"Clay Pigeon"

"Fighting filthiest of flying weather, often flying uncharted courses to outwit the Japs, frequently overloaded and forced to make the trips without the usual mechanical attention between jaunts, Marines flying transport planes in the South Pacific wrote a brilliant record into the war with their 'Guadalcanal Fast Freight.' "

—Worcester Evening Gazette.

A member of this group was Capt. James A. Crotty Jr. '42, who recently gave an account of his experiences before the Dartmouth Club of Worcester. The 24-year-old Marine flyer served in the Pacific area for more than a year and was a member of the First Regiment of Marines, which received a Presidential citation. In addition, he wears other ribbons for his participation in the dangerous task of transporting supplies and equipment to advance bases, bringing out the wounded, and on one occasion removing Japanese prisoners. Although having been through some of the thickest of the fighting and constantly menaced by enemy planes, Captain Crotty has never been shot down in more than six hundred hours of flying in the combat zone. At the end of his present leave, he will return to the Pacific Coast as an instructor.