McWhorter, Hamilton III, Cdr. USN (Ret.) with Jay A. Stout. The First Hellcat Ace.

Pacifica Military History, 1149 Grand Teton Dr., Pacifica, CA 94044. 2001. 213 pp. Ill. $29.95.

A good, traditional WW II memoir, this book describes the author's early life in Georgia, enlistment in the Navy before Pearl Harbor and flight training. It then moves on to his first combat experience as a participant in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942, and subsequent tours in the Pacific. As a member of one of the first Hellcat squadrons, McWhorter became the first F6F ace and eventually the first double ace in Hellcats, ending up with 12 victories over Japanese aircraft. He earned the moniker "One-Slug McWhorter" because of his economical shooting.

Ham McWhorter saw considerable action in many of the Pacific war's major campaigns, including Truk, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. His coauthor, a Marine F/A-18 Hornet aviator, also has a well-received wartime autobiography to his credit, Hornets Over Kuwait (USNI, 1997), which we reviewed in this column.

Throughout the book, there are defining moments of combat and personal milestones, especially McWhorter's marriage. There is also the theme of young aviators desperately trying to survive flying combat from carriers as they watch many of their friends fall. Besides the unique aspect of being written by a successful ace, this book's main appeal is describing how young men dealt with combat and personal loss.

Pacifica has published a few similar memoirs, including The Jolly Rogers (1997, Orion 1989), F4U Corsair ace Tom Blackburn's description of combat, and Above and Beyond (1997) by Charles Patrick Weiland, a Marine F4U carder aviator.