Paul Henry Carr
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, in the action off Samar, a series of events had allowed a powerful Japanese force to penetrate American defenses, and it was threatening both the landing forces on Leyte and several task groups of U.S. escort carriers supporting the amphibious assault on the eastern side of the Philippines. In one of the greatest displays of courage in naval history, a number of U.S. destroyers and destroyer escorts charged the enemy’s battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. U.S. forces pressed the attack so close that, at one point, the Japanese could not depress their guns low enough to fire on their diminutive attackers. The crews of these intrepid U.S. Navy ships managed to cause enough confusion that they bought valuable time for the fleeing carriers they had been tasked to protect.
One of these ships was the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), and as the battle wore on she began to sustain heavy damage. Eventually the Japanese battleships and cruisers surrounded her and pounded away at her with their heavy-caliber guns. The ship took a horrific beating and would eventually succumb—but not without a fight.
The relentless shelling soon knocked out power to the Samuel B. Roberts’ after gun mount, forcing the crew to manually operate the weapon. Despite this, they kept the gun firing at an incredible rate, and with the relentless firing, the gun became quite hot. When they were down to their last seven rounds, the compressed air supply used to clear the barrel of hot gasses gave out. Firing such a hot gun without the ejecting air was a hazardous undertaking, but undaunted, the men continued firing. As they were loading their last remaining powder charge, it “cooked off” before they could close the breech, blowing the mount apart and killing or fatally wounding all but one of the ten-man crew. When a member of the repair party entered what was left of the shattered gun mount, he found the gun captain, Gunner’s Mate Third Class Paul Henry Carr, torn open from the neck downward, with most of his internal organs exposed to view. Carr, still alive, was holding the last projectile, begging for someone to load it into the gun and fire it. He died a short while later lying next to the gun.
VMA-322
Marine Attack Squadron 322 (VMA-322) was activated at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, on 1 July 1943 as Marine Fighting Squadron 322, equipped with F4U Corsairs fighter-bombers. The squadron conducted training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and Ewa, Hawaii, before heading to the war in the Pacific.
The “Cannon Ball Squadron” was deployed forward to Emirau in September 1944, but shifted to garrison at Espiritu Santo from October 1944 until April 1945, when VMF-322 staged to Kadena, Okinawa. The squadron engaged in close air support of Marines in the bloody campaign to capture Okinawa and other islands in the Ryukyu chain from Japan.
In June 1945, VMF-322 supported the amphibious landing of the 2d Marine Division on Iheya Shima, and that month became the first Marine squadron to attack the main islands of Japan. In July, the Cannon Ball Squadron moved to Awase airfield and, by the end of hostilities in August, had shot down 29 Japanese aircraft.
In 1949, after being based in Midway and Hawaii, VMF-322 moved to Marine Corps Air Station Edenton, North Carolina, where the squadron was deactivated on 30 November.
The outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950 resulted in the reactivation a year later, on 6 July 1951, of VMF-322 as a reserve F4U squadron at Naval Air Station Squantum, Massachusetts. The squadron moved to Naval Air Station South Weymouth in January 1954 and traded its Corsairs in March 1955, entering the jet age with F9F-6 Cougars.
VMF-322 was redesignated VMA-322 on 15 May 1958, assumed its new role, and became known as the “Fighting Gamecocks.” The squadron upgraded to the FJ-3 Fury in November 1959 and then the A-4B Skyhawk in September 1962. In 1963, VMA-322 absorbed VMA-217, also based at South Weymouth.
As a reserve squadron, VMA-322 was never called to active duty, but continued training and participating in exercises. The squadron upgraded to the A-4C in 1971, the A-4E in 1973, and finally the A-4M in 1983. The squadron also flew two-seat TA-4J and TA-4F versions for training.
VMA-322 was deactivated on 30 June 1992 during the post-Cold War drawdown.