We weren’t involved in WWII yet as it was the summer of 1941. Dad told me that there was no way he was going to end up as a ground pounder, aka Army or Marine Infantryman. His thinking was that he was more likely to end up as cannon fodder in the infantry. He tried to enlist in the US Army Air Corps and owing to having broken his nose twice playing High School varsity football, the std issue aviator’s O2 mask did not fit him well enough to allow him to be a military aviator. So dad enlisted in the USN. Dad spent most of the war attached to a platoon of US Marines, as their “Doc”, and participated in every major landing in the two aforementioned theaters of operation, e.g., North Africa, Sicily, Southern France and of course D-Day at Omaha Beach. Dad was part of the 1st wave landing assaults in all of those amphibious operations. His experiences were quite different than Mr. Wilson’s as most of dad’s corpsman combat duties were executed on land as opposed to at sea. Recall how I mentioned that dad had no intention of being an infantryman, a foot soldier if you will, so he enlisted in the Navy? That’s the poster child for irony for ya. Dad told me that if he had to it all over again, he’d not trade his role in WWII for any other. Those US Marines accepted, respected and treated dad as if he was one of their own, as if he was also a US Marine. Dad earned those gifts accorded him by that platoon as they likewise earned the same from my father. They were their own little “Band of Brothers”. Serving with them was its own great distinction and honor for the four years he was in the USN. Him telling me this was one of those things he shared with me during his final year.

Thank you for letting us know about Mr. Wilson's story.

Thank you TJ and your viewers for making this possible. Who would have thought that this would be possible. Your effort has truly captured a rare piece of history to be shared for all of the future. Thank you Mr. Wilson for all that you did in your time of service and for sharing your experience and story with us.

I am impressed with this video. The content, the interview, the graphics, the actual wartime footage and the background music was beautifully done.

Thank you shipmates for your service. You are indeed part of our greatest generation. Fair winds and following seas, Shipmate! OSC(SW) Retired.

Glad to see that you were able document his interview his patriotic American as well the person in the photo. Thank you to the viewer who diligently observed Mr Wilson in the footage. Happy Holidays to you and your families as well as your viewers. 🎄🎊🎉. ♠️🎩🎱🎯🇺🇲🏁🇺🇦🔱🌻💮🏵️🌸🌼🏴‍☠️🏹

Excellent start to the new series, TJ! I've seen the footage of the blasted-open turret before and it always just chilled me. My dad was a turret gunner in VT-11 when they were at Guadalcanal. He was later stationed on the USS Kadashan Bay (CVE-76) for the battles at Tulagi and Peleliu. Before he died, I took the opportunity to record some conversations with him about his time in the Navy. Wish I'd had time to record more. I know there were some things we didn't get to talk about. I also wanted to thank you for your video on Dick Mirales as it led me to the video "Eleven: The Movie" and the great folks preserving the history of CAG-11. They were able to send me several photos of my dad when he was with VT-11, as well as combat logs and other such information. I doubt that I would've found them without your video leading the way. So, thanks!

The generation that served our country during WWII have been called the greatest generation and i agree. I have not passed a veteran of any conflict or of any time without acknowledging and thanking them for their service. One thing I have noticed is how humble they seem to be acknowledged. Volunteer or draftee, war time or peace time, the service to our country has changed the individual for the rest of their lives. To those living here, who have said that they hate our country will never understand what sacrifice and honor truly mean. God bless our veterans. Thank you for sharing their voices and experiences.

What an incredible story, and so amazing that you were able to contact and interview Dick Wilson. My father, Orville Ray Cheek, who was in the Navy during WWII, and was involved in the Philippine arena, and received the Silver Star. He mentioned hardly nothing of it to me, my siblings or anyone else in my family, except to my sister's husband just before passing away. I was told by my sister that my father was piloting some kind of small boat that somehow crashed on 1 of the islands during what I think was a reconnaissance mission, and they avoided capture for 5-7 days, finally finding a Red Cross and making it back to safety. The military records building in Oklahoma burned so I can't find more information, but as a Marine myself all I know is that to get a Silver Star you had to do something pretty hairy.

