NOTAM 6-2013 (Herlihy)

Major George B. Herlihy, USMC (Ret)

Dear Golden Eagles,

It is my sad duty to report that Major George B. Herlihy, USMC (Ret), age 93, made his Last Take-Off on 5 August 2013 at his home in Santa Ana, CA. He is survived by his wife, Bobbe, his daughter, Terri Tobin-Quereto, and sons, George, Michael, and Patrick, and their families. His wishes were that he be cremated and that no memorial service be conducted.

Major “ Jug “ Herlihy was inducted into the Golden Eagles in 2012 and was thus able to attend our Reunions in Orlando and Scottsdale. At both reunions he was accompanied by Bobbe and by their daughter, Terri, and, in their words, Jug’s induction into the Golden Eagles was one of the most important events of his long life.
Jug was born in 1920 in Maryland, but the family moved to Arizona soon after. He spent his formative years in the Tucson area, attended primary school and high school in the same one room schoolhouse. He attended the University of Arizona through the NROTC program, graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and was commissioned a 2/Lt in the Marine Corps.
   
Jug began his service to the Nation in May 1941 and subsequently received his wings one year later in May 1942. After training as a dive bomber pilot, Jug proceeded to the South Pacific and Guadalcanal where after his arrival in October 1942 he flew fifty-one combat sorties with VMSB-132. On one of those missions in June 1943 he experienced an engine failure over the target area and was forced to ditch at sea. After a successful water landing, Jug and his trusty rear gunner extricated themselves from the airplane, boarded their raft and headed for a nearby island. After encountering native islanders, their escapades over the next few days are the stuff of legend as they travelled by canoe, were shelled by Japanese shore batteries, were picked up by a PT boat which subsequently ran aground, transferred to another PT boat which also ran aground and was destroyed by enemy fire. They fortunately escaped injury, jumped into the water, swam to yet a third PT boat, and eventually were returned by LST to Guadalcanal from which Jug and his gunner then continued flying combat missions. His squadronmate and fellow Golden Eagle, Col Hap Simpson, calls Jug a no nonsense and highly capable combat pilot who, as one of the most junior pilots in the squadron, was designated a section leader well ahead of more senior pilots, a clear testament to his flying and fighting skills.

Jug returned to the US in October 1943, transitioned to fighters flying the F4U, and was later returned to combat in December 1944 as a pilot in VMF-113. He remained overseas until the end of the war, and at the conclusion of hostilities he had completed an additional forty combat missions flying in the Marianas and Okinawa campaigns.  
After the war a series of administrative and training assignments followed, but further combat operations (forty additional missions) awaited him in Korea where he was assigned to night fighters with VMFN-513 flying the F4U-5N from December 1950 to May 1951.
 
Following his service in Korea, Jug proceeded through a series of additional administrative and training assignments that led up to his subsequent retirement from the Marine Corps in 1961. His post retirement activities included working for the Rockwell Corporation on the Minuteman Missile Program from 1961 until 1985, and then running his own industrial tool business in Santa Ana until 2004.

For those of us who had the opportunity to meet and chat with Jug and his wife Bobbe at our Orlando and Scottsdale Reunions, I am certain that all of us came away with the same assessment. Here was a man who had earned three DFC’s and seven air medals for exceptional achievements in combat and who at age 93, possessing all his faculties, still had the aura of a warrior about him and who continued to enjoy a wonderful zest for life. There was no doubt that he was a Great American. We have lost another member of the Greatest Generation.

He will be missed.

In sadness,
Fred Lewis-Pilot