July 1, 2024 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, he starred in “The Mark of Zorro” and many other movies, but his greatest role—at the height of his acting career—was serving his country during World War II as a Marine. Here to tell the story is Roger McGrath.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for another of Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes to War stories.
Here's McGrath with the story of Tyrone Power.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The great art throb for female moviegoers in the late
nineteen thirties and early nineteen forties was Tyrone Power. He
was young, strikingly handsome, and cast in rolls designed to
make the women swoon, whether it was as the male
lead in thin Ice, Cafe Metropole, Second Honeymoon in Old Chicago,
(00:46):
Marie Antoinette Jesse James, a Yank in the raf The
Mark of Zoro or Blood in Sand. Power was a
dashing and romantic character second to none. He came from
a long line of actors, beginning with his Irish great
grandfather of the same name, Trone Power, who is one
(01:08):
of the most famous stage actors of Ireland, England, and
the United States during the eighteen twenties and thirties. There
were several other actors besides his great grandfather, not only
in his paternal line, but also on his maternal side.
Perhaps it was Tyrone Power's genetic destiny to become an
(01:29):
actor before he died at the young age of forty four,
Power appeared in numerous plays in fifty two movies. Terne
Edmund Power is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May nineteen fourteen.
He is Irish and English on his father's side, and
(01:49):
French and German on his mother's. Both his parents are actors.
His tall and ruggedly handsome father is famous for his
work on the stage and his tours of the United States, Britain,
and Australia. Shortly after Power is born, the family settles
in Los Angeles, and the father begins his career in
(02:10):
silent films, eventually appearing in forty one silence in one
talkie The Big Trail, starring John Wayne in nineteen thirty.
Blessed with a deep and resonant voice, it's likely the
father would have continued to make movies in the sound era,
but he dies of a heart attack in nineteen thirty one,
(02:32):
a year and a half after a tyrone Power is born.
His sister Anne is born. The parents feel blessed and.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
The family is a tight knit unit.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
However, the father is off and away from home, not
only making movies but appearing on stage in New York.
The long absences finally proved too much in the parents'
divorce in nineteen twenty In nineteen twenty one, seven year
old Trone appears on stage in a play along with
(03:03):
his mother. He's a aurable child and at home on
the stage, but no one is thinking that fifteen years
hence he will be.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
One of Hollywood's leading men.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
In nineteen twenty three, with Torone and Anne in tow,
the mother moves back to Cincinnati to be close to
her parents. She becomes a drama and voice coach at
the prominent Shuster Martin School of Drama. At home, she
coaches Torone in voice and dramatics. Both Toron and Anne
go to Catholic parochial schools. After grammar school, Torone is
(03:39):
sent to a Catholic preparatory school operated by the University
of Dayton on its campus and staffed by the brothers
of Mary and Marianous priests. The school is commonly referred
to as Dayton Prep. It's more than fifty miles from home,
and he boards there. After a year, he decides he
(04:00):
wants to live back at home, both the spare of
the family, the expense of Dayton Prep, and to be
able to work part time as an usher at a
movie theater close to his family home in the Walnut
Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
To her own, Power enrolls.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
In Purcell High School in the East Walnut Hills. Like
Dayton Prep, Purcell is marianist. Bower thrives academically and athletically,
stars in plays, and works part time as an usher.
