Presentation Date: April 25, 2002
CDR Ralph E. Foltz USN (RET.)
ACE Fighter Pilot, F6F "Hellcat", WWII, Became an ACE, 13 November 1944 over Manila Bay
- ACE Fighter Pilot, F6F "Hellcat", WWII
- VF-15 on Carrier USS Essex ( Air Wing CDR David McCampbell**, CMO)
- 1st victory, 19 June 1944, Marianas "Turkey Shoot"
- Became an ACE, 13 November 1944 over Manila Bay ( "Tony" fighter)
- 2 DFCs, AM, Strike AM
- VF-5A, F8F "Bearcat", after WWII
- VF-64, F4U "Corsair", USS Boxer, KOREAN War
- VF-141, C.O. ("Skipper"), F3H "Demon", USS Lexington
- Civilian Flight Instructor for many years after Navy retirement in July, 1970
Of all the pilots trained by the USA since the Wright Brothers nearly 100 years ago – and spanning WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam until now – only a tiny fraction have achieved the unique status of ACE, and Ralph Foltz represents one of these rare warriors!
Before CDR Foltz began his talk one of our current GGW members, John Baldwin – former student pilot under Ralph Foltz and current BOEING 767 jet pilot for American Airlines – gave us a wonderful tribute about Ralph. It was a genuine, stirring testimonial of his respect and admiration for Ralph. And as John said, “I’m proud to see Ralph’s signature in my log book on 27 occasions. Now, some 9000 flight hours and 14 years later, I know I owe my life to him more than once!”
Ralph quipped, “Well, now you know everything about me, so you might as well go home!” Born in San Francisco, he started building model airplanes at an early age and rapidly gained more interest in aviation. Jumping forward in time, while attending City College in San Francisco he participated in building an all-metal airplane under teacher and designer Max Harlow.
In the process he learned about sheet metal and then joined the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) at the Sacramento Air Depot. There he worked on B-26s, P-40s, PT17s, etc. doing sheet metal work, all of which led him to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, Alaska.
While at Elmendorf he worked on B-26s, P-40s – “…and then, one day, a squadron of F4F Wildcat fighters landed. I looked them in the eye and said: That’s for me! I needed a physical, so I walked across the street to the doctor’s office. He told me ‘You’ll never make it! You have a deviated septum!’ So, already showing fighter pilot characteristics of independence and adaptability, he hopped a ride to Kodiak on a C-47, found a Navy doctor who gave him the OK, and he was on his way to becoming a Naval Aviator!
Preflight at St. Mary’s College in San Francisco led to primary flight at Los Alamitos, flying Stearmans. In those days the military used civilian flight instructors, and Ralph described his first experience during a fam’ flight (familiarization). “We put on our masks, to communicate, and he said to hang-on and make sure my seat belt was fastened. We flew around a little bit, then he rolls over and we flew upside down for 15-20 minutes! I later found out that this guy held the world’s record for the longest upside down flight – from Long Beach to San Diego!”
Next, Ralph moved on to Texas for basic flight training in BT-13s (Vultee “Vibrator”), then advanced flight training in the SNJ where he earned his Wings of Gold as a “boot ensign”, as he called it. From there he was assigned to Florida and his first operational squadron, where he checked-out in the (infamous) Brewster “Buffalo”. These were well-used, tired airplanes, Ralph said, and everyone gave them a down except the Finns who had had some fairly good operational experiences with the “Buffalos”. Ralph went on to tell us some very humorous features about the Buffalo. For one thing, the landing gear was made from sheet metal and “crunched real good in a hard landing”; another was the ultra-sensitive c.g. due to the stubby fuselage design: “You couldn’t keep the ball centered – just a slight change in power setting or rudder movement caused the ball to jump.” The best part of Ralph’s narrative about the “Buffalo”, though, was his description of two emergency procedures. In the cockpit there were a pair of “dykes” (wire-cutters) and a long string! The wire cutters were to cut the hydraulic lines if the landing gear wouldn’t lower properly, and cutting the lines dropped the gear! The string came into play if the electric prop malfunctioned: if the prop “ran away”, pull the string! If the gear wouldn’t drop, cut the hydraulic lines! Funny!!!
