US Navy pilot Thomas Franklin Allen Stanley was born in Pensacola, Florida on November 2, 1922, the son of Lucius Clinton Stanley Sr. (1881-1966) and Annie McDavid Allen (1890-1983). His mother was married to Daniel Wilmer Barker (Sr.) in 1909 however he was killed in 1910 by a train on Tarragona Street. Annie married Tom's father Lucius in 1914 and bore him three sons and two daughters. His father was employed in 1930 as the assistant manager of a transfer company and ten years later as a checker for a barge line. By 1940, the family was established at 121 West Chase Street within two short blocks of Tom's high school and the Navy recruiting office, the last two milestones of his short but heroic life. He would graduate from Pensacola High School in 1940 and enlist in the US Navy on May 25, 1942.
He volunteered to enter the Navy's flight school and was sent to their preflight training at Athens, GA and then to primary flight school at Lambert Field, St. Louis, MO on 11-5-1942. He then reported into NAS Pensacola where he received his coveted wings in June 1943. After operational training in Jacksonville, FL in August 1943 he was assigned to the new carrier CV-18 USS Wasp as a dive bomber pilot. On November 1, 1943, he received is new Curtiss SB2C “Helldiver” bomber. When their training was complete, they boarded their carrier and headed for the South Pacific. They arrived off Hawaii on April 4, 1944, en route to one of the most crucial battles of the war, the Philippine Sea. The Marines had landed on Saipan in June, an island close enough to provide the Americans a forward base to now bomb the Japanese homeland. With this in mind, the Japanese fleet was forced out of hiding to stop the landing.
Opposing the enemy fleet was Task Force 58 comprised of 14 carriers and their supporting ships. Of these, Admiral Marc Mitscher's Task Force 58.2 was sent ahead to strike the oncoming enemy fleet with the Wasp, Bunker Hill, Monterey, and Cabot. Close by were the Yorktown, Belleau Wood, and Bataan. On board the Wasp, Bunker Hill, and Yorktown were Pensacolians or adopted Pensacolian that would not survive the battle. In the meantime, the enemy found the Americans first on June 19th but chose to launch their strike on the 20th. The next day, US planes hitting Guam and other close by islands received a "Hey Rube!” signal. The signal came from the old circus call that meant “Everyone come help!” The US fleet had detected large numbers of Japanese aircraft approaching from the west. Now it was time for battle! Before the day was out the Imperial Japanese fleet would lose hundreds of their planes and pilots in what became known as the "Marianna Turkey Shoot!"
But now it was time for Tom and his fellow warriors to strike back! When the Japanese were finally found it was late in the day and the distance to their fleet was too far. If launched, the strike force would be a one-way trip. But there was no time for auxiliary tanks so at 1621 the carriers turned into the wind and launched 226 aircraft in only eleven minutes. In all, ninety-five Hellcat fighters, fifty-four torpedo planes, and seventy-seven dive bombers took off from their carriers into the darkening sky to deliver their deadly payload with little chance of returning. At 1815 on June 20th, the planes from the Wasp spotted an enemy group of six oil tankers, several large freighters, and six destroyers. Planes from the other carriers went after the battle fleet while the Wasp's pilots attacked the enemy support group!
As an aerial fight developed all around them, Tom and his fellow bombers began their dives on the enemy tankers through a barrage of intense antiaircraft fire. They had never heard of antiaircraft (AA) fire so thick as what they were now experiencing. Tom could see a mass of winking lights as the enemy’s AA guns opened on his incoming squadron. Bombs were hurled from on high, some smashing into enemy superstructures in fiery explosions. Tom picked out his target, a slow-moving enemy oiler called the Genyo Maru. Tom began his dive and at exactly 2,500 feet, he pressed his bomb release button, hurtling his one-thousand-pound bomb down toward his target. He saw a sheet of white fire climbing out of the oiler’s deck as it billowed black smoke and spread along the sides of the ship. Debris flew in every direction, with human bodies erupting upward like rag dolls.
But it was here that the young Pensacolian’s luck ran out. As he pulled his Helldiver out of his dive and tried to gain altitude, the enemy gunners found him. Shells from several ships ripped into his fuselage like tissue paper rendering his aircraft uncontrollable as he crashed full speed into the sea. Tom and his gunner were killed instantly and never felt their long slow descent to their final resting place on the bottom of the trackless ocean. A memorial was placed next to his parents in the Clopton Cemetery in 1960 to honor the sacrifice of their young son!
For those of you who may want a more detailed history of Stanley and the other Pensacolians during this great battle I've hyperlinked it for you but give a minute due to its size. This longer story details how each of the Pensacolians contributed to this victory in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Go to: https://manage.wix.com/dashboard/058c21d4-c08c-44dc-9b9c-1a6face919db/blog/60d3296a3f95340016ff2c86/edit
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