Thank you, TJ, for covering this heroic story. We will forever be thankful for everyone who served.

I was captivated. His grandchildren must be so proud of him. So rare to see that type of man. It breaks my heart to see what our military has become. This man is one of the last real heroes.

What a truly amazing story. Growing up I was familiar with this tragedy from seeing other photos and reading captions in books but hearing it described from the man who was there makes it all seem more human. My heart goes out to all of those that fought to keep the world free and were caught up in Hell on earth

Thank you for saving history. These stories are being lost day by day. I have one taped interview of my dad, plus his written memories, but if I could turn back time I would have had a tape running every day. So may details lost to time.

Priceless interview. Priceless lovely man Thank you for your effort to document this story. May we never forget. "God has HIS hand on all of it."

My God. What a hero. Bless you, sir.

I can't thank you enough for the effort you guys made to meet this hero and get his story on record. It truly touched me. I wish my Father, who fought in WW2 were still around to tell his stories. I remember them well.

Amazing interview. This veterans clarity of thought and recollection after all these years was remarkable. Still most humble about his role in the event. I have seen that footage of the plane being pushed over the fantail of the Essex in many documentaries in the past. This interview has given me the personal back storey of the extraordinary men who were part of that story and the machine that pushed the war to its conclusion. The horror that these men faced every day is unimaginable. These young men lost their innocence and lives in pursuit of defeating an immoral cause. A first hand account and most humble in his story telling. His attitude was and is, it just had to done. God bless all of these men and women went to war for their sacrifice and service. Well done to the film crew.From Australia

This is an amazing story! I am glad you have the same feeling as me and so many others that we need to protect all of our history and we are running out of time. I know that somewhere in the Woodlands there is a WW2 veteran with the last name of Waters who was in the B-17. He was shot down and was marched around Europe. I have his book called “No Thought For Tomorrow” (I think I just went to double check but it wasn’t in my bookshelf, probably in a backpack somewhere)

Thank you History, this is most important video you ever made and merry christmas. ❤

Thank You and Josh so much for your hard work. I have edited video and I know that it is very time consuming to create a presentation. There are not too many things that make us happy these days, but your video has filled a need for me.

That was fantastic Just what a absolute pleasure to listen to That gentleman

Semper Fi Corpsman.. i am alive today becuase of a corpsman.. Those were men made of iron ! God bless them ! Never forget them. Wonderful tribute to a great generation. Thank you all for sharing this storey ! (USMC 94-2014 )

Dang I got chills from this video, It’s crazy hearing history from a primary source! Most veterans have unfortunately died so there’s not much alive to tell the tale. Great video!

Thank for getting this soldier’s encounters documented and sharing his daily heroic duties.

Preserving the experiences of these brave people is important. Good on you TJ3 for your efforts here. It was a fascinating journey.

Incredible work TJ. I'm so glad you're covering stories like these, and I'm glad I can watch and learn what these men went through. Please keep it up TJm

Wow! Talk about catching lightning in a bottle. To be able to interview Mr. Wilson must've been a privilege that you'll remember the rest of your life. Glad you got that comment and email.

I like how you let him tell his story without interruption and ridiculous mundane questions. 👍👍

What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing and keeping this Veterans experiences alive.

Simply amazing

Thank you for preserving the oral history of the battles of the pacific theater of WW II. I remember my Grandfather talking to me and giving me his eye witness accounts of the, Peatl Harbor attack, when he was employed by the deapartment of defense. And my Granduncle telling us children, about fighting the, NAZIS in, Italy and in Germany freeing the Jews from, the Dachau concentration camp. Thats where he was wounded during the conflicts. I wish all my family's interviews of the oral history could have been saved and recorded for posterity. What you have done with this interview is to save a part of history that can be shared with younger generations so as to recognize the tyrramy of what starts war and what ends it. Aloha and Mahalo for your hard work in preserving our American history. Aloha once again to you and your family. 🌺🌼🌴♥️🇺🇸

Well done, thanks for the extra effort. A couple of items: the Philippines are not in the South Pacific, and the CGI shows a USS Hornet (CV12) aircraft with the white ball on the tail. Check around 3 minutes into the video to see the wartime footage with the horizontal stripe for Essex and Air Group 15.

