[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 87 (Friday, June 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7275-S7276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                 SEAPLANE CREW'S BATTLE FOR RECOGNITION

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I bring to the Senate's attention 
an excellent article written by Alan Emory, the Senior Washington 
Correspondent for the Watertown Daily Times, entitled ``WWII Seaplane 
Crew Still Battling With Navy Red Tape Over Medals.'' Mr. Emory tells 
the incredible story of the rescue of a U.S. Airman by the crew of the 
Patrol Bomber Martin from the waters off Japan in World War II. 
Remarkably, the crew was denied the proper recognition for this act, 
and they have battled over the years to right that wrong.
  At the time the rescue took place, the Navy, according to those 
involved, promised the pilot the Navy Cross and his crew the Silver 
Star. When the medals were actually awarded, however, all were awarded 
lesser medals. The disappointed crew accepted the medals without 
complaint. Years later when an appeal was filed, the Navy rejected the 
claim on the grounds that the deadline for such appeals had passed. 
But, a 1997 law waived the time limitation on appeals for such heroic 
acts.
  The Navy has denied that any promise was made to the pilot or the 
crew. However, a newly declassified document from six months after the 
rescue showed that in fact the Navy had promised the pilot, Robert H. 
Macgill, the Navy Cross. The crew had signed affidavits that they were 
promised the

[[Page S7276]]

Silver Star. Unfortunately no document has been found to back up their 
claim, but this in no way decreases the gravity of this oversight.
  To date, the Department of the Navy has refused to upgrade the medal 
status of those involved, though the case is still under review. I 
thank Mr. Emory for bringing this important act of bravery and 
incredible oversight to our attention.
  I ask that the article be printed into the Record.
  The article follows:

             [From the Watertown Daily Times, Apr. 4, 1999]

    WWII Seaplane Crew Still Battling With Navy Red Tape Over Medals

                            (By Alan Emory)

