In October 1943 Alexander Vraciu was the wingman of LCDR Edward “Butch” O’Hare, Medal of Honor winner and the Navy’s first ace of the Pacific War.  At the time O’Hare was the Commanding Officer of VF-6 aboard the USS Independence (CVL-22).  On 05OCT43 during a raid on Wake Island Vraciu and O’Hare became separated during combat with Japanese Zeros.  Vraciu followed a Zero back to Wake where it landed, where destroyed it along with a Betty bomber on the runway.

VF-6 Transferred to USS Intrepid (CV-11) where Vraciu added aerial victories to his score.  He shot down three Bettys in January and four Zeros over Truk during Operation Hailstone.  His best day was on 19JUN44 during the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot when he was credited with destroying six Judys in only eight minutes.

In December 1944 Vraciu was flying with VF-20 assigned to the USS Lexington (CV-16) over the Philippines.  On 14DEC44 his Hellcat was hit by flak over Luzon and he was forced to bail out.  He was rescued by Filipino guerrillas and spent five weeks in the jungle with them before returning to American lines.

Alexander Vraciu was the Navy’s fourth-highest scoring ace of WWII, credited with 19 aerial victories and another 21 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground.

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