Working as an usher enables him to watch movies for free.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Seeing each film that comes to the theater.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Several times, he begins writing reviews in a notebook, analyzing
plot structures and critiquing actors. He's educating himself and getting
paid at the same time. Bauer graduates from Purcell High
School just after turning seventeen in nineteen thirty one. His
(05:01):
description in the school's yearbook reads, Tye came to Purcell
from Dayton Prep and in a short time became a
favorite with the students and teachers alike. Ty is a
good student, but his acting makes him the logical successor
of John Barrymore. The summer following graduation, Power joins his
(05:24):
father and watches him at work on the stage and
on sets for a movie. Power trives to absorb everything
and hopes that his father will open doors for him. However,
his father suddenly becomes ill while on the set of
a movie shoot. He has to excuse himself. That night,
at home with his son, he has a massive heart attack.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Seventeen year old Tie is.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Holding him in his arms when the older Power dies,
dear owne. Power stays in Hollywood, but nineteen thirty two
gets only a bit part in one movie and a
walk on in another. He decides the best way into
Hollywoo is through the stage in New York. His acting
and plays in New York causes movie scouts to invite
(06:07):
him to California for screen tests. He's back in Hollywood
by nineteen thirty six and looks and sounds good in
his tests. He's signed to a contract by twentieth Century
Fox and has small roles in two movies. Everyone likes
what they see. The prominent director, Henry King is particularly
(06:27):
impressed with Power and wants him for the male lead
in his next movie, Lloyd's of London. Darryl Zanik, head
a production at Fox, is worried about Power in a
lead role.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
With so little experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Zank need not have worried. Both the movie and Power
are hits. It's said Tyrone and Power walked into the
movie and Unknown and walked out a star in nineteen
thirty seven. Power stars in five films for Fox, four
in nineteen thirty eight, in nineteen thirty nine, and then
(07:02):
nine more from nineteen forty to nineteen forty three. Two
of the movies he stars in are nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
By nineteen thirty nine, he is the number.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Two box office straw in movies, and by nineteen forty
two number one. He's making two or three million dollars
a year in today's money. He's the star of twentieth
century Fox.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
His leading ladies.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Include Loretta Young, Myrna Lloyd, Dorothy Lemore, Rita Heworth, Betty Grable,
Jean Tierney, and Marine O'Hara. On a movie set in
nineteen thirty eight, Power meets Suzanne Charpontier, a blonde French
beauty who goes by the stage name Annabella. They fall
(07:49):
madly in love and are married.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
In nineteen thirty nine. Power has it all.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
A beautiful and talented wife, money and fame, but in
law nineteen forty two, the twenty eight year old, to
her own Power joins the Marines, finishing the war movie
crash Dive delays boot camp for him until January nineteen
forty three. Power says he wanted to join quote right
(08:16):
after the Japs bomb Pearl Harbor, but movie contracts interfered.
It's while making crash Dive that he decides on the Marines.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I kept stacking them up, the different fellows in uniform,
and it seemed to me that of those I met,
the finest type of men were in the Marines. In
boot camp at San Diego, Power is challenged to a
fight by another recruit. So you're the big movie star,
the recruit proclaims, No, I'm just a private like you,
(08:48):
says Power. Then the guy takes a swing at Power.
Bob Workman, who went through boot camp with Power, said,
Power decked the guy with a quick combination. Power is
strong and fast in could box.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Tyrone Power, and what a story it is number
one in the box office in nineteen forty two. And
what does he do? He joins the Marines. When we
come back more of McGrath and the story of Tyrone Power.
This is our American stories, and we continue with our
(09:40):
American stories and Roger McGrath telling the story of Tyrone Power.
When we last left off, Power had joined the Marines,
and he had been number one in the box office
in nineteen forty two, but at the age of twenty
eight there he was a boot camp in January of
nineteen forty three. Let's continue with McGrath.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A drill instructor made a similar mistake, said Workman, when
he made a crack about Annabella Power's wife.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Power told the d I, you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
May say anything you like about me, and I'll take it,
but my wife is off limits. When the d persisted,
Power decked him to the d's critic, he did not
mention the incident. The d I may have felt he
had gone too far, and he knew that several recruits
had heard his profane remarks about Power's wife. Workman, who
(10:36):
was later badly wounded on Tarawa, said Power quickly proved.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Himself to be one of the guys.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
The famous actor is soon serving as right guide to
the platoon and calling cadence Like a seasoned d I.
