Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:09 | Tucker's journey into the Pacific was not quite like the others' as he was given an important task by his Colonel. (This interview made possible with the support of MARVA ERICKSEN.)
Keywords : Pearl Harbor HI Hickam Field China Clipper Pleasure Island information flight deck
Tucker Fuller was, like many others during this time, a young student when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This would thrust him into the Army Air Corps who had a desperate need for trained crewmen. (This interview made possible with the support of MARVA ERICKSEN.)
After finishing their submarine patrol, Tucker and his crew found themselves in Australia. Sent on a bombing mission to New Britain, he would be one of the lucky crews to make it back. (This interview made possible with the support of MARVA ERICKSEN.)
Tucker had some friends on other crews, Walter Higgins and Bobby Block, and all of these decades later he remembers them and their sacrifices. (This interview made possible with the support of MARVA ERICKSEN.)
It was supposed to be a bombing run like the others, the target a Japanese convoy on its way to Lae. Their tight formation made it easy for the Japanese to focus their fire, and in the course of the bombing Tucker's plane pulled away only to be tailed by 12 Japanese Zeros. They would go on to earn Distinguished Flying Crosses for this action. (This interview made possible with the support of MARVA ERICKSEN.)
