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Show Combat Correspondent Tell of Utah's Triple Threat Marine Air Corps Ace But it wa? in the air, dodging anti-aircraft fire and fighter opposition op-position to carry out missions, that Major Nelson found his greatest combat thrills. On one occasion he planted a bomb so closely alongside a Japanase corvette cor-vette that it "buckled the seams" and in clearing the ship was at- (Editor's Note: The following story was written by Staff Sergeant Wallace R. McLain, of Glendale, Cal., a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent.) MARINE CORPS AIR DEPOT, MTRAMAR, CAL. Utah's triple-threat triple-threat Marine, Major Roscoe M. Nelson, 27, of 718 North Second East Street, Logan, is home after many action-packed months of battling the Japs on land, sea and in the air. Dive bombing was his first duty, and many an enemy installation, in-stallation, ship and airfield felt the fury of Major Nelson's lethal charges. As a fighter pilot he tangled with Zeros in frequent aerial actions ac-tions high over the Solomons. Most recently he served as Fighter Operations officer, planning plan-ning and executing air-borne strikes from, his Vella La Vella headquarters. tacked by enemy fighters. "My dive was so low that I had to snap the plane out of it suddenly," he recalled, "and in so doing I momentarily blacked out. The next thing I remember, tracer bullets were zipping by my dive bomber . . . shooting me up plenty. "Several bullets came through the cockpit and ripped into the wings and fuselage. They were really giving us a hot time. But before I had a chance to rejoin our flight my gunner nailed at least one of the Japs." No less exciting was one of Major Nelson's experiences after switching to fighter planes when he flew his Corsair headlong into a pack of Zeros over Vella La Vella, last August. That was the day his greatly ' outnumbered flight took on some 15 or 20 Japs, gnd in the ensuing encounter, the major's ship stopped stop-ped an unhealthy amount of lead, but not before he sent one of the enemy down trailing smoke. A member of the first allied fighter squadron to operate from captured Munda, he made his initial take-offs while the field was still under enemy shelling. Flying straffing and escort missions mis-sions over Kahili, Kara, Villa, Choiseul and other enemy strongholds, strong-holds, Major Nelson took an active ac-tive role in Guadalcanal, New Georgia and Bougainville campaigns. cam-paigns. The Marine pilot received his degree from Brigham Young University, Uni-versity, Provo, Utah in 1940. The following June he won his wings and commission after flight training train-ing at Pensacola, Florida. He now is spending a leave with his wife. Mrs. Joyce Rich Nelson, and their young son, in Logan. ( - M it ' i v V - .... -. ' . oft, "S -sSSiiA. , " Major Roscoe M. Nelson and ''Tiki", who was squadron mascot while Major Nelson operated from the Munda airport. |