Ep 15 Howard Leon Whetten Pt 2 ✈️ Midnight’s Watery Grave

Howard Leon Whetten: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/KWCB-QL4
Family Tree 🌳 ID: KWCB-QL4

In part 2 of this story, the “ordinary life” of Howard Leon Whetten evolves into some extraordinary experiences as he faces certain death in the midnight plunge of his B-24 Bomber into the dark watery grave of the oceans surrounding the Solomon Islands. This very first bombing run turns the simple life into a battle for life. From his home in New Mexico, to the wild legends of the Solomon Islands, Leon’s life is left in the hands of fate & God.

People
Howard Leon Whetten, B-24 Bomber Assistant Radio Operator & Tail Gunner
Keith Mason, 460th Bomb Group Pilot
Abraham Wald, Polish Immigrant & Jewish Mathematician
Russell Brunson
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Army Air Corp
U.S. Naval Intelligence
Japanese
Polish
U.S. Marines
Heavenly Father
Jesus Christ
Mormon
2nd Lieutenant Lord, B-24 Bomber Pilot
2nd Lieutenant Radford, B-24 Bomber co-Pilot
2nd Lieutenant Roark, B-24 Bomber Navigator
2nd Lieutenant Potter, B-24 Bomber Bombadier
Ed Semick, B-24 Bomber Engineer & Nose Turret Gunner
Robert Chapman (Chappy), B-24 Bomber Radio Operator
Claude Meyers, B-24 Bomber Side Gunner
Harold Ewing, B-24 Bomber Side Gunner
Kenneth Winham, B-24 Bomber Gunner
Frankenstein
Orson Wells
Jack Benny, The Jello Program
Bob Hope, Pepsodent Show

Locations
Arizona
Mexico
New Mexico
Pearl Harbor
Columbia University
Eastern Europe 
Poland
South Pacific
Guadalcanal 
Henderson Field, Guadalcanal 
Kukum Field, Guadalcanal 
Bougainville Island
Honiara Golf Course
Japan
Lunga Point, Guadalcanal 
Solomon Islands
United States of America 

Transcript

Here’s a quick recap from Pt 1 of this miraculous story, Howard Leon Whetten was born on a dairy farm in southern Arizona, lived in old Mexico for most of his youth and adolescent life, he then returned to New Mexico where he does back breaking work for $2 a day, he graduates high school at age 23, takes over as breadwinner of the household after his fathers final disabling head injury, Pearl Harbor is attacked, thousands of young men and women flock to join in the war effort, Howard’s farm employer acquires a war deferment for him, his father encourages Howard to give up his comforts and serve his country…as do the majority of his siblings. His father gave him a blessing assuring him protection if he kept his promises to God…and admonished Howard not to hate his enemies. Howard trains as a tail gunner on the B-24 Bomber because he was smaller in stature and could fit into the tail of the plane.  

Now to continue with the story…The B24 Bomber was not a marvel of aeronautical engineering. There was no time for that. It was a mass produced heavy capacity bomb hauling machine.

✅ As far as maneuvering: it was described as "tougher than a two dollar steak" by 460th Bomb Group pilot Keith Mason.

✅ When it comes to Flight Stability: Eh…marginal at best. One crewman said "You don't know what crap hittin' the fan means 'till you've seen a Liberator flip over on its side in the middle of a forty-plane formation". 

✅ That Ol metallic albatross would float like a lead balloon once once the pilot and copilot let go of the controls…so any escape from a stricken machine was extremely difficult

✅ Survivability in a crash: It was not so fondly labeled as “the flying coffin”.…according to pilots and crew.

Speaking of “survivability”, The saying goes that science advances one funeral at a time. Well in WW2 bomber survivorship advanced one missing bomber at a time. Let me explain how that kind of deduction is possible. 

During the war, bomber planes would come back from battle riddled with bullet holes. A statistical Research Group at Columbia University was asked to study the areas most commonly hit by enemy fire. Then, out of habit, they sought to strengthen those damaged parts to minimize bomber losses to enemy fire. Seems straightforward thinking…to most. 

