Marion Carl grew up on a dairy farm outside of tiny Hubbard, Oregon. He squeaked through Oregon State, then went on to be one of the 50 fighter pilots in the pre-war Marine Corps. He was one of the 9 pilots to survive the Battle of Midway from his squadron, VMF-221.
Two months later, he became the first Marine Corps ace while flying with John L Smith and VMF-223 at Guadalcanal. He returned to the U.S. to be feted as the hero of the hour, and the PR guys had high hopes for Marion, since he was tall, charismatic and possessed the winning mile you see in the photo here.
They sent him out on tour with John L and LTC Richard Mangrum, skipper of the first dive bomber unit to fight at Guadalcanal. He hated the press tour. Loathed it. The reporters annoyed him, the attention annoyed him. He fell asleep in press conferences. Sat and said as little as possible in other ones, chewing his nails and counting the seconds he could get away. He wasn’t made to be a celebrity. He was meant to fly and fight.
In early 1943, he returned to VMF-223 as its skipper and took it out to the Solomons for a second combat tour. He should a couple more planes down, returned to the States to become one of the legendary test pilots in American history.
He flew and fought through the rest of his career, from secret recon runs over China in the 1950s, to taking the 1st Marine Brigade into Vietnam in 1965, where as a brigadier general he flew combat missions in support of his men in both jets and helicopters. He retired as a major general in 1973, with over 13,000 hours in his logbook and is considered one greatest military aviators in American history. His story formed the basis of Fifty-Three Days on Starvation Island.
The American Warrior 