who was major general marion carl why was he unique to marine corps and aviation history
were his achievements as a test pilot as well as in combat
and how did he spend his retirement years and how did his amazing life tragically
mary and carl's amazing flying career spanned from world war ii the korean war and the vietnam war
marion eugene carl was born on november 1st 1915 in hubbard oregon and attended
oregon state university in corvallis where he studied aeronautical engineering and joined the
army rotc program while at college he took flying lessons and amazingly soloed after only two hours
and 35 minutes of dual instruction in the taylor j2 cub graduating from college in 1939 he resigned
from the army and decided on a marine option and he graduated flight school in pensacola florida
in december of 1939 marion was a naturally gifted pilot his unit flew the f2f brewster buffalo
and then they were handed the f4 f3 wildcat after they arrived at midway island ironically
one of carl's students was a newly commissioned marine lieutenant named joseph foss
joseph foss and marion carl would serve later with marine legend indian joe bauer
at guadalcanal the japanese attack on midway island on june 4th 1943 by more than 100
aircraft of the imperial japanese navy was carl's first day of war
radar gave the marine and navy pilots time to take off and engage the enemy carl's first engagement
saw his wildcat getting hit by enemy rounds so he performed some aerobatics and climbed into a cloud
slipping his fighter using the rudder he made the a6m20 behind him overshoot
he managed to fire his guns but they jammed and the enemy zero broke off contact
clearing his guns he came across another lone zero and shot it down for his first victory
carl's f4f and another f2f booster buffalo landed they saw that midway was destroyed and 15 of
the 25 fighters that had scrambled that morning failed to return his unit vmf 221 cease to exist
captain marion carl and the few remaining pilots joined vmf 223
vmf being the designation for marine fighters formed by major john l smith their 19 wildcats
flew from the uss long island and landed at their new base on guadalcanal khalsan cactus
carl and his unit racked up an impressive list of kills but on august 26 1942 crawl faced perhaps
his toughest opponent imperial japanese naval ace lieutenant jg junichi sasai with 27 victories
and the one time squadron leader of siberia sakai jumped carl as he was landing but carl
pulled his wheels up and climbed into the head-on attack sliding to the right firing into the zero
carl was later shot down the following month in september and had to bail out
finally making it back to base five days later carl and major smith were in competition to be
the leading ace with foss not far behind as carl had 16.5 victories and the navy cross smith had
19 victories in the medal of honor and foss ended the war with 26 victories marion carl
was soon thereafter promoted to major and took over the command of the squadron returning to el
toro california marion carl reorganized vmf 223 and married his sweetheart edna kirbyn
in july vmf-223 returned to the war posted to vela lavella in the solomon islands they would make
routine missions to a ball on new georgia where the best japanese navy pilots were located carl
shot down two more enemies scoring 18.5 victories but he was returned to the states assigned to the
first class at the naval test pilot school at patuxent river maryland where he remained
through the end of the war carl later became a navy test pilot setting a world speed record
of 651 miles per hour on august 25th 1947 at murak field now edwards air force base
in 1953 he set a world altitude record of 83 235 feet he became the first marine to land a jet
on a carrier and the second marine ever to fly helicopters marion carl commanded marine corps
first jet squadron vmf-122 flying mcdonald fh1 phantoms but he later returned to flight testing
and in 1953 flew the douglas white d-5582 to a record 83 235 feet and that was when he set the
unofficial speed record of 1100 miles per hour in 1949 carl's flying skills saved his life when the
f9f panther he was flying at night lost all power and electrics he managed to deadstick land no
instruments no landing lights and with a frozen windscreen quite impressive in april 1952 while
testing the grumman af2 guardian anti-submarine aircraft he had to manually bail out when the
ejection system failed carl applied for the space program he was well qualified unfortunately he was
too tall to fit into a space capsule so the next choice was another marine pilot named john glenn
in 1965 carl was a brigadier general and flew the a4 skyhawks f4 phantoms and f8 crusaders but he
mainly flew h-34 helicopters in the uh-1 gunships in 1967 he took his last command at cherry point
north carolina he retired in 1973 with 13 000 flying hours and 21 decorations on june 28 1998
in his roseburg oregon home at age 82 mary and carl comfortably in retirement confronted an
armed intruder named jesse stewart fanus age 19. what happened was fanus was armed with a shotgun
and after kicking in the door had fired and wounded marion's wife edna in the head
marion carl confronted the intruder to protect his wife but he was killed by a blast from the shotgun
fantas after the murder made off with a few hundred dollars in cash and their
car keys but was later caught in california extradited convicted and sentenced to death
but that sentence was later commuted to life in prison major general marion carl
was buried in arlington national cemetery not far from his friend and marine moh recipients
joe foss and ken walsh in 2001 carl was inducted into the national aviation hall of fame marine
corps air station kaneohe hawaii also rededicated that in his name in 2009. marion carl was a quiet
war hero thoughtful gentleman always polite always generous with his time when people met
him they would never suspect that there was a world-class warrior within unless they knew him
for more on the life and career of mary and carl i highly recommend his autobiography
pushing the envelope written with our mutual friend and prominent historian barrett tillman
we hope you enjoyed this segment of forgotten history please click like and subscribe for free
and please stay tuned and be engaged and informed send us comments if you have questions or even
show ideas and we will respond to all requests and comments as soon as we can thank you
you