This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Michael Frederick, DK2
to remember
McWhorter III, Hamilton (Mac), CDR USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Last Address Athens
Date of Passing Apr 12, 2008
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Retired in El Cajon, California. Co-author of a book on his experiences in WWII, "First Hellcat Ace."
Other Comments:
Flew 89 combat missions during WWII.
US Navy's first Hellcat ace, ultimately downing twelve Japanese aircraft in the F6F.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
