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Donald Losey (Fallhiker), MM1
to remember
Galt, Dwight, LT.
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Contact Info
Date of Passing Mar 21, 1996
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Lieutenant (jg) Dwight Beebe Galt:
Navy Ace with 5 Aerial Victories to his credit.
Born in Hyattsville, Maryland on March 31, 1920
He took his flight training at NAS Pensecola and NAS Opa Locka Florida. After graduation on January 5, 1943 he received his commission as an Ensign.
On May 1, 1943 Ens. Galt was attached to the newly formed Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) under the command of Lt. Cmd. Robert Winston at NAS Atlantic City New Jersey. He served with VF-31 on board the USS Cabot from January 1944 through October 1944. During his tour of duty aboard USS Cabot he became a Naval Ace downing 5 enemy aircraft.
Engagements flown in which Lieutenant (jg) Galt shot down enemy aircraft:
Medals Awarded to Lieutenant (jg) Galt while serving with VF-31
Distinguished Flying Cross
Gold Star in lieu of 2nd Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal
Other Comments:
Galt, Dwight Beebe (Jr.)
b. 31 Mar 1920 - d. 21 Mar 1996 75 yrs. R67/217
Washington Post, April 3, 1996
Dwight B. Galt Jr.
Senate Official
Dwight B. Galt Jr., 75, a Placida, Fla., resident who had worked for the Daily Digest of the Senate for 29 years before retiring in 1978 as its editor, died March 21 at a hospital in Venice, Fla. He had lymphoma.
Mr. Galt, who moved to Florida in 1978, was born in Hyattsville and attended the University of Maryland.
He served in the Pacific during World War II, flying F6F Hellcat fighters from the carrier Cabot.
His wife, Bettie, died in 1986. Survivors include a son, Dwight III, of Silver Spring; two daughters, Deborah H.G. Vahle of White Plains, Md., and Kathryn Galt of Alexandria; and eight grandchildren.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.
