the Skies of the
PACIFIC
From Marty Jackson
Witness Triumph and Devestation in the War with Japan
Army veteran Martin“ Buzz” Jackson flew 72 combat missions during WWII, seeing most of his action in some of the most devastating battles of the Pacific Theater.
Jackson’ s missions included leading squadrons in strafing, skip-bombing, and napalm drops over Japanese targets.
Following the atomic bomb drop on Nagasaki, Jackson and his 311th Fighter Squadron flew low over city, facing exposure to radiation, to witness firsthand the incredible devastation that would signal an end to the war.
Now 92, the memories of his WWII service are still vivid in his mind.
I
was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 12, 1923. Joining myself and my parents in the house were my two sisters, one older and one younger. My mom was Catholic and my dad was Episcopalian but when he married my mother he promised to raise us in the Catholic Church. I went to a boys’ school, Presentation Catholic, for eight years until high school. My sisters went to the Catholic girls’ school. In total, we had over 400 boys and well over 400 girls in the two schools. When I was in fifth grade, I joined the church choir. There were only 25 of us because that’ s how big the choir loft was, but I stayed in the choir until eighth grade. I was a boy soprano and was quite good.
After I graduated from grammar school, I moved on to a public high school. I attended Marshall High School, which had a total of 5,500 students, with about a 90 percent Jewish population. The very first semester I had taken a music class. The music teacher made everyone stand up in the classroom and sing the scale. I very eagerly got up and sang the scale as loudly as I could and everyone laughed and the teacher threw me out of class. In fact, he was so mad, he expelled me. I realized then I was going to have
National Archives
THE USS MISSOURI IN THE FOREGROUND, THE SURRENDER CEREMONIES IN TOKYO 70 YEARS AGO WERE MADE POSSIBLE ONLY THROUGH YEARS OF- TO BORROW FROM CHURCHILL- BLOOD, TOILS, TEARS, AND SWEAT.
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