A Tribute to Jack Lawton

My Grandfather Jack Wallace Lawton (1922-2011) served his country during WWII as a Navy pilot in the Pacific Theater. This site tells the story of his duty.

As a kid I never really heard anything about serving in World War II from my Grandfather. I knew he had served and then returned home to start a career and continue to grow his family. 6 kids, 11 grandkids and 16 great grandkids, I think he and my Grandma did alright. This despite going through what had to be some of the most harrowing experiences a young man can face.

I had become a bit of a history buff on WWII reading just about anything I could get my hands on about both the European and Pacific theaters of war. I romanticized it a bit thinking it would have been amazing to be alive during such a global conflict. Age has made me realize how foolish an idea that would have been.

My Grandfather gave several interviews to Joseph A. Springer for his book “Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II” about his service on the USS Franklin (shown above in one of the most iconic photographs of WWII). When I read the book and started to hear about my Grandfather’s service I was flabbergasted. How had I not heard of this ever?! I took the time to talk with him on it over the next couple of years before he passed in 2011.

After a few more years in Florida, it made sense for my Grandma to be closer to us. She moved out to Oregon in 2015 and brought with her a box of my Grandfather’s WWII memorabilia. I stashed it away and hadn’t taken the time to really go through it all until the last year or so. You can see it’s quite the treasure trove of information (see below).

I was fortunate to have his flight log which showed every single flight he had taken since he joined the service in 1942 until he was discharged in 1945. Using some Internet sleuthing, a bunch of great articles on Wikipedia, details on his commendations from helpful Reddit users and the dates from the log book, I was able to piece together some of the most interesting bits of his service and compile them here.

What’s amazing is that my Grandfather was in training for close to 2 years before he saw any action and then when he did it was almost every-other-day. He was in some of the biggest naval battles in history and went up against some of the most formidable adversaries the sea has ever seen and he made it out the other side. It was really July - November 1944 that he saw most of the action but as he mentions in “Inferno”, it was all about the training and all of that work to make sure you didn’t screw up when it mattered most.

I was always blown away that my Grandfather never really talked about his service. He had his events where he’d get together with his squadron from time-to-time but he never bragged about it. Service during WWII was just something you did and so many Americans heard and heeded the call. My Grandfather was no different.

Being so moved by my Grandfather’s service, I asked my wife if we could name our soon-to-be-born son after him. I shared the story of Grandpa Jack with my wife and how I wanted to give our son a namesake to be proud of and one that he could look up to. I can’t do much better than Jack Lawton.