Power shoots expert on the rifle range, finishing with the
highest score of any recruit in boot camp. His presented
as certificate by the Klonel of the Recruit Training Battalion
for his efforts. Power also excels in all written in
(11:06):
physical tests. He graduates as Platoon Honorman, having earned superior
readings and training and already a licensed pilot when he
entered the Corps. Power is sent to OCS at Quantico
after boot camp. He's commissioned a second lieutenant in June
nineteen forty three, but then is held at Quantico while
(11:29):
waiting to get into flight training. Having just completed both
boot camp and OCS. The Corps now uses Power to
help train officer candidates Champion at the BIT. Power is
finally sent to an accelerated flight training course at Corporate Secrisity,
Texas in September. By mid April in nineteen forty four,
(11:52):
he passes his final check ride and earns his wings.
He's also promoted to first Lieutenant Lieutenant. Power is then
off to a Naval Air Station Atlanta, Georgia for an
Advanced Instrument flight course. Bower's instructor there is Lieutenant Jerry Taylor,
who said, I instructed Tyrone Power, a very popular movie
(12:16):
idol at the time. He was an excellent student, never
forgot a procedure I showed him.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Or anything I told him.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
After completing the two month course, Bower is ordered to
the Marine Corps air station at Cherry Point, North Carolina,
where he's assigned to a Transport Squadron VMR three point
fifty two. He wanted fighters, but he's now thirty years
old and the Corps thinks he's too old for dogfights.
(12:47):
Bower gets type rated in the R five C Curtis Commando,
known more commonly by its Army designation C forty six,
it's a twin engine cargo and troopauler. It's the largest
and heaviest.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Twin engine plane to World War Two, and.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Becomes famous for flying the Hump from India over the
mountains to China. Its twin Pratt and Whitney engines developed
two thousand horsepower each, enabling the plane to cruise at
one hundred and seventy five miles per hour and to
hit a maximum speed of two seventy It can haul
(13:27):
forty troops or thirty wounded men on stretchers, or fifteen
thousand pounds a cargo. After logging three hundred and forty
hours of flying time at Cherry Point, power is ordered
to Marine Corps air station at El Centro, California, for
staging for the war.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
In the Pacific.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He's now a member of a new transport Squadron VMR
three point fifty three. Early in nineteen forty five, he
flies with the squadron for El Centro to Hawaii to Quadulan,
which has been wrested from the Japanese a year earlier.
For several days, the pilots and the cruise rest while
(14:11):
the planes are serviced. THEUTENA power and a squadron then
fly to Saipan in the Marianas, which i've been taken
from the Japanese six months earlier. A major airfield was
constructed so B twenty nine s could use it as
a base for bombing missions to Japan. This was a
round tripped flight of twenty nine hundred miles, and many
(14:33):
a crippled B twenty nine didn't make it back to Saipan.
US strategists think in island halfway between Saipan and Japan
would be perfect for emergency landings of B twenty nins.
The island is Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island with
Mount Suribachi at its southern end. However, that Japanese already
(14:57):
thought it would be perfect also for of Japan's home islands.
They built three dirt air strips on the island and
packed twenty one thousand cracked troops into tunnels and caves
to defend the outpost. On February nineteenth, nineteen forty five,
Marines land on volcanic sand beaches at the southeastern end
(15:21):
of the island, in the shadow of Surabachi. The Marines
take horrific casualties the day they land and every day
afterwards for six weeks. Hospital ships offshore are overwhelmed by
the number of wounded Marines. As soon as the Marines
take one of Ewo's airfields, VMR three P fifty three
(15:45):
goes into action. Their own power is one of the
first from a squadron to land on the strip. Supplies
from his plane are offloaded, and two dozen stretches with
wounded marines are onloaded a flight to a naval hospital
on Guam, one hundred and thirty miles south of Saipan
in the Marianas. Nearly every time power lands or takes
(16:09):
off on Ewo is under fire, occasionally heavy fire. Many
days he's in the air for ten hours. On March
twenty six, the Marines declare Iwo Jima secured. Lieutenant Power
doesn't have much time to rest because on April first,
the Marines and the Army invade Okinawa. Early in the campaign,
(16:34):
two Japanese airfields are taken, and VMR three point fifty
three is back in action, faring in supplies and evacuating wounded.
Again and again, Power in his plane are under fire.
