Hellfighter brings back memories for downed flyer
By CHRIS BARBEE cbarbee@leader-news.com

El Campo's Lawrence Haines, a WWII SB2C Hellfighter dive bomber pilot, was a special guest at the Wharton Regional Airport earlier this month to see the world's only flying SB2C make passes and land. He was presented a cap by the warbird's Commemorative Air Force pilot, Ed Vesely of Houston. L-N Photo by Chris Barbee

U.S. Navy Ensign Lawrence Haines was a 23-year-old fighter-bomber pilot flying his sixth mission off the USS Lexington, the aircraft carrier now on display in Corpus Christi, when he was shot down after a bombing run off the coast of Japan over the Bungo Straights. It was July 1945.

Haines and his gunner in the two-seat SB2C- 4 Hellfighter escaped "without a scratch" after antiaircraft fire hit the engine, causing it to lose oil pressure, Haines said after being invited to the Wharton Regional Airport to watch an SB2C-5 do a couple of passes over the airport, land and taxi up to the office.

The fly-in of the World War II plane, the only one of its kind still flying, was sponsored by the River Bend Squadron (under the West Texas Wing) the Commemorative Air Force, which held its meeting Oct. 13 at the airport between Wharton and Pierce.

L-N Photo by Chris Barbee Soaring Through Time A World War II-era SB2C-4 Hellfighter heads into Wharton Regional airport during a recent Commemorative Air Force gathering.

The plane shares time being hangared between Midland and Houston, although both pilots certified to fly the warbird live in Houston.

One of them, Ed Vesely, flew the plane into Wharton Regional while his wife Carole manned the twin-barrel .30- caliber machine gun in the back seat. The plane never saw action, but was never decommissioned so it is still equipped for war. It could still be equipped with two 20mm wing-mounted cannons.

After it landed Vesely helped Haines onto the wing for a look inside the cockpit.

Haines gave the appreciative crowd of friends and flyers a "thumbs up." He was later presented an SB2C cap by Vesely.

"When you throw the throttle forward you realize this is it ... you're flying a Picasso," Vesely said. "And the reason we fly it is for guys like Lawrence. They were a bunch of real brave men."

Vesely said only four SB2Cs exist in the world, and only the one that flew into the Wharton airport flies.

Haines said watching the warbird make low passes over the Wharton airport, then landing and taxiing up to the office area, brought back memories.

"There's a lot of them I can't forget. You always remember things that happened 50 or 60 years ago better than last week. I'll always remember it and was thankful. My older brother, Joseph, was in the army. He got hurt and was sent home before the war was over. My mother, I think, prayed us both out of there," Haines said.

The retired rice grader, now 85, was 19 when Pearl Harbor was bombed Dec. 7, 1941. Six months later he enlisted in the navy and signed up for aviator school.

"I enlisted in November. All the ones of us who were farmers were given 90 days delay to help the rice harvest that year. In those days you didn't have combines and you had a lot of labor ... you used a lot of people. My brother was gone, and it was just my father. There were three girls after me and one boy yon the end. So he was left without two of his best hands, but one of the girls was pretty good, the Crowley, La. native said.

The Helldiver was delivered in large numbers (7,140) to equip U.S. Navy and Marine Corps squadrons. And it inflicted a lot of damage on the enemy. It was responsible for more shipping kills than any other aircraft, and it had 44 confirmed air-to-air kills. After the war, it also served in the Greek and Italian Naval Air Forces and served with the French in Vietnam.

Helldivers made their first operational sortie on Nov. 11, 1943 when they attacked the Japanese-held port of Rabaul in the Australian Territory of New Guinea.

Haines said he enjoyed flying the plane. "It was powerful. Of course it could have been faster (it cruises at about 210 mph). Everyone in those days wanted to be a fighter pilot. But I did all right. I liked to fly. I started flying again in the 1980s after I retired. I quit flying when I was 80 ... I wasn't gettin' any better, so I quit," he said, adding about 10 people were partners in a Cessna fourseater.

The day he was shot down, he thought it was July 17, 1945, is one Haines will never forget. "I was over the Bungo Straits when I got hit in the engine and started losing oil pressure. I was out of sight of land when we went into the water ... about 30 minutes of flying before ditching it," he said. He said the plane floated "for about a minute and a half. It took us about 4 seconds to get out."

Haines said he and his gunner were picked up the next morning and taken to Okinawa. They went to Saipan and a few other islands. "It took 30 days to get back to the carrier," he said.

"When I got back on the carrier we dropped supplies to POW camps. We catapulted off at anchor. We flew to Saipan and to Guam. We had 11-112 planes left after the war was over. We left with 15 planes. One or two of them was lost ... the one I was in and another one. Maybe one or two more. One was shot down over the target and we didn't find out until later that he was OK. The others were accidents," Haines said. Haines said he never knew during bombing runs against Japanese ships and land bases if he had hit his target or not.

"We would dive, then level off, then get as low as I could to get over the water and away from the land. There was always a lot of fire over the targets. They knew we were coming and they were ready. They had good antiaircraftfire," he said of the Japanese.

Haines said when he was discharged from the Navy in mid-1946. He held the rank of lieutenant junior grade.

He said the Lady Lex had four air groups: fighters, fighter bombers, torpedo bombers and dive bombers. Haines said he's visited the Lexington, now homeported and serving as a museum in Corpus Christi, several times.

After the war he helped his father for a couple of years before going to work for the USDA as a rice grader in Crowley.

"Then they opened an office in El Campo and they sent me here in 1950.

"I put about 30 years in I guess. I moved twice. I wound up back in Crowley. The guy retired and I spent about three years there and I could retire so I did. I had a job in Houston, but I got a call from El Campo. They needed a rice grader. I came down to the sales office at Rice Marketing and set up a grading deal there. I was having such a good time I did that for about 14 years, and I retired again. I was glad to be back in El Campo. My wife (Connie) was also, she being a Texan," Haines said.

"I had good memories of it (the SB2C-4) except for the strikes. In other words, it was something everyone was doing. It was a war that people were behind us. Not like it is now as much. Anyone in uniform could get a ride. People would pick you up on Sundays and feed you. Almost every family had someone in the service in those days."