Ted Williams served his country when called upon during World War II and the Korean War. During his tour of duty Ted accomplished a lot creating a few interesting stories along the way. Many of the stories are told by his friend Johnny Pesky who served with him all the way up until Ted went to Pensacola, Florida. The following are some of the stories that will help create an even bigger legend.
picture from Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures
When Ted reported to preliminary training at Amherst College all the men were required to take a few brush up classes. These classes consisted of navigation, algebra, aeronautics and aerodynamics. Ted was never the greatest student because he concentrated mostly on baseball during high school. Ted also did not go to college so he did not have any schooling past his high school diploma. Ted decided that while he was there he would give it his all. Ted would actually do very well. Johnny Pesky said, "He mastered intricate problems in fifteen minutes which took the average cadet an hour, and half the other cadets were college graduates." While at Amherst Ted would spend his first time in a Naval Hospital due to a hernia. Ted injured himself while training, which happened to be harder than he had ever trained in his life. Ted thought it would make him stronger and help him with baseball. The stay at the naval hospital would be a sign of things to come.
When Ted went to Peru, Indiana for primary flying he met his next obstacle and passed with flying colors. Primary flight school was meant to find out who would crack under pressure or who could not cut it. Ted had a reputation that he would complain when things did not go his way. At primary flight school you would get bad-behavior demerits when you would not do something that was asked of you or if you complained. To try to break the students there would be double time all day. You would have to be up by at the crack of dawn and have classes all day long. The physical training was the most rigorous of any of the bases. There would also be surprise inspections of everything. Because Ted was Ted Williams he was singled out a lot. However, Ted never cracked and made it through without one single demerit for bad behavior.
While in Pensacola, Florida, Ted would do something that he is probably best known for during World War II. Pensacola was the site of advanced training for pilots. Here the pilots would have simulated battles and combat training. Ted loved to fly the planes and would do things in them that people were not use to seeing. Sounds similar to his baseball career. Reports say that Ted would tear his sleeve target with his angle dives. Ted would also shoot from all types of positions like wingovers, zooms, and barrel rolls, reminiscent of the movie "Top Gun." At advanced training Ted would break all the records for hits while in training. In Jacksonville during training Ted would break all the air gunnery tests. Ted would set the record for reflexes, coordination, and visual-reaction time. Ted's remarkable 20-10 vision and hitting ability was created for helping him.
The greatest story about Ted Williams while serving his country took place while in the Korean War. Map of Korea. This is where Ted would see his first combat missions. While in Korea as a pilot Ted would serve as John Glenn's wingman. The same John Glenn who went to the moon. While on a bombing mission over Kyomipo, Korea in
his F-9 jet Ted was hit by some small arms fire. Ted knew he was hit because his plane started to shake like crazy. After he was hit Ted's radio, landing gear, and everything else went out. Ted could not see how bad he was hit because it was in the back of the plane. Without the radio no one could tell him that he needed to eject because his plane was on fire. Ted was already low on fuel so he decided to try to make it back to the base not knowing he really needed to eject. Although, before his radio went out he was able to radio in he was hit so people were aware of it. A pilot by the name of Larry Hawkins heard the message and flew alongside Ted until the nearest airbase. Hawkins was able to signal to Ted that his landing gear was not down but Ted decided to try to land the plane anyway. Ted tried everything to try to help slow the plane down but everything was non-functional. Ted was basically flying a fireball into the ground at two hundred miles an hour. When he hit the ground Ted began to skid on the runway while the plane bursts into more flames. Amazingly the plane slowly came to a stop and Ted released the canopy and fell out. The plane blew up while Ted was running away. Luckily, because he was out of fuel the plane did not explode when he hit the ground. The next day he was in the air again completing one of the thirty-nine missions he flew during the Korean War.
These are some of the stories that would have made Ted Williams a wartime hero if he would of let people know. Instead he decided to serve his country like the average Joe.