Yet…In this Research Group was a Polish Immigrant and Jewish Mathematician by the name of Abraham Wald. Wald had recently fled to the United States. Since Wald was technically considered an enemy alien after his immigration from eastern Europe, his status was a bit unusual. 

There was a running joke in the research group that Wald’s secretaries had to snatch his notes and essays out of his hands as soon as he was finished writing them because he didn’t have the proper security clearance to read his own work. 

As the research group mulled over how to sensibly distribute the added armor to the areas of heaviest hits, it was this Abraham Wald who pointed out from his examination of a “Survivorship Bias theory” that there was potentially a different way to look at, or beyond, the data. “What of those planes that are NOT available for statistical inspection because they did NOT return? Perhaps the reason certain areas of the survivor planes aren’t covered in bullet holes is that planes that are shot in those areas gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We are only inspecting the bomber planes that come back from battle. What of those that dont?”

Wald derived a useful means of estimating the damage distribution for all aircraft that flew, from the data on the damage distribution of all aircraft that returned.

This revelatory insight led to the armor being reinforced on the parts of the plane where there were NO bullet holes. Mind blowing right? The story behind the data is arguably more important than the data itself. As Russell Brunson would say, “Failure is data.” And in order to see the failure, sometimes we have to consider the missing data.

On March 24, 1943, 8 months after his intensive training began, Howard Leon Whetten was sent to the South Pacific where he served with the Army Air Corp on Guadalcanal and other islands. Their mission…well, simply put…it was dropping bombs on Japanese ships.

If you recall the Admiral Isoroku (eye-sew-Roku) Yamamoto in the previous episode….he was the strategist responsible for the planning and execution of the attack on Pearl Harbor…well it just so happens that on april 14, just 3 weeks after Howard landed at Henderson field on the Guadalcanal, the U.S. naval intelligence effort code-named "Magic" intercepted and decrypted orders alerting affected Japanese units of a tour Admiral Yamamoto’s transport plane (G4 M1 Betty, a Japanese Bomber Type) would be traveling from one island to another for inspections. 

The U.S. military saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eliminate the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The mission, hailed as the longest intercept mission of WW2, was about 500 miles northwest of Guadalcanal. MISSION VENGENCE was put into play on April 18, 1943, as a squadron of 18, P38 G Lightnings, launched an intercept attack from Kukum Field on Guadalcanal. Yamamoto’s plane was hit by bursts of cannon and machine gun fire forcing it to go down in an explosive impact into the jungles of Bougainville Island.

Kukum Airfield remained operational after the war as a civilian airfield until 1969. The airfield was eventually transformed into the Honiara GolfCourse. Make Par…not war.

Howard spent a good amount of time at a runway that had previously been captured from the Japanese and renamed Henderson Airfield.

During his years of service he and the crew made several um, well several of what the airmen fondly and sarcastically referred to as “water landings”, which means that their plane went down, involuntarily, into the ocean, and if they survived for long enough, and could be found, they were then rescued. 

Howard Leon Whetten felt that his life was miraculously spared numerous times, and in the recollection of the following occasion is a complex miracle from many directions that spared his life.

The air base at Lunga Point on the Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands was captured from the Japanese by US Marines on the 8th of August 1942, just a month after its construction had begun. Shortly thereafter it was named Henderson Field, and it became the closest airfield to the area of Japanese occupation. It was such a great strategic location that the Japanese tried numerous times over the following year to retake the air base. It was a pivotal location for the United States and its allys during the war. And is now the location of the Honiara International Airport.

