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James D. "Jig Dog" Ramage (19 July 1916 – 21 July 2012) was a naval aviator in World War II and a major factor in putting nuclear-capable aircraft aboard aircraft carriers. Before retirement he attained the rank of rear admiral. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy class of 1939, he served on the aircraft carrier before being sent to the Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training. He rejoined the ''Enterprise'' in 1943, and became executive officer, and later commanding officer of Bombing Squadron Ten (VB-10), flying the SBD Dauntless dive bomber. He saw his first combat in the Battle of Kwajalein in January 1944, and participated in the attack on Truk in February and landings at Hollandia in April. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, he led 12 Dauntlesses and 17 other aircraft from ''Enterprise'' in a maximum-range twilight attack against the Japanese fleet, and was personally credited with crippling a Japanese aircraft carrier, probably the ''Ryūhō''. He later commanded Bombing Squadron Ninety-Eight (VB-98), a California-based training unit. After the war, Ramage attended the first postwar class at the Naval War College, where he wrote a thesis on nuclear weapons and carrier aviation. He became the navigator of the escort carrier , and participated in Operation Sandstone at Enewetak Atoll in April and May 1948. In March 1950, Ramage went to Sandia Base, where he was assigned to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), writing and reviewing nuclear war plans. After becoming jet qualified in F9F Panther, he assumed command of Carrier Air Group 19, which embarked for Korea on the . He then assumed command of VC-3, a large composite squadron that acted as a transitional training unit. He became chief of the Sea Base Striking Forces Planning Unit (OP-05W) in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington, DC in June 1955, and then entered the National War College in July 1957. After graduating a year later, he assumed command of Heavy Attack Wing One, and then of the seaplane tender, . He returned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as head of Special Weapons Plans in 1961, and in 1963, received command of an aircraft carrier, the . As a flag officer, he was Commander Fleet Air NAS Whidbey Island, Commander Carrier Division Seven during the Vietnam War, Commander Naval Air Reserve, and Commander Tenth Naval District/Caribbean Sea Frontier/Commander Fleet Air Caribbean from 1973 to 1975. He retired from active duty in 1975. He was involved in the ultimately successful campaign to rename Waterloo's ConWay Civic Center as the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, in honor of the Sullivan brothers, and appeared in The History Channel series ''Battle 360'', in which he recounted many of his experiences as a member of VB-10. ==Early life== James David Ramage was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on 19 July 1916,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rear Admiral James D. Ramage, USN Ret. )〕 the son of David S. and Flora Groat Ramage. He had an older half-sister Mary from his mother's first marriage, and a younger sister, Betty. His father was a machinist by trade, who arrived in Waterloo as a salesman. He became a farmer, but lost the farm during the Great Depression. He then worked at the Waterloo Trust and Savings Bank until it failed, and then ran a Maxwell and Chalmers car dealership. Ramage was educated in Waterloo at Francis Grout, McKinley School and finally East Waterloo High. In 1934, he entered Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. That year, he was nominated for the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, by the local U.S. Representative, John W. Gwynne, as an alternative candidate. The 1934 Vinson-Trammell Act created additional vacancies at the Academy, and Ramage was appointed. At the Academy, he acquired the nickname "Jig Dog" from the phonetic alphabet for his initials. He graduated from the Academy and was commissioned as an ensign on 1 June 1939. At his request, was posted to the aircraft carrier , which was then based in Hawaii, as a deck officer. Through some crewmates, he met Orville Tyler, the Vice President of Bishop Bank. Ramage married his daughter, Emeleen Tyler, on 4 September 1941, before leaving for flight training at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「James D. Ramage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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