‘What Needed to Be Done - ’Veteran Served as Navigator on Aircraft Patrolling Gulf Coast During WWII

World War II veteran Lon Douglas served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Forces, helping conduct reconnaissance patrols along the Gulf Coast in search of enemy submarines. In this photograph, Douglas holds a display case containing military medals earned by both himself and his father, a World War I combat veteran. Courtesy of Jeremy P. Amick

During World War II, the military draft became the great equalizer, as young men from nearly every cross section of American society found themselves called to serve. Yet when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, Lon Douglas never waited to be drafted. Leaving behind his employment with the Burroughs Corporation in St. Louis, he joined several friends and voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces despite the sobering realities of war.

“I thought we ought to do something,” he once recalled. “It seemed like the country could use our help.”

Douglas later joked that one reason he chose the Army Air Forces was the possibility of working around aircraft while also enjoying the prospect of “a warm bed to sleep in at night.”

Following his induction at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis in February 1942, Douglas completed portions of his initial training at Tarrant Field near Fort Worth, Texas. He was then transferred to Foster Field, Texas, where he was classified for armament training.

“I was sent to Matagorda Peninsula Army Airfield to receive training on machine guns,” he explained. “The base was basically a sandbar off the coast of Texas with an airstrip and some barracks, and they used it to train pilots in fighter aircraft like the P-39s, P-40s and P-51s.”

There, the young airman learned to service and maintain .50-caliber aircraft machine guns, removing them from airplanes, performing repairs, reinstalling them and then carefully sighting the weapons. After serving in armament work for approximately a year, Douglas decided he wanted to fly.

“That’s when they sent me to Santa Ana, California, for a couple months of pre-flight training,” he said. “Since the pilot training program was filled with applicants, they offered me either bombardier or navigator training … so I chose navigator.”

His new assignment launched another rigorous period of instruction. Douglas was first sent to Indian Springs Army Airfield near Las Vegas for training aboard B-17 bombers, learning both defensive gunnery operations and aircraft systems. He later attended several weeks of classroom instruction at Drake University in Iowa, where cadets studied the mathematics and technical procedures required of navigators.

“Several months later, I received assignment to San Marcos Army Airfield in Texas, and that’s where we started flying,” he recalled. “We were assigned to a C-47 transport aircraft, and I began performing my navigational duties every day using all the instruments and sometimes navigating by the stars when we flew at night.”

Douglas explained that many of their flights followed a large triangular route from San Marcos to Tyler, Texas, then west toward New Mexico before returning to base.

“They were getting us prepared for the South Pacific, I imagine,” he said.

Soon, however, the mission changed.

Douglas and his fellow crewmen began spotting sunken ships in the Gulf of Mexico, many believed to have been destroyed by enemy submarines operating dangerously close to the American coastline. Rumors circulated that Japanese submarines might be active in the region, prompting military authorities to increase aerial reconnaissance patrols along the Gulf Coast and into the Caribbean.

“Instead of sending us overseas, we began flying to Florida and back—and sometimes down to the Yucatán—to conduct reconnaissance on the coastline and search for anything that looked like a Japanese submarine,” Douglas explained. “If we saw anything, we radioed back and reported it to the Navy, but from the air there was really no way to tell if they were ours or theirs.”

On several occasions, Douglas recalled seeing survivors from torpedoed merchant ships stranded in the water below. The flight crews could do little beyond radioing the ships’ locations to naval authorities.

When the war ended in 1945, Douglas remained at San Marcos performing miscellaneous duties while awaiting discharge orders. He was eventually transferred to Scott Field, Illinois, where he received his discharge in December 1945. Returning to St. Louis, the 23-year-old veteran resumed his civilian career with the Burroughs Corporation.

“Fortunately, I was able to return to my job with Burroughs and married my fiancée, Mary Lou, in 1948,” he recalled. “I stayed with the company for 42 years, retiring as a district products manager in 1984. That’s when we moved to Jefferson City, and we’ve been here ever since.”

Although proud of his service, Douglas admitted there remained painful memories associated with the war.

“It just felt like we were doing what needed to be done at the time,” he said. “We were young, and we accepted it.”

He particularly remembered friends who never returned home.

“I remember my friend Bob Barron, who was flying over Tokyo Bay in a P-51 Mustang after the war and had to bail out,” Douglas said. “The parachute came down on top of him, trapping him, and he drowned.”

Reflecting on his wartime experiences years later, Douglas quietly added, “If there is one thing I resent about my service in World War II, it is situations like that … knowing not all of my friends got to come back.”

Lon J. Douglas passed away on January 19, 2022, at the age of 100. Remembered by family and friends for his quiet patriotism and humility, he represented a generation that answered the nation’s call during one of history’s most difficult periods.
​
Jeremy P. Ämick is author of "Wings of a Patriot," biography of the late Major General Don D. Pittman. 

Following his discharge from the U.S. Army Air Forces in December 1945, Lon Douglas returned to St. Louis, resumed his civilian career with the Burroughs Corporation and later married his fiancée, Mary Lou, in 1948. Courtesy of Lon Douglas