Andy Cowan
http://untoldvalor.blogspot.com/search/label/Andy%20Cowan

This video is awesome. Read the story before you watch it. Incredible.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166330178234459087

 Point of interest...about 3 minutes 20 seconds into the clip, you will see an F6F Hellcat, it's hydraulics shot away during a strafing run, pancake on the carrier deck and slew into the island. A deckhand was crushed between the aircraft and the superstructure and killed. The number on the plane is 30.

The lanky pilot sitting dazed in the cockpit is a gentleman named Andy Cowan, . He is hale and hearty at 87 and lives just north of Salinas, Ca. To this day he cannot recall this accident without a tear coming to his eye. The swabby who was killed was his crew chief.

Andy is a marvel. He has absolute total recall of those bygone days. He is regularly invited back to the Naval War College to give a power point demonstration to the young fighter jocks of today's Navy. They hang on his every word. A living link to the past..to the days when you got up close and personal to kill the enemy. No over-the-horizon missile kills..

Andy was the longest serving Navy fighter pilot in WWII. He was on his shakedown cruise off Gitmo on December 7th, 1941. The carrier Ranger made flank speed to Norfolk and the pilots were transhipped to San Francisco by train, then sped to Hawaii by ship. He saw Pearl not long after the sneak attack, and again is unable to speak of it...a horrible disaster. He immediately went aboard the Lexington and in the course of the war had 4 carriers shot out from under him as he fought in every major Pacific battle. Coral Sea, Midway, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima...you name it. Credited with 4.5 kills. Flew with Butch O'Hare, Cmdr Thatch (inventor of the "Thatch Weave"), flew with high scoring ace David McCampbell...served under Admirals Nimitiz, Bull Halsey...

He has studied the Japanese side of the Pacific War and is a recognized expert on their side of it. He can reel off the names of all their capital ships and admirals and battles from memory. Remarkable man...and still alive to tell the tale...

FROM ANOTHER NAVAL RESEARCHER:

Not only is there no Andy Cowan in ANY USN Fighter Squadron in 1942, there is no such officer in the USN/USNR in 1942 per the Registers...and "rant mode" does cover anyone claiming to be one of the USN "many" in 1944-45 let alone one of the "few" in 1942.

I've run into three such individuals in the last year ... funny how they were all there winning the war but they never made a squadron roster or, more importantly, a flight schedule.  Of course, the average joker doesn't expect to run into someone that knows there are such things let alone carries such around in his briefcase ...
BARRETT RESUMES:
 
c. 1994 I read in the Naval Station Mayport paper about a continuing education instructor aboard a frigate.  He was quite the hero: a triple ace & retired admiral.  Never heard of him.  But he had his career all laid out: land-based in the Solomons ("The Satan of the Slot") then gunnery officer on a destroyer escort, USS Land o' Lakes, complete with a hull number.  (Honest--I couldn't make that up and I've written a bunch of novels.)  So I wrote the paper and the FFG skipper.  Besides the fact that Dr. Frank Olynyk's USN victory list failed to mention the fake, I informed the professional naval officers in Mayport that the US Navy named DEs for genuine heros, not dairy farms...
 
Time passed.
 
Eventually I got a response saying that "No disrespect was intended to our USN Fighting Men and Women of WW II."
 
c. mid 90s I learned of a Florida modelers club that had recently honored "Colonel John C. Meyer," WW II ace and Korean War star.  (What IS it about Florida?)  Aside from the fact that JCM had been a four-star general, I thought that the babes in the woods modelers might like to know that JCM had died about 15 years before.
 
They didn't believe me.
 
Finally got a couple other aceologists to convince the modelers that they'd been played like trout on a line.
 
I've even met a gal who claimed she was an Israeli F-4 pilot but couldn't discuss details owing to Security.  Heaven knows how many people she snookered.

Occasionally I work with a Vietnam War MoH recipient in nailing phonies--he says they still pop up every few months or so.  It really is astonishing how people neglect to access all the easy information available in The Info Age.

BT

September 13, 2008

WWII ace captivated students

As a teacher at North Monterey County High School, Bob Agan appreciated Andy Cowan dropping by his class to talk about World War II.

Agan's students appreciated Cowan's visits, too.

Cowan was, after all, one of the many but dwindling number of Salinas-area residents who fought in that cataclysmic conflict.

As a carrier pilot in the South Pacific, he'd flown in most major battles - Midway, the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Santa Cruz, to name a few.

Three times he'd returned from missions against Japanese forces only to glance down into that warm blue ocean and find his carrier gone, sunk by enemy fire.

"Andy was a classic Greatest Generation guy," said one of Cowan's friends, Jim Gordon of Prunedale.

Cowan passed away Aug. 28. One of his friends called Agan to say that Cowan had suffered a stroke and had been taken to the hospital, where he died.

At North County High, Cowan would stride to the front of Agan's U.S. history class.

Cowan stood 5-foot-8-inches tall, yet his was a sturdy frame, a commanding, square-jawed presence, even though he was approaching 90.

"Andy had a handshake that would crush mine," Agan said.

Having flown so many combat missions, Cowan had much to tell his young listeners, and they tuned in to his every word.

Several times he was shot down while strafing enemy positions, Gordon said. Once, a U.S. submarine rescued the downed pilot.

In another episode, a Hollywood crew was aboard one of Cowan's carriers making a promotional film for the military.

Suddenly, it found itself capturing a news moment as Cowan, flying his crippled Hellcat, was forced to crash-land the plane on deck.

"The hydraulics had been shot out and one wheel wouldn't go down," Agan said.

For a decade, Cowan had been coming to speak to the North County class. He spoke to citizen groups, too, and to pilot groups. He developed a Power Point presentation on his subject, and his total recall of details - the times, the ships, the admirals - astonished listeners, Agan said.

Cowan was invited to the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, to speak to its young pilots eager to know about World War II flying experiences.

"He always received a standing ovation," Gordon said.

At the time of his death, Cowan was 88. He's survived by a son living in New Zealand. Cowan's wife, Frederica, or "Freddie," died 10 years ago.

I've always felt that the Salinas area, with its Fort Ord ties and its many retired veterans, has a rich historical legacy as far as World War II and other wars, too, are concerned.

Over time, I've interviewed residents who fought on Iwo Jima or in Normandy or who survived the Bataan Death March.

Like Cowan, several spoke to students and adult groups about their experiences.

Anyone who has had the privilege of hearing them, as with Agan's students, gained a better sense of what America and the American character at its best is all about.

http://www.legacy.com/montereyherald/obituaries.asp?Page=SEARCHRESULTS