Oral History Interview with Doy Duncan, September 18, 2004

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Doy Duncan. He begins by speaking about finishing high school in Arkansas, looking for work, joining the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), enrolling in junior college, joining the Navy and evetually taking Civilian Pilot Training before being called into the Navy. His battalion commander at Preflight School at Chapel Hill, North Carolina was Gerald R. Ford, the future president. He passed and evetually made it into dive bomber training in Glenview, Illinois where he practiced carrier landings on Lake Michigan. Before shipping out, he was switched to a fighter unit assigned to the USS Kadashan Bay (CVE-76). Duncan speaks of attacking targets on Peleliu with napalm. Next, Duncan describes his actions at the Battle off Samar. He speaks of attacking the ships of the Japanese Fleet pursuing Taffy 3. His plane was damaged and he had to make a water landing. His plane sank too fast for him to retrieve his life raft and he saw sharks beginning to circle. A torpedo bomber flew over and tossed out a life raft for him. Duncan managed managed to paddle to Samar in a few days where he fell in with Filipino guerrillas led by an American who escaped capture in 1942 when Bataan and Corregidor fell. After three weeks, he was resuced and returned to his ship in time for the invasion of Mindoro. When the Kadashan bay was struck by a kamikaze, Duncan went to the USS Marcus Island (CVE-77). Eventually, he made his way back to his ship, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and got out of the military in September 1945