Onward from Florida, Ralph went to Norfolk, VA. There, on his first day, while he and all the other “boot ensigns” were lined-up, there was a gigantic explosion. Right outside, the ground crew was loading depth bombs on PBYs when someone made a deadly mistake. The resulting explosion killed many men and “didn’t help the PBYs either!” That dramatic event made Ralph realize he was in a serious business!
From Norfolk it was on to Atlantic City and assignment to an operational squadron. He said there were 45-50 pilots lined-up, ranging from boot ensigns to a LT CDR. Shortly, he was told, “Foltz, you’re ready for a check-out in the Hellcat! Here’s a handbook; read it, check yourself out and tomorrow you’ll make your first flight!”
“Well, the first thing you want to understand is how to lower the landing gear. Here I am, a boot ensign with 250 hours of total flight time. Picture this: I’m in my flight gear and I look up at this monster. Boy, that’s a big hole (engine) in the front of that thing!”
Of course, Ralph successfully flew the Hellcat that first time and continued to gather more flight time and experiences. He shared some hilarious and “hairy” episodes of formation flying and night rendezvous. He told how tough it is to do this at night, with no visual references for judging distances or perspective, then he blurted, “You get gray hair that way – tough with a big bomber (B-17, B-24,…) – G-- D---!” One hilarious story dealt with a night formation flight while training in Maui, Hawaii. Everyone follows the plane directly in front of them, focusing on the white light in the tail ahead. On this particular flight Ralph was #7 in the string. They kept going on and on further out to sea with the #2 man following the bright “tail light” of the leader. Now, the #2 man has the easiest job because he’s so close to the leader. Finally, after about 50 miles out to sea – still flying straight – the snide remarks started crackling over the radio: “…where in the h--- are we going? I’m running out of fuel!”, etc. It turns out the leader had turned shortly after the whole formation had stabilized, but the #2 man kept going forward, because, instead of seeing his leader bank, he had been focused on the bright light of the planet Venus! Needless to say, when everyone finally returned to base, the #2 pilot caught tremendous flak – and he was a senior-ranked pilot, too.
Next Ralph told us about navigation and the fact that the Navy spent very little time teaching cross country flying, instead relying on latitude and longitude with a “knee board” and an elementary electronic system known as “YGZB”. This was a transmitter on board the ship (or land base) that emitted letter codes 360 degrees to “home-in”. It was a VHF system and changed the codes daily to foil the enemy.
Finally, after sharing many other colorful experiences leading up to combat in the Pacific, Ralph told us about how he shot down Japanese airplanes and became an ACE. “It boils down to this: you try to get on the tail of the enemy airplane, within range of your guns! Sometimes, yes, you get into a dogfight and make steep turns, climbs and dives, change power, etc. – whatever it takes to get the advantage, then shoot within range. You must see him before he sees you. Then, if you’re astute enough and skilled enough, you do what you have to, to get behind him. But, at the same time, if another enemy plane slips in behind you in the process, you’ll see ‘yellow pencils’ going by you and now you’re in big trouble!”