Nice video. One of the veterans I’ve been keeping an eye on was Bill Norberg. Who was a Chief Yeoman from USS Enterprise between 1941 to 1945.

Amazing video. Thank you Dick Wilson for your service. You truly are part of the greatest generation. Thank you TJ3 History for going out to interview this true hero. Many of us have been blessed by watching this.

My father served on the USS Iowa during the war. He didn't really talk about it much, I know that what they saw at Iowa Jima bothered him. Thank you. Dick, for your service

Thank you for taking the time and effort to meet with Mr. Wilson and record his memories. My Father was an Aviation Chief Ordnanceman's mate crewing with the USS Hornet CV-8 from late spring 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. CV-8 was the Hornet that launched the Doolittle Raid against the Japanese home islands in early 1942, using the powerful new B-25 Mitchell Bombers that many folks didn't believe could take off from the flight deck of a 1942 carrier vehicle. They had tested the concept about February of 1942, lifting just two canvass-wrapped B-25s onto the deck from the pier at Naval Operations Base Norfolk. The Hornet steamed East out beyond the shipping lanes off the Virginia Capes, and launched the two B-25s successfully. They flew back to the mainland, and the ship then prepared to sail down to the Panama Canal and make its way back up the Pacific Coast to Alameda Naval Air Station, to load the full complement of the B-25 bombers that were lashed to the Hornet's deck with steel rope ("cable") against the wild weather they would encounter sailing the North Pacific to get near Japan. My Father, James Donald "Pug" March, was about 25 years old at the time, helping prep and load the bombs and other munitions for the mission. He had met and courted our mom in Long Beach in the months before the Navy sent him and the rest of the crew to NOB Norfolk to install the new Radar and improved anti-aircraft guns they would use in that first desperate year of the war. In the ship's final hours in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, my father was fighting fires below decks with his mates. A Japanese Val Dive Bomber crashed into the flight deck near the Island, and its bomb plunged through five or six decks without exploding. It ended up inside a compartment near my Dad's group, rolling with the seas and smacking against the bulkheads. They grabbed some timbers, and sending the rest of the sailors away, my dad entered the compartment and used the lumber to secure the bomb. For his actions that day he was awarded the Navy Cross. Ten years after he died at age 81, I came across a website that listed 35 pilots, sailors, and officers of the Hornet's crew who had been awarded the Navy Cross for their actions in that final battle. Only five survived to receive their awards in person. I finally understood why he didn't talk about combat. The stories he told were usually about the adventures he and his buddies had exploring the newly-liberated Island bases, and cobbling together a makeshift sailboat from discarded drop tanks and parachute cloth, to paddle around the lagoon among the ships and flying boats. By that time, my father had jumped at a chance to train and crew as bombardier with one of the PB2Y "Coronado" 4-engine flying boats built by Consolidated aircraft in San Diego. They flew long overnight missions to attack Japanese Imperial Navy combat vessels that had been spotted in remote anchorages around the Pacific. One of his buddies, Pilot Stan Mahoney, wrote a self-published autobiography "I'm in Aviation Now!" and he was also featured in a History Channel video that has a lot of great documentary scenes of the Consolidated PB2Y "Coronado" flying boats. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--ImwN-WDTmc.html

That moment when he got pulled in by someone who he'd never seen again sounds like he had an angel watching over him. I'm glad we got the chance to hear his amazing story. Thank you guys for doing this! I'm still trying to find at least one WW2 vet on LI, NY to thank at least but no luck yet. Hopefully soon. Thank you again, for preserving history and sharing our greatest generation's stories!

A beautiful job from you and your cameraman. The experience you shared with this great veteran is priceless. Thank you kind sir for your military service. Thank you to everyone envolved in getting this piece of history covered.

I was great to see this gentleman interviewed before it got too much later. Awesome video.

Excellent. Another tear jerker! Keep up with this format. Its so cool so see vets following your channel too. Great job!

Incredible men and an incredible man. We're losing them way to fast and you are right that we need to know their stories. Thank you for bringing allot of those stories to us. Thank you for showing that man the respect he deserves to be able to tell his story. That respect should come from all of us for all our servicemen and women. Politicians make war. Servicemen just do their job to get us through it.