The Japanese use a new tactic, suicide squads with bomb
packs run under the airstrips to blow.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Up planes in themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
One of the planes in Power Squadron falls victim to
the suicide bombers. The battle for Okinawa continues until June
twenty second, and it's brutal in bloody to.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
The very end.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
No one knows it, but Okinawa will be the last battle.
Power spends July carrying in supplies to staging areas for
the coming invasion of Japan itself. He is relieved when
the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August
cause the Japanese to do the unthinkable surrender. Japan announces
(17:39):
her surrender on August fifteenth, and the Articles of surrender
are formally signed aboard the battleship of Missouri on September second.
Shortly afterwards, Power flies into Japan and lands on the
airfield outside of Tokyo. He and another pilot are able
to drive a chee about the countryside and into Yokohama.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
He writes home to.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Annabella, we had a most wonderful sea around the countryside
and got a little more the feeling of the people.
If there is one thing of which I am sure
in this world, it is that they hate us. You
can feel it in the air. You can see it
on their faces when they pass you on the street.
(18:25):
They don't do anything outwardly, but you can sense that
it is deep down inside. If you meet their gaze,
they turn their eyes away. Just little things like that,
but if you see enough of them, it all adds
up to the.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Big fact that they hate us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
After what he saw on yo jim and Okinawa and
now what he sees in Japan, Power is thankful America
doesn't have to fight the Japanese on their home islands.
Late in November nineteen forty five, Power returns to the
United States. He's logged eleven hundred hours as pilot and command,
(19:05):
and has been decorated with two Bronze Stars. He's separated
from active duty in January nineteen forty six, but remains
in the reserves. He is promoted to captain in nineteen
fifty one and to major in nineteen fifty seven. Power
stars in twenty one movie is after his return from
(19:28):
the Pacific, before he dies of a heart attack in
nineteen fifty eight. He's buried with full military honors, conducted
by a Marine honor Guard. Lawrence Olivier recites the poem
high Flight and a Plane Flies overhead. Tyrone Power was
(19:52):
one of the greatest of movie stars, but he also
was a marine.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And great job on that piece. As always to Greg Hengler,
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for his remarkable
and consistently good work. The story of Tarne Power here
on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for another of Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes to War stories.
Here's McGrath with the story of Tyrone Power.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The great art throb for female moviegoers in the late
nineteen thirties and early nineteen forties was Tyrone Power. He
was young, strikingly handsome, and cast in rolls designed to
make the women swoon, whether it was as the male
lead in thin Ice, Cafe Metropole, Second Honeymoon in Old Chicago,
(00:46):
Marie Antoinette Jesse James, a Yank in the raf The
Mark of Zoro or Blood in Sand. Power was a
dashing and romantic character second to none. He came from
a long line of actors, beginning with his Irish great
grandfather of the same name, Trone Power, who is one
(01:08):
of the most famous stage actors of Ireland, England, and
the United States during the eighteen twenties and thirties. There
were several other actors besides his great grandfather, not only
in his paternal line, but also on his maternal side.
Perhaps it was Tyrone Power's genetic destiny to become an
(01:29):
actor before he died at the young age of forty four,
Power appeared in numerous plays in fifty two movies. Terne
Edmund Power is born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May nineteen fourteen.
He is Irish and English on his father's side, and
(01:49):
French and German on his mother's. Both his parents are actors.
His tall and ruggedly handsome father is famous for his
work on the stage and his tours of the United States, Britain,
and Australia. Shortly after Power is born, the family settles
in Los Angeles, and the father begins his career in
(02:10):
silent films, eventually appearing in forty one silence in one
talkie The Big Trail, starring John Wayne in nineteen thirty.
Blessed with a deep and resonant voice, it's likely the
father would have continued to make movies in the sound era,
but he dies of a heart attack in nineteen thirty one,
(02:32):
a year and a half after a tyrone Power is born.
His sister Anne is born. The parents feel blessed and.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
The family is a tight knit unit.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
However, the father is off and away from home, not
only making movies but appearing on stage in New York.
