Ceremonies induct pilot, honor fallen Utah warriors Published June 16, 2011 By Mary Lou Gorny Hilltop Times editor HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- Memorial Day services honored two World War II service personnel as memories of their contributions and experiences were retold at the Mazer Memorial Chapel and Hill Aerospace Museum. The Utah Aviation Hall of Fame added Lt. Wendell Van Twelves to its roster of distinguished aerial pioneers and heroes. Twelves is the 25th such listing. "Only the best of the best is selected each year, for the elimination process (the nominees go through to get to one name)," said Maj. Pat Gilmore (Ret.), U.S. Air Force. The formal process was slightly different this year. Clifford Neve, secretary of the American Fighter Aces Association, told Gilmore that there were at least a dozen Utah native-born sons who were ace pilots on the group's membership lists but who were not in the Utah Hall of Fame. "We entered every single (Utah) fighter ace on the list in the nomination packets this year," Gilmore said. He said they then had to contact the family and explain what the Utah Hall of Fame was and why Twelves' name had been selected. The widow of Navy F6F Hellcat pilot Lt. Wendell Van Twelves gave an account of a Japanese pilot after the war, who sought to meet the pilot who had shot him down. In one of the Japanese Zeros that attacked Pearl Harbor was Sadamu Kamachi, a pilot who eventually became a fighter ace for his country, said LaRhea Nielson Twelves. After the war he asked a Japanese American friend for a favor. "Please help me find the American pilot who shot me down," he told Henry Sakaida, of Temple City, Calif., in 1975. "I'm looking for the pilot of that F6F, but not to pay off old scores," he told Sakaida. "If he's still well and alive, I'd like to hug him heartily and congratulate him." Sakaida searched for 15 years and finally through some footage of aerial battles determined it was Twelves who Kamachi was looking for. Upon receiving a letter from his former enemy and finding out he had survived but had been severely burned on his hands and face and had a long stay in the hospital, Twelves said: "I'm really glad he survived. I'm sorry he was so badly injured -- but if I hadn't shot him down he would have shot me down." Three months after the death of Twelves, at a symposium at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., talking about Wendell Twelves, Kamachi said, "Now after so many years, I can still say that his fighting spirit and unrivaled technique, making the attack upward from an altitude of below 100 feet, on an airfield of the enemy, furthermore during a reverse turn to fight, should only be admired. So you can understand why I wanted to meet him." LaRhea Twelves said of her husband and his opponent, who conversed through letters: "They were both able to find forgiveness, respect and honor for each other." W. Van Twelves shared a combat story about when his father and Dave McCampbell both claimed the same enemy aircraft as a kill. When the gun camera footage was reviewed, it was determined that Twelves really had downed the Zero. "Dave McCampbell, (his air wing commander) was naturally reluctant to give up the credit and said, 'How about we split it?' Dad looked at him and said 'No, SIR,'ΓΆΓΆ" said Twelves. "Then Dave said, 'OK, it's yours.' I share this with you for several reasons," said Twelves. "One is that I want to salute Dave McCampbell. He treated a young ensign fairly when he could have taken the score to his own benefit. Also, I think it's fair to say that he understood that by giving up his claim to Dad's Zero word would get around -- that he ran a fair command and he took care of his own. He was a wise leader and a good man and he was where our country needed him." His son also said that he saw the gun camera footage on a WWII documentary video he rented back in 1989. He recognized the footage as his father's because the drop tanks were still on the aircraft. Normally drop tanks were released before combat, but the attack developed so quickly that no one had time to get rid of them. He showed it to his father, who confirmed that it was, indeed, his gun camera film. In preparing for his remarks at the induction ceremony, his son reported that he had gone on YouTube and found the footage of the aerial battle and downing of a Zero. He said that you can see the commanding officer flying directly into the path of friendly fire as the Zero is shot down. Twelves also expressed appreciation to LeRoy Grumman and Grumman Aircraft for installing steel armor plating around the pilot, around the oil cooler and for the self-sealing fuel tanks in the wings of the Hellcats. The steel plating had been requested by the Navy and added weight to the plane, but it was retained and was not short changed in order to enhance flight performance. "Normally such things have a tendency to be reduced or eliminated," he said. "(Such plating) saved a lot of Navy pilots," he said, including his father and even perhaps Dave McCampbell who had sustained friendly fire from flying into the path of Twelves' Hellcat and its machine guns. "Our family is very grateful to the Navy for specifying that plating," he said, noting that on at least three occasions his father's plane had been very severely damaged due to enemy fire but still made it back safely to the carrier -- once by the use of a severely damaged throttle assembly that had its handles shot away. Twelves held up a bullet riddled metal plate and a rear view mirror with a hole in it from a 20 mm cannon his father had saved from a combat encounter. Twelves also noted the courage, heroism and determination of many of those who served with his father and of an incident where his father helped locate two downed pilots in the sea, risking his own life to make sure that a destroyer came to pick them up. He had lost comrades who had not made the deck of the carrier and who were never found after ditching in the sea alongside the carrier. "It was very difficult to see the tiny head of a swimmer in the big ocean waves," said Twelves of those recovery efforts. Among the formal listing of Twelves accomplishments was that of his dropping a bomb on a Japanese aircraft carrier Zukaiku, which led to its sinking and for which he received credit. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with seven Gold Stars, a Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation. Earlier ceremony At the Mazer Memorial Chapel, the accomplishments of Nathan Mazer were noted. His surreptitious flights over Germany, something he was not supposed to do as a Jew as he traded tags with someone else in order to fly a B-17 and his own efforts as a bombardier in the Army Air Corps were recalled by his friend, Chief Warrant Officer Jim Chastain (Ret.), after the ceremony. Mazer inspired respect from those he served with during the war and afterward. A friendship he formed after the war with Chastain was recounted during the formal ceremony as he talked about his outspoken friend who worked hard to get the historic chapel moved to its current location and its subsequent refurbishing. Chastain talked of his friend's ability to come up with many ideas, which included the chapel, his courage and his ability to accomplish many things. Mazer was honored previously at the formal renaming ceremony in 2010.