Thank you Mr. Wilson for your service, courage and sacrifice for freedom ❤🇺🇸 I appreciate this content ❤God Bless everyone that was apart of this moment ❤

Thank you so much for this video. My uncle was an Aviation Radioman Gunner with one of the squadrons aboard the USS Essex until late 1945, so he rode in the same position as Loyce Deen. He was one of the reasons that I joined the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman and stayed for 26 years.

All of the time lines of history coming together with pictures , film and few degrees of separation of people all coming together finally to get this amazing story out before it is lost forever

What a great interview. Thank you for sharing this story. I’m grateful you were able interview Dick Wilson and get his story out for us to hear.

God Bless You for telling Dick's story. It brought tears to my eyes. We are losing OUR vets and their stories every day. As a US Navy and Persian Gulf veteran, I think we feel our stories are not that interesting. We just did what we had to do when we had to do it. Thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that every vets story, especially during war, are important. The sacrifices of the average citizen is what makes this country the Greatest Nation on earth.

A fascinating piece of history right there!

What a wonderful honour to interview a veteran such as Dick Wilson. TJ, whatever it cost it was the right decision. Fantastic work!

What an amazing interview. An angel pulled him out of harm's way. He looked over Loyce to see if there was anything else he could do for Loyce. Showing his fingerprints being recorded. He said they could get him out because rigor has already set in. He didn't think it was weird sending the plane overboard with a man still in it, "Our focus was getting the plane off the deck, we had an attack coming. ".. Damn. Thank you for this interview....God bless you.

What a great story to be told and there is no distance not worth travelling to to get a great story.

Thanks for the video of these great heroes!

In today's enviroment with people trying to change history, these types of video's will be needed to keep the record straight. I can only thank you for this effort and please keep these coming. As someone who loves history and is always trying to learn, should the powers that be try to keep or change history, it is my hope we can take these history lessons to teach our children of the sacifice that the men and women of this age gave!! Thank you.

Absolutely incredible. The greatest generation. What these sailors,airmen, soldiers went through is beyond comprehension. This man's telling of his experience tells more than the most detailed videos of the war. Respect. Your memory will last for ever. From South Africa. Thanks for sharing this poignant story For all those USA haters living there, reflect on this.

What an absolutely fantastic video. A true American hero. Thank you for this video

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this and thank you for the service of this greatest generation. 🇺🇸

one of the best youtube channels, one of the most important and necessary youtube channels!

Dick Wilson is on the series called victory at sea,which is a series of 25 VHS movies about WW2 made in the early 50s,which is black and white,before color movies were invented.Thanks TJ3,for a very remarkable chain of events.

An outstanding piece of work about an outstanding man.

I had the honor of meeting Marine Edgar Harrell, survivor of the USS Indianapolis.. We crossed paths at a local post office.. I was invited to his home, met his wife.. We shared our wartime experiences- his war, my war.. He passed on a couple years ago.. I still have his book and his autographed picture of the Indy..

Thanks Dick Wilson for your service and your story of the fallen airman Loyce dean.

@9:13 I got a shiver up my spine. Rest in Peace, mighty warrior.

Seing the poor man buried in his plane because they had to is really a strong sentiment when you look at the footage , im sure some of the veteran still has that memory to this day

Very, very moving! You are truly a pro!! It is sad that so many veterans are now gone. I am 43, when I was a child, basically, all the retired people were WW2 veterans! I knew veterans both in Italy and in Malta and it was interesting to know both opposite sides of history... sadly they are all gone. I also knew an Italian seaplane pilot who did reconnaissance missions often over Malta out of "Sciacca" in Sicily. After the war he continued his former profession as a chemistry teacher. I knew him because he used to be one of my father's teachers. He was named Professor Crino' (I can't remember the name). Once, I was about 14 and since ever in love with aviation, I met him on a train and he told me some tales, I quickly report two of the stories he told me on that day. The first: once, during a mission, he was intercepted by the RAF (I can't remember the type he said) and he barely made it back to his base, after landing they counted about 60 holes on his seaplane, he said he almost died on that day. The second story impressed me a lot at that age. He said that once a group of SM-79 bombers were taking off for their mission, for some reasons, one of them stalled, spinned and crashed after take off. Together with all other people on the ground he runned to the crash site and he vividly remembered the bodies of his comrades burning and the damn smell: he said he hasn't eaten meat ever since. It's a pity that an universal database of all these reports cannot be created. Veterans are a treasure in our contemporary society. The memory of what they went through shouldn't never die. You were very lucky to find such a precious gentleman!