The long absences finally proved too much in the parents'
divorce in nineteen twenty In nineteen twenty one, seven year
old Trone appears on stage in a play along with
(03:03):
his mother. He's a aurable child and at home on
the stage, but no one is thinking that fifteen years
hence he will be.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
One of Hollywood's leading men.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
In nineteen twenty three, with Torone and Anne in tow,
the mother moves back to Cincinnati to be close to
her parents. She becomes a drama and voice coach at
the prominent Shuster Martin School of Drama. At home, she
coaches Torone in voice and dramatics. Both Toron and Anne
go to Catholic parochial schools. After grammar school, Torone is
(03:39):
sent to a Catholic preparatory school operated by the University
of Dayton on its campus and staffed by the brothers
of Mary and Marianous priests. The school is commonly referred
to as Dayton Prep. It's more than fifty miles from home,
and he boards there. After a year, he decides he
(04:00):
wants to live back at home, both the spare of
the family, the expense of Dayton Prep, and to be
able to work part time as an usher at a
movie theater close to his family home in the Walnut
Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
To her own, Power enrolls.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
In Purcell High School in the East Walnut Hills. Like
Dayton Prep, Purcell is marianist. Bower thrives academically and athletically,
stars in plays, and works part time as an usher.
Working as an usher enables him to watch movies for free.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Seeing each film that comes to the theater.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Several times, he begins writing reviews in a notebook, analyzing
plot structures and critiquing actors. He's educating himself and getting
paid at the same time. Bauer graduates from Purcell High
School just after turning seventeen in nineteen thirty one. His
(05:01):
description in the school's yearbook reads, Tye came to Purcell
from Dayton Prep and in a short time became a
favorite with the students and teachers alike. Ty is a
good student, but his acting makes him the logical successor
of John Barrymore. The summer following graduation, Power joins his
(05:24):
father and watches him at work on the stage and
on sets for a movie. Power trives to absorb everything
and hopes that his father will open doors for him. However,
his father suddenly becomes ill while on the set of
a movie shoot. He has to excuse himself. That night,
at home with his son, he has a massive heart attack.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Seventeen year old Tie is.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Holding him in his arms when the older Power dies,
dear owne. Power stays in Hollywood, but nineteen thirty two
gets only a bit part in one movie and a
walk on in another. He decides the best way into
Hollywoo is through the stage in New York. His acting
and plays in New York causes movie scouts to invite
(06:07):
him to California for screen tests. He's back in Hollywood
by nineteen thirty six and looks and sounds good in
his tests. He's signed to a contract by twentieth Century
Fox and has small roles in two movies. Everyone likes
what they see. The prominent director, Henry King is particularly
(06:27):
impressed with Power and wants him for the male lead
in his next movie, Lloyd's of London. Darryl Zanik, head
a production at Fox, is worried about Power in a
lead role.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
With so little experience.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Zank need not have worried. Both the movie and Power
are hits. It's said Tyrone and Power walked into the
movie and Unknown and walked out a star in nineteen
thirty seven. Power stars in five films for Fox, four
in nineteen thirty eight, in nineteen thirty nine, and then
(07:02):
nine more from nineteen forty to nineteen forty three. Two
of the movies he stars in are nominated for Best Picture.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
By nineteen thirty nine, he is the number.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Two box office straw in movies, and by nineteen forty
two number one. He's making two or three million dollars
a year in today's money. He's the star of twentieth
century Fox.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
His leading ladies.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Include Loretta Young, Myrna Lloyd, Dorothy Lemore, Rita Heworth, Betty Grable,
Jean Tierney, and Marine O'Hara. On a movie set in
nineteen thirty eight, Power meets Suzanne Charpontier, a blonde French
beauty who goes by the stage name Annabella. They fall
(07:49):
madly in love and are married.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
In nineteen thirty nine. Power has it all.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
A beautiful and talented wife, money and fame, but in
law nineteen forty two, the twenty eight year old, to
her own Power joins the Marines, finishing the war movie
crash Dive delays boot camp for him until January nineteen
forty three. Power says he wanted to join quote right
(08:16):
after the Japs bomb Pearl Harbor, but movie contracts interfered.