The average air temperatures around the Solomon Islands in mid June are a high of 87 degrees Fahrenheit and a nighttime low of 73…Now that average only applies to ground level. It’s always colder at high altitudes, summer and winter. Temperature reduces with altitude by 10 degrees Fahr. every 3000 feet. Thus at 10,000 feet, where airmen usually require supplementary oxygen, it is usually freezing; with Solomon Islands ground level temperatures at +80F, temperatures at 20,000 feet altitude will be at a standard temperature of -24.6°C or -12.3°F. There is no HVAC system in the B24. There are no pressurized cockpits. Some positions are colder than others, but no one is quote/unquote “comfortable”. In addition because the plane is so mass produced, the fuel lines run inside the occupied bomber areas where there is a consistent smell of engine fuel.

Although it could rarely be seen through the overcast sky, the moon was nearly waxed full on that Wednesday evening of the 16th of June, 1943. In excess of 300 Allied aircraft were currently stationed at the base. 

(Howard) Dear Heavenly Father, please watch over us tonight….(fading)

(Crew member) Whetten, are you in here, we gotta go…

(Whetten) …in the name of Jesus Christ amen 

Just saying a prayer before we go 

(Crew member) - it’s not bedtime Whetten, it’s go time 

(Whetten) Absolutely, just wanted to invite the most important member of the crew to be with us tonight.

(Crew member) I hear that Whetten…say, I hear you is a Mormon.

(Whetten) yeah, thats a nickname actually…we prefer the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…Hey that reminds me, do you know how Mormon’s make holy water? 

(Crew member) No Idea?

(Whetten) We boil the hell out of it. Lol

(Crew member) You are a riot Whetten. Let’s just hope your aim tonight is as sharp as your witt.

Howard had been anxious all day in preparation for his FIRST bombing mission. His bomber and crew would be the last to take off, and it was just after 6pm that evening and nearly sundown by the time they got into the air. Obvious strategy found it better to bomb the enemy targets at night so that the bombers wouldn’t be as vulnerable to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft artillery. Now I am not part of this B24 Liberator Bomber’s 10 man crew, so I am gonna let Howard Leon Whetten tell you the rest of his story…

(Howard) Hello there, can you hear me ok? I guess you’ve gathered the gist of what got me to here. Its been a wet and sometimes miserable time. We dont get this kinda precipitation back home in New Mexico. Oh, and just so you know, I’m Leon now. Howard was my younger years. 

Let me introduce you to the crew.

There’s our Pilot, 2nd Lieutenant Lord

2nd Lieutenant Radford, is his co-pilot

As navigator we have 2nd Lieutenant Roark

Our bombardier is 2nd Lieutenant Potter  

Ed Semick is the engineer and nose turret gunner

Our radio operator is Robert Chapman (we call him Chappy)

Claude Meyers & Harold Ewing are side gunners

Kenneth Winham is an additional gunner

And the Assistand Radior Operater and tail gunner…well that’s me Howard Leon Whetten.  

(Leon) We haven’t been up in the air very long, and it seems that we’ve hit an electrical storm. We seemed to have lost the radios as well. The system shorts itself out quite easy to protect some of the more susceptible items…like the grey matter between our headsets. Nobody wants to be jolted like Frankenstein at this altitude. 

From where I am sitting as tail gunner I can see a streaking trail of static electricity streaming out behind us. It quite a phenomenal sight.

(Robert Chapman or Chappy) “Hey Whetten, Leon…who are you talking to back here?

(Howard Leon Whetten) Oh just sharing this journey on a podcast.

(Chappy) A Pod-what?

(Whetten) A podcast, kinda like a radio program, cept’n better…You know like Orson Wells, or Jack Benny on “the Jello Program”. Or even that new Pepsodent show with that young guy, whats his name? Bob Hope. You know Chappy if you live long enough you just might find out what a podcast is.

(Chappy) Well Whetten as eager as I am to repeat this dark night over the ocean, you and I will just have to wait to relive this moment we are currently in. Now I’m confused. Anyhow Lieutenant Lord said it was safe enough now to hook the radios back up just for communication between us. And I need your help Bob, I mean Jack, oh good grab Leon lets go.