Amazing TJ specially meeting veterans, You do a grand job 😎👌

Thank you he seems like the real deal

All I can say is WOW! That is a living history of being able to talk about it as if all of us where there! Thank again!

Wow!!! Words are hard to come by here. He is found by one comment on a video, and then he turns out to be a witness to the mushroom cloud rising over Hiroshima. Witnesses to history are awesome people to meet.

Those Americans are truly "The Greatest Generation", I'm in awe every time I hear their stories..

You've inspired me to go back to my homeland and record our countries' veterans; I've always thought about doing it, now I'm going to do it. Thank you.

These stories from the actual Veterans themselves are Fantastic and NEED to be told to EVERYONE. Thus keeping History alive but, also as a Warning, to Civilization as a Whole. In the hopes of Preventing History repeating itself again. From a Veteran of the Iraq-Iran War. ARMY early 80's.

I totally agree with Dick Wilson's assessment of going to war is like going to hell. I served in Vietnam for 2½ years. Some of the things I witnessed haven't been effaced from my memory in 50 years.

I had no idea anyone from that day on that ship had been interviewed. Fascinating and timeless. Respect to you corpsman....how young you look and how young you were in that picture to experience such things. Respect!!

Don't worry about the money it cost to get the interview. You got an irreplaceable primary source and saved an eyewitness account that is now going to be available to history buffs 100 years from now. You did a great service to the public, and oh, by the way, if you copyright the video, the next time the history channel does a documentary on the battle using that footage (which they do all the time), tell them they can use your footage if they pay a royalty equal to your flight and hotel expenses.

Fantastic! ... My Dad was on an amphibious attack transport in the middle of all that. Never got many storys from him. He passed in 2008.

When I was 12 years old, in 2000, my father took me to the Parris Air Museum(CA,USA), and I met my first WWII Air Veteran. Was a B-17 Pilot and I loved talked to him so much that I begged my father to take me back every other week to talk to him more. After 20+ years and having that feeling never waver, I've been telling all the stories of these great men, to my sons, with the hope that those memories will never fade. I will never forget those men and their sacrifices; It's honestly so cool that you're making these videos, I support you 9001%

Unfortunately, the WWII vets I knew are gone. My best friend's dad Mr. Tyson served on an LST, I would guess most likely he was a Corpsman, since he became a doctor in his professional life. My middle school homeroom and history teacher Mr. Archer (5th grade if I recall) had been a navigator on a B17 over Europe. There were probably more WWII vets at that school when I was a kid; they would have been in their late 40's through '50's. I remember the music teacher Mr. Rotella talking about "there was no 'tour of duty;' you were in until it was over." So my foggy memory thinks he must have been in the service, maybe Army. He also told us a story of being in Italy in the 30's as a visitor, going to a Mussolini rally to see what it was about, and having a bayonet pricked into his back to force him to cheer & salute Mussolini (he had just been there observing). Mr. Wilson's focus is stunning. "I ran back up topside to see who else I could help." After almost getting blown up and also having a comrade die in his arms.

God bless every vet that served in ww2 and thank u for sharing this history with us you will never be forgotten!!! We are safe because of u!!!

My grandfather died in 2001, he never talked about his experiences in the war. I wish he had but I was too little to talk to him about it at the time. I can't regret it since it wasn't possible for me but I wish he had talked to someone and passed whatever he experienced on. Great work, thanks for documenting this and sharing Dick's story.

Thank u for the recognition of real heros. The youth of today have no idea what a real hero is. John USAFSS retired.

Thank you for taking the time to go out and make this video for all of us.