After meeting his parents-in-law at Naval Training Station Sampson and visiting his family in Athens, McWhorter was posted to the reforming VF-12 as one of its veteran cadre. The Essex arrived at San Francisco on March 10, and her pilots dispersed for a month-long leave. I let him have a burst and set him afire." He could have got me, but strangely, he didn't fire either. Less than a mile away another Zero (later identified as " Hamp") was bearing down on me. The other two ran right into my sights, one after the other, inside ten seconds and went down.
The first had a perfect bead on me, but for some reason didn't fire and Bud knocked him down. In his memoirs, McWhorter described the engagement: "My wingman and I ran into three Zekes. He thus became the first Hellcat double ace and the first carrier pilot double ace. During the February 17, 1944, Operation Hailstone airstrikes on Truk, McWhorter downed three Zeroes, bringing his score to ten victories. The Hellcat sustained bullet holes on both sides of the fuselage and several that went straight through each wing. McWhorter's Hellcat was hit several times in the attack, but he was able to land on the Essex. On a mission escorting SBD Dauntless dive bombers over Rabaul on November 11, 1943, McWhorter downed two Zeroes. Plaque of McWhorter at the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame Japanese Mitsubishi A6M (Zeros) from the Japanese aircraft Zuikaku preparing to take off at Rabaul, November 1943. McWhorter later stated that he only fired one shot because the plane blew up. The men in his unit said he was conserving the taxpayers' money by only firing one slug.
The plane exploded and McWhorter earned his first enemy kill. He was nicknamed "One Slug" McWhorter after his first kill over Wake Island on October 5, 1943, when McWhorter flew into a formation of Japanese Zeroes and fired one. In May 1943 VF-9 departed for the Pacific Theater aboard the newly commissioned carrier USS Essex. During this period at Norfolk McWhorter met Louise Edel, the daughter of a Navy chaplain, and they married on January 16. McWhorter found the Hellcat a "dream to fly" and much superior to the Wildcat. Based at nearby NAS Oceana from December, VF-9 converted to the new F6F-3 Hellcat in early 1943, among the first squadrons to receive them. After Vichy French resistance ceased, the Ranger returned to Norfolk. McWhorter flew in an airstrike against Casablanca when the invasion began on November 8. In early October he and the squadron embarked aboard the USS Ranger for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy French North Africa. Advancing to carrier training on the F4F Wildcat at Naval Air Station Norfolk, McWhorter joined Fighting Squadron 9 ( VF-9), based at East Field on NAS Norfolk, after completing the program in late April. He graduated from flight school on January 28, 1942, and was commissioned as an ensign on February 9. McWhorter was selected for fighter training and arrived for training in Miami on December 24, 1941. Navy career Japanese ship under attack during the air raid at Rabaul Harbor November 1943. He attended Civilian Pilot Training in 1939 and entered the Navy flight program in August 1941. He was enrolled at the University of Georgia from 1939 to 1941. When he was nine years old, his father got him on his first flight, which was in a Ford Tri-Motor. Hamilton McWhorter III was born in 1921 to a middle-class family. On May 23, 2014, he was also posthumously awarded the American Fighter Aces Congressional Gold Medal, when the United States Congress collectively awarded the gold medal to all flying aces: a navy pilot is depicted on the medal in the upper right. He flew 89 combat missions during World War II while flying with the VF-9 and VF-12 units. He was the first Hellcat ace, first USN carrier-based double ace, and the first Grumman F6F Hellcat pilot to achieve double ace status. Commander Hamilton McWhorter III (February 8, 1921 – April 12, 2008) was a United States Navy aviator and a flying ace of World War II, credited with shooting down twelve Japanese aircraft.
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