       Washington--One of the most daring exploits of World War II 
     took place in the water off Kobe, Japan, on July 24, 1945.
       The war itself ended about a month later.
       For the pilot, copilot and crew of the huge Patrol Bomber 
     Martin (PBM) seaplane that plucked a U.S. airman out of the 
     water as Japanese boats headed for him, however, a post-war 
     battle with Navy bureaucracy is still going on, nearly 54 
     years later.
       The men, now all in their 70s, were promised certain 
     medals--a Navy Cross for pilot Robert H. Macgill of Miami, 
     Fla., and Silver Stars for the others. All agree the pilot 
     regularly receives the highest honor because he makes the key 
     decisions.
       When medals were awarded however, Mr. Macgill received a 
     Silver Star and the others Air Medals, which are given to any 
     service personnel performing five flights in a combat area.
       Though disappointed, the fliers accepted their downgraded 
     decorations without complaint, but a Korean War fighter pilot 
     heard about the situation and launched an appeal to the Navy 
     Department with the help of the PBM copilot, David C. Quinn.
       The Navy rejected the appeal, saying the deadline for such 
     awards had expired. Last year, however, the ``Mariner/Marlin 
     Association Newsletter'' reported that a 1997 law had waived 
     the time limitation, and many war heroes had medal 
     eligibility restored.
       The Navy stood its ground, however, so Mr. Quinn, a North 
     Salem, N.Y., lawyer and husband of syndicated columnist Jane 
     Bryant Quinn, took his case to Rep. Sue W. Kelly, R-Katonah, 
     and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan D-N.Y. The evidence was 
     reviewed, and they agreed the higher-level medals should be 
     awarded.
       Their case took on added political clout when one of the 
     crewmen, Jerrold A. Watson, now a peach grower in Monetta, 
     S.C., turned out to be a constituent of both Chairman Floyd 
     Spence, R-S.C., of the House Armed Services Committee, and 
     Sen. J. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., former chairman of the Senate 
     Armed Services Committee.
       Sen. Moynihan called the rescue of the downed Corsair 
     fighter pilot, Ensign Edwin A. Heck, 22, of Barrackville, 
     W.Va., ``an act of bravery deserving of high recognition.''
       Rep. Kelly said the ``extraordinary rescue,'' in the water 
     off Japan's fourth largest city, merited ``something more 
     than an Air Medal.''
       She rejected the finding by Karen S. Heath, principal 
     deputy to the Navy's chief of manpower and reserve affairs, 
     that the awards were appropriate, countering that they 
     resulted from ``errors in Navy records.''
       Last September, then-Navy Secretary John H. Dalton told 
     Sen. Moynihan that upgrading the Quinn medal was ``not 
     warranted,'' and the Air Medal was ``appropriate and 
     consistent'' with those awarded at the time.
       The Navy argued steadily that there was no documentary 
     proof that a Navy Cross for Mr. Macgill and Silver Stars for 
     his crew had actually been recommended, although all involved 
     signed affidavits that they had been promised those medals.
       A declassified Navy memorandum six months after the rescue 
     shows that Mr. Macgill had been recommended for a Navy Cross, 
     though it does not affirm the oral recommendation for the 
     Silver Stars for Mr. Quinn and the others.
       Mr. Quinn says that, instead of a trio of ``antique, 
     disjointed medal-beggars,'' they were bolstered by the 
     discovery that Mr. Macgill was alive in Miami.
       His address was found by a computer search, with a phone 
     number that gave only a recorded response, but he received a 
     forwarded letter and, last Oct. 30, phoned Mr. Quinn and 
     confirmed the original medal recommendations.
       The PBM seaplane, known in Navy slang as a Dumbo because of 
     its size, was part of a rescue squadron stationed at Okinawa 
     on the seaplane tender Pine Island. Their mission was to 
     rescue airmen shot down while raiding Japanese installations.
       Their aircraft was enormous, with a wingspread equal to the 
     height of a 12-story building, and was very slow.
       On July 24, 1945, Mr. Heck was shot down and floated in a 
     life jacket for about five hours in Kobe harbor. A radio call 
     asked, ``Is there a Dumbo in the area?'' and the Macgill 
     crew answered affirmatively. Sixteen Corsair fighters 
     formed an escort and strafed Japanese boats trying to 
     reach Mr. Heck.
       The PBM flew over the docks of Kobe at an altitude of about 
     400 feet, with people standing there watching, according to 
     the Nov. 16, 1998, deposition of Mr. Macgill. The fighter 
     escort, getting low on fuel, had to leave.
        A Japanese fighter made a run at the PMB, and shore 
     batteries opened antiaircraft fire, but, Mr. Macgill says, it 
     was ``amazing'' that they were not shot down. More than 14 
     hours after they had left Okinawa, they returned, hugging the 
     Japanese coast, with the rescued fighter pilot.
       The official Navy report said, ``The Dumbo, sweating out 
     the remaining fuel, returned to Okinawa at 300 feet altitude 
     and approximately 10 miles offshore.''
       Mr. Macgill, quoting Navy officers there, said they 
     believed it was ``impossible'' to achieve an air-sea rescue 
     on Japan's mainland.
       ``I distinctly recall,'' he said, that Squadron Commanding 
     Officer Lt. Cmdr. William Bonvillian and Capt. William L. 
     Erdmann, Greenburg, Ind., the officer in charge of rescue 
     missions, had both said they were urging the Navy Cross for 
     Mr. Macgill and Silver Stars for the others.
       ``My original memory was correct,'' he said, and the 
     confusion over his own medal was never carried over to the 
     ``unquestioned recommendation'' that the others in the crew 
     receive Silver Stars.
       Mr. Quinn maintains that an official Navy account, marked 
     ``Secret,'' disputes the finding that his rescue occurred 
     ``seven miles southwest of Kobe'' and therefore, should be 
     lumped in with other missions.
       A Smithsonian Institution Press book about the exploits of 
     28 World War II combat pilots in their own words includes the 
     Quinn story because of the uniqueness of air-sea rescues and 
     the high-risk Kobe flight.
       One war correspondent wrote that it was ``perhaps the most 
     daring and the most spectacular of all Pacific air-sea 
     rescues,'' the first into the Inland Sea, with the downed 
     pilot within the sight of people walking the streets of Kobe.
       Judi Briner of St. Louis, daughter of PBM crewman Robert 
     Briner, who has terminal cancer, told Mr. Quinn she would 
     like to see Rep. Ike Shelton, D-Mo., an influential member 
     of the House Armed Services Committee, brought into the 
     case.
       Ironically, Mr. Quinn found out that another St. Louis 
     resident, whose plea for a Bronze Star for his great-uncle 
     had been ignored for more than a year, received the medal two 
     weeks after Rep. Jim Talent, R-Mo., got in touch with the 
     Army. It came along with a letter entitled, ``Expedite/
     Congressional Interest.''
       The Navy's Awards Branch has never challenged the 
     description of the PMB crew's combat bravery. Instead, Mr. 
     Quinn asserts, its accounts of the medal dispute are 
     ``diametrically opposed'' and, he feels, are ``tainted and 
     (should be) disallowed.''
       A former assistant state attorney general, he says he flew 
     Navy planes for 26 years, four in World War II, and he holds 
     a Vietnam War Campaign Medal. He says, ``I do not easily 
     throw in towels.''
       Richard Danzig, the new Navy secretary, who is scheduled to 
     address the National Press Club on Tuesday, told Sen. 
     Moynihan Jan. 28 that the Navy Awards Branch was reviewing 
     the documents.
       At a March 11 Capitol Hill meeting with key lawmakers and 
     their aides, Ms. Heath said the Navy had, since the 50th 
     anniversary of World War II, been ``inundated with requests'' 
     for a new look at the war's awards, and Jeane Kirk, her aide, 
     insisted the Quinn situation was ``not all that unique.''
       Congressional staffers raised the possibility of a 
     ``bureaucratic snafu'' leading to the medal downgrades. They 
     stressed that the PBM mission was ``different,'' but the Navy 
     could not explain why it had not been treated that way.
       The congressional pressure, however, did have an impact.
       The Navy officials promised to ``reboard,'' or review, the 
     case with a panel of four ``senior captains.''
       Secretary Danzig had promised a ``careful study.''
       Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, the senior New 
     Yorker on the House Armed Services Committee, feels that if 
     the issue were brought before the full New York congressional 
     delegation and, possibly, the committee, it would receive a 
     sympathetic hearing.

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