TIGERCAT DRIVER
ONE KOREAN-ERA VETERAN PILOT who flew F7Fs in action was the late Maj. Carroll E. “Snuffy” Brown, USMC (Ret.), who joined the Marines in 1942. In his career, he flew the Dauntless, Helldiver, Hellcat, Corsair, SNB, Tigercat, Duck, R4D, R5D and eventually the Hercules to amass 9,800 total flight hours. He flew Tigercats for nearly six years and had flown the -1, -2, -3, and -4 models plus the photo model. The Korean War broke out in June 1950 and lasted until July 1953. Snuffy flew F7F-3Ns into harm’s way countless times, had flown 100 F7F-3N combat missions in Korea, and had more than 3,000 Tigercat hours. In Korea, he was attached to the VMF(N)-513 Nightmares, and they were joined by VMF(N)-542 to form a composite unit flagged by 513.
When asked about his experiences in the Tigercat, he said, “I started training in the F7F Tigercat in 1945, and in Korea, my unit only flew night missions using the F7F3N. Our unit’s primary task was to stop any vehicle movement (instrumental in transporting supplies and weapons) along three main roads to the North Koreans from China. Our ROE [rules of engagement] were simple and uncomplicated: if anything moves, shoot it! Our radar, ancient by today’s standards, had mapping, air intercept, and beacon entities. When you are hit by small-arms fire, it sounds a lot like hail hitting a tin roof. Then there is a hammer and sledgehammer pounding sensation, depending on the millimeter size of AAA that hits the bird. We called October 1951 ‘Black October’ because we lost 23 F7F-3Ns and pilots all in that same month, mostly to flak and small-arms fire.
“When we flew low through valleys, the enemy troops initially fired at us close to eye level. They stopped doing that because they ended up firing at one another from across the two sides. Then they started stringing 11⁄2-inch-diameter steel cables across the valleys from hill to hill, which was tactically a smart thing to do. One F7F pilot ran into such a cable, and it wrapped up to become ensnared in his port engine, rendering the engine useless. He returned to base along with his trophy in the form of a long cable assembly complete with cement anchor blocks. That just goes to show you the excellent durability of the Tigercat.
“Sometimes I attacked a convoy down on the deck, making repeated runs on it for a while, and then I would come around a mountain and they had a ‘quad-50’ AAA gun [technically quad 9mm] waiting for me. That certainly raises the hair on the back of your neck! When you are down on the deck, fast and low, and you get hit with a 9mm in your port engine, it gets your attention fast; but the Grumman Iron Works brought us home.
“While the enemy did smart things, they also did dumb things. For example, it might be snowing but the roads were muddy and brown. They attempted to mask the trucks using white canvas, but that made them stand out against the brown roads. When they hid trains in tunnels, they would flush the boilers, and that made steam rise from the entrance and exit, visible from miles away. We simply placed a rocket in the tunnel for the kill. Against tanks, we used shaped charges mounted in the rocket warhead, which had an armor-piercing copper round that could penetrate up to 12 inches of armor and incinerate everything inside the tank.
“The AAA fire was tennis ball, baseball, or basketball size, depending on whether it was 20mm, 37mm, or 88mm. One night, I was vectored to the north, and they had me do a quick diving right-hand turn after they had me proceed for a long distance. Something that seemed to be the size of a comet whizzed by, and I asked, what in the hell was that? The ground controller indicated there had been a 122mm AAA weapon around, and they wanted confirmation it was still there. Yes, I had been their guinea pig!
“On another mission, we were shot up badly and had to emergency-land at an Air Force base. The left engine and hydraulic system had been destroyed, and we rolled to the end of the runway. The Air Force troops didn’t know how to get up on the wing of the F7F. Inside the Tigercat was a mess, and there was glass
WHEN YOU ARE DOWN ON THE DECK, FAST AND LOW, AND YOU GET HIT WITH AN 88MM IN YOUR PORT ENGINE, IT GETS YOUR ATTENTION FAST; BUT THE GRUMMAN IRON WORKS BROUGHT US HOME.
everywhere from taking hits, and at first, they thought I was dead, since I pretended not to move. My radar operator said, ‘Quit playing possum and get out of the plane, Snuff.’ It’s the funny things such as that I like to remember.
“We knew our limits as well. One mission, we attacked an artillery battalion, and the associated AAA consisted of 88mm and 20mm and lots of it. It was so intense that we left them alone because the end result would have translated into a disaster for us. At night, since we flew single-ship, anytime I would see a ‘water hose’ of fire coming up, it was obvious it was meant for us. If I saw the streams crossing and ahead of me, I knew they had our game pegged, and it was time to leave and get out of Dodge!
“The F7F wasn’t an aircraft you wanted to bail out of. We carried a backpack chute, but only a couple pilots ever lived from a bailout that I know of; the radar operators never made it out. The only time I saw an enemy fighter was during a daytime weather reconnaissance hop. It was a captured F-80 Shooting Star, and they just flew by and looked at us; it was unarmed, adorned with a red lightning bolt, and we had been informed by our intelligence of the Shooting Star’s existence. Flying the Tigercat was an exciting time, and it was a great ship!”
Acknowledgements: Lt. Col. Chris “Screech” Parkhurst of VMA-513, Mike Brown, Sue Miller-Brown, and the late Maj. Carroll E. “Snuffy” Brown, USMC, Ret.