“A dogfight starts with something called sheer luck! My first victories (two) came during the Marianas Turkey Shoot.” Ralph went on to describe how this mass-movement of Japanese airplanes developed, was detected and how he, initially, wasn’t even involved when the carriers launched. He had flown the previous day on a (dangerous) photo recon mission and, because there were more pilots than airplanes, he wasn’t on the flight schedule that day of the massive launch. Instead, he watched as the planes launched and vectored to intercept the massive Japanese formations. Suddenly, the order blasted over the speakers, “Man Your Planes!” Ralph asked, “Who?” and was told “Anyone!” A senior officer nearby Ralph and some other pilots yelled “You, you, you and Foltz, man those four (Hellcat) airplanes!” Ralph and the other three launched immediately and formed-up to circle high over their carrier as a CAP (Combat Air Patrol). “There I was, four guys who hadn’t ever flown together before and, therefore, couldn’t really work tactics or anything, and with only a half-full tank, when “ZIPPO” here came the radio command ‘1,2,3, and 4 take heading xyz, Gate!’ That meant full power! So, out we went on the assigned heading, full bore, and that R2800 engine really eats the fuel at maximum power! At first I spotted little specks in the distance; then flames in the specks; then pieces of airplanes crashing downward; then a melee of aircraft mixing violently – Hellcats with Zeros, Judys,… By then I was essentially by myself, and so were the other three from my original flight of four. Well, I started looking for the tail of a Jap’ airplane – and, right in front of me (coming from my right) was a Judy dive bomber, and right behind him was another Judy!”
“They were going downhill fast! I peeled-off, added power and got on the tail of the second Judy. I fired my guns and G--D--- (!) he blew-up right in front of me! And you know, I thought, G-- D--- (!), that’s pretty good for a boot ensign! Well, by this time we’re going downhill like a striped-ass ape, you know! As I went through the debris of the blown-up Judy there was the other Judy right in front of me! We’re down to only about 1,000 feet by now and I’m firing and still diving. He went straight into the ocean and blew-up. That was #2! Back on board the ship later my crew chief pointed out some battle damage to my Hellcat: ‘Hey, Foltz, you got a slug in your leading edge.’ The back-seater in the Judys had a gun and was shooting at me and I didn’t even know it!”
Ralph then described what it really looked like out there in the Pacific, with the make-up of the carrier task forces, number and type of aircraft, operational actions during the attack, etc. For example, on the ESSEX-class large carriers, from which Ralph flew, there were 80 aircraft: 36 F6F Hellcat fighters, 12 TBM torpedo bombers and 32 SB2C dive-bombers. “That’s what constituted our means to attack the enemy – ships, ground targets, aircraft.”
He talked about flight characteristics of our different aircraft and how this affected the way the combined formations managed to stay together enroute to the enemy targets and then returned separately back to the carriers.
Beyond the dramatic victories he scored against the Judys for his first two aerial kills, Ralph described – in riveting, clear-cut cockpit narrative – his next three: an Oscar, a Zero and a Tony - all fighters! And, unlike the first two victories which were classic shoot-from-behind-the-tail, these next three all were 90 degree deflection-shot victories – difficult and ironic, Ralph said.
As a sidelight, it was a genuine pleasure to see and hear the reactions of Betty Foltz, Ralph’s wife of over 50 years. We sat next to each other, and her spontaneous “outbursts” and expressions were priceless. She said, “I just can’t believe some of the language – I’ve never heard him talk like this before!” Reminding her that he really was back in the cockpit of his Hellcat again, in life-and-death combat conditions, she smiled and said, “Yes, I’m so glad he’s here telling us about it!”
Ralph shared much more than writing-space allows to capture. His special personality, humor and rich baritone voice make a compelling reason to acquire the professional-quality video tape of this memorable evening (tapes available from the GGW/CAF). You especially will want to see and hear him again describe his 3rd, 4th and 5th aerial victories – great drama and even humor too! And, the examples of what he described as “sheer luck” and close calls will captivate you, on how fortunate he is to have survived combat and be alive today!
Ralph went on to many other exciting Navy assignments, including combat in Korea flying F4U-4 “Corsairs” with VF-64 from the deck of the USS Boxer, and skippering VF-141 flying F3H “Demons” from the USS Lexington. He remained an active-duty Navy officer until his retirement in 1970 as a CDR, then spent many years as a civilian flight instructor. He continues his zest for life and ongoing pursuit of new knowledge and skills, still taking university courses.
We all thank CDR Ralph E. Foltz for his significant actions in the defense of our Nation and for sharing those unique, rich experiences with aspiring pilots and with all of us in the Golden Gate Wing of he CAF!