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Fellows, Jack
Light At Kilauea Point
Making a landfall after a long patrol, the No. 6 boat of VP-91 heads horme to Southern Cross Airfield, Barking Sands, Kauai, Territory of Hawaii, in May 1942. Even though the lighthouse on Kilauea Point below had its light and the nearby radio homing towers deactivated for wartime security, aircrews making landfall at this northernmost point in the Hawaiian Island chain always heaved a sigh of relief when seeing the solitary structure, still a beacon of hope.
The Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina at this time had only been flying operationally for a few months. The amphibious version of this famous fling boat, the -5A first entered Navy service December 19, 1941 when 12 were sent to VP-91, as NAS Alameda. Squared away with their new boats, the squadron flew to Barking Sands on April 19-20, 1942, and continued to fly long range patrol through the Battle of Midway until Mid-July when they transferred to NAS Kaneohe.
The plane captain on No. 6 was Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class I. James "Jim" Morrison, a man dedicated to the Catalina. The pilot, Lt. (jg) Gordon "Tex" Snyder, and flight engineer Robert Sayers were flying this day, but later lost in action on October 14, 1942 in one of three VP-91 PBYs to go down during the Batle of Santa Cruz. Many "cat" crews were lost on those long, sometimes 24 hour plus, patrol missions hunting down the enemy. It was a Catalina that spotted the enemy fleet heading toward Midway. In spite of being obsolete before the war and deadly slow, the PBY couldn't be replaced. Later flying boats and amphibians never seemed to surpass what the lumbering PBY could accomplish when flown by skilled crews.
Print Size: 20"w x 16 1/8"h
Edition Size: 850 signed and numbered