It's while making crash Dive that he decides on the Marines.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I kept stacking them up, the different fellows in uniform,
and it seemed to me that of those I met,
the finest type of men were in the Marines. In
boot camp at San Diego, Power is challenged to a
fight by another recruit. So you're the big movie star,
the recruit proclaims, No, I'm just a private like you,
(08:48):
says Power. Then the guy takes a swing at Power.
Bob Workman, who went through boot camp with Power, said,
Power decked the guy with a quick combination. Power is
strong and fast in could box.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Tyrone Power, and what a story it is number
one in the box office in nineteen forty two. And
what does he do? He joins the Marines. When we
come back more of McGrath and the story of Tyrone Power.
This is our American stories, and we continue with our
(09:40):
American stories and Roger McGrath telling the story of Tyrone Power.
When we last left off, Power had joined the Marines,
and he had been number one in the box office
in nineteen forty two, but at the age of twenty
eight there he was a boot camp in January of
nineteen forty three. Let's continue with McGrath.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A drill instructor made a similar mistake, said Workman, when
he made a crack about Annabella Power's wife.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Power told the d I, you.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
May say anything you like about me, and I'll take it,
but my wife is off limits. When the d persisted,
Power decked him to the d's critic, he did not
mention the incident. The d I may have felt he
had gone too far, and he knew that several recruits
had heard his profane remarks about Power's wife. Workman, who
(10:36):
was later badly wounded on Tarawa, said Power quickly proved.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Himself to be one of the guys.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
The famous actor is soon serving as right guide to
the platoon and calling cadence Like a seasoned d I.
Power shoots expert on the rifle range, finishing with the
highest score of any recruit in boot camp. His presented
as certificate by the Klonel of the Recruit Training Battalion
for his efforts. Power also excels in all written in
(11:06):
physical tests. He graduates as Platoon Honorman, having earned superior
readings and training and already a licensed pilot when he
entered the Corps. Power is sent to OCS at Quantico
after boot camp. He's commissioned a second lieutenant in June
nineteen forty three, but then is held at Quantico while
(11:29):
waiting to get into flight training. Having just completed both
boot camp and OCS. The Corps now uses Power to
help train officer candidates Champion at the BIT. Power is
finally sent to an accelerated flight training course at Corporate Secrisity,
Texas in September. By mid April in nineteen forty four,
(11:52):
he passes his final check ride and earns his wings.
He's also promoted to first Lieutenant Lieutenant. Power is then
off to a Naval Air Station Atlanta, Georgia for an
Advanced Instrument flight course. Bower's instructor there is Lieutenant Jerry Taylor,
who said, I instructed Tyrone Power, a very popular movie
(12:16):
idol at the time. He was an excellent student, never
forgot a procedure I showed him.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Or anything I told him.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
After completing the two month course, Bower is ordered to
the Marine Corps air station at Cherry Point, North Carolina,
where he's assigned to a Transport Squadron VMR three point
fifty two. He wanted fighters, but he's now thirty years
old and the Corps thinks he's too old for dogfights.
(12:47):
Bower gets type rated in the R five C Curtis Commando,
known more commonly by its Army designation C forty six,
it's a twin engine cargo and troopauler. It's the largest
and heaviest.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Twin engine plane to World War Two, and.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Becomes famous for flying the Hump from India over the
mountains to China. Its twin Pratt and Whitney engines developed
two thousand horsepower each, enabling the plane to cruise at
one hundred and seventy five miles per hour and to
hit a maximum speed of two seventy It can haul
(13:27):
forty troops or thirty wounded men on stretchers, or fifteen
thousand pounds a cargo. After logging three hundred and forty
hours of flying time at Cherry Point, power is ordered
to Marine Corps air station at El Centro, California, for
staging for the war.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
In the Pacific.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He's now a member of a new transport Squadron VMR
three point fifty three. Early in nineteen forty five, he
flies with the squadron for El Centro to Hawaii to Quadulan,
which has been wrested from the Japanese a year earlier.