(Potter) Lord…Radford, Can you hear me now…the radios seem to be working again….Um, well, I can’t find our target. Its pitch black except for the lightning. We’ve been wandering around for hours. I cant tell where we are or what direction we are supposed to be going.

(Lord) Were getting low on gas Radford. 

Bombardier Potter open the bomb bay doors and drop all the bombs to lighten our load. 

(Lieutenant Potter) Negative Lord, there’s no electricity. 

(Semick) I’ll bet we can jerry rig something Potter.

(Potter) you’re the engineer Semick…work your magic 

(Semick) Lets work on this hand crank, that should open the bay doors….there

(Potter) Lieutenant Lord, We got the doors open, but we cant cant move them bombs without electricity. I mean…even if we did get it part way out and it arms itself before we can push it out, we gotta do that a dozen times or more. 

(Lord) Copy that Potter…alright close the bay doors and we’ll try something else

(Potter) Yeah…thats the problem, the doors are jammed now. They are not gonna close. 

(Lord) Well Radford we are just about out of gas. 

The bomb bay doors are stuck open. 

We have no radio to tell anyone of our position. 

We have no instruments to even know our position. 

Its near midnight, pitch black…i cant see any sign of land, heck I cant even tell what direction we are going.

(Lieutenant Lord yelled over the speaker) “Get ready for a water landing boys!”

(Crew member) Wait, what?!? Landing on water? We ain’t ducks and this ain’t no pigboat? Did the full moon magically transform our B24 into a Seaplane? Or are we about to swim like rocks? 

(Lieutenant Potter) You know Lieutenant Lord, when my pappy gave me swimming lessons as a kid he took the boat out to the middle of the lake and just threw me overboard. It wasn’t so bad after I got out of the gunnysack.

(Lieutenant Lord) We’re about to find out if you remember how to get out of that burlap Lieutenant Potter.

(Potter) I guess this is where you tell us to put our seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions. 

I gotta tell you, a water landing does NOT sound good. I am sitting here in this “open-tail” turret with a flexible 50 caliber machine gun between my legs. I have a large heavy nylon strap about a foot wide holding me in the plane. A few seconds ago I didnt feel comfortable, but I did feel secure. Now I feel like its tethered me to a millstone. I dont know if or how fast I’ll be able to unbuckle the three smaller straps that run around this safety contraption. They’re a bugger to undo even after a flight…while on a stable solid airstrip. Now I am not worried about falling out, Im concerned about getting out.

On top of that I’m wearing a flight suit, which is pants, coat, hat, boots, and gloves. All of which are made from the wool sheepskin turned inside to keep us warm when we were flying at high altitudes. Warm yeah, they do warm reasonably, but wet, oh gosh, swimming in a pair of Levi’s is hard enough…this is not gonna be fun.

(Howard recalled, “I watched as the plane skimmed the top of the waves & then hit the water”)

(Leon) Please Heavenly Father, i cant get these straps undone, the tail is going underwater and I need your help….

(Strap breaking)

(Leon) …but how could a strap just break like that? 

(Still Small Voice) “Dive Leon! Dive quickly into the rising water and go down until you get under the sinking tail and then to come up to the surface.”

(Lieutenant Lord) Chappy are you ok? 

(Chappy) No Lieutenant Lord. I think my legs are broken. 

(Lieutenant Lord) Ewing…shine your light over that way…Good Heaven, that impact split the plane in half….look there…the tail section, it’s tipped upright and going straight under…did Leon get out of his tail gunner position? 

(Lieutenant Lord) Ewing can you see Whetten?

(Ewing) No Lieutenant…I cant see him.

(Chappy) Leon?!?

(Ewing) Leon!?!

(Lieutenant) LEON!(fading)

As I stated in part one of this story, sharing an account from someone I personally knew is a rare treat. You don’t want to miss the conclusion of Leon’s personal account woven into this part of some of our world’s most pivotal history moments. Please join me in the next episode for part 3 of this story as Leon stares into the face of death, and the miracles begin to stack up like a plate full of hot fluffy crispy edged pancakes🥞