For several days, the pilots and the cruise rest while
(14:11):
the planes are serviced. THEUTENA power and a squadron then
fly to Saipan in the Marianas, which i've been taken
from the Japanese six months earlier. A major airfield was
constructed so B twenty nine s could use it as
a base for bombing missions to Japan. This was a
round tripped flight of twenty nine hundred miles, and many
(14:33):
a crippled B twenty nine didn't make it back to Saipan.
US strategists think in island halfway between Saipan and Japan
would be perfect for emergency landings of B twenty nins.
The island is Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island with
Mount Suribachi at its southern end. However, that Japanese already
(14:57):
thought it would be perfect also for of Japan's home islands.
They built three dirt air strips on the island and
packed twenty one thousand cracked troops into tunnels and caves
to defend the outpost. On February nineteenth, nineteen forty five,
Marines land on volcanic sand beaches at the southeastern end
(15:21):
of the island, in the shadow of Surabachi. The Marines
take horrific casualties the day they land and every day
afterwards for six weeks. Hospital ships offshore are overwhelmed by
the number of wounded Marines. As soon as the Marines
take one of Ewo's airfields, VMR three P fifty three
(15:45):
goes into action. Their own power is one of the
first from a squadron to land on the strip. Supplies
from his plane are offloaded, and two dozen stretches with
wounded marines are onloaded a flight to a naval hospital
on Guam, one hundred and thirty miles south of Saipan
in the Marianas. Nearly every time power lands or takes
(16:09):
off on Ewo is under fire, occasionally heavy fire. Many
days he's in the air for ten hours. On March
twenty six, the Marines declare Iwo Jima secured. Lieutenant Power
doesn't have much time to rest because on April first,
the Marines and the Army invade Okinawa. Early in the campaign,
(16:34):
two Japanese airfields are taken, and VMR three point fifty
three is back in action, faring in supplies and evacuating wounded.
Again and again, Power in his plane are under fire.
The Japanese use a new tactic, suicide squads with bomb
packs run under the airstrips to blow.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Up planes in themselves.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
One of the planes in Power Squadron falls victim to
the suicide bombers. The battle for Okinawa continues until June
twenty second, and it's brutal in bloody to.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
The very end.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
No one knows it, but Okinawa will be the last battle.
Power spends July carrying in supplies to staging areas for
the coming invasion of Japan itself. He is relieved when
the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August
cause the Japanese to do the unthinkable surrender. Japan announces
(17:39):
her surrender on August fifteenth, and the Articles of surrender
are formally signed aboard the battleship of Missouri on September second.
Shortly afterwards, Power flies into Japan and lands on the
airfield outside of Tokyo. He and another pilot are able
to drive a chee about the countryside and into Yokohama.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
He writes home to.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Annabella, we had a most wonderful sea around the countryside
and got a little more the feeling of the people.
If there is one thing of which I am sure
in this world, it is that they hate us. You
can feel it in the air. You can see it
on their faces when they pass you on the street.
(18:25):
They don't do anything outwardly, but you can sense that
it is deep down inside. If you meet their gaze,
they turn their eyes away. Just little things like that,
but if you see enough of them, it all adds
up to the.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Big fact that they hate us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
After what he saw on yo jim and Okinawa and
now what he sees in Japan, Power is thankful America
doesn't have to fight the Japanese on their home islands.
Late in November nineteen forty five, Power returns to the
United States. He's logged eleven hundred hours as pilot and command,
(19:05):
and has been decorated with two Bronze Stars. He's separated
from active duty in January nineteen forty six, but remains
in the reserves. He is promoted to captain in nineteen
fifty one and to major in nineteen fifty seven. Power
stars in twenty one movie is after his return from
(19:28):
the Pacific, before he dies of a heart attack in
nineteen fifty eight. He's buried with full military honors, conducted
by a Marine honor Guard. Lawrence Olivier recites the poem
high Flight and a Plane Flies overhead. Tyrone Power was
(19:52):
one of the greatest of movie stars, but he also
was a marine.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And great job on that piece. As always to Greg Hengler,
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for his remarkable
and consistently good work. The story of Tarne Power here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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