This is my last post on this subject!
Finishing up on my #19 re the VMF squadron shown in the photo of Ted Williams and my Dad I linked in my #7 -- I can't say for sure the pilots shown in the photo were with VMF-214. I knew my Dad was never with Williams' VMF-311 squad so figured it had to be the other squadron (VMF-214) he flew with in Korea.
So I called my Dad's long time friend Ted this morning who served in the USMC with my Dad and asked him if he could help me identify which VMF squadron was in the photo of my Dad and Williams but he said he couldn't be sure without seeing it. He asked me if the Corsair had a tail # but I told him it didn't.
As a side note, I just learned today when I called Ted that he had actually been in VMF-311 -- Ted Williams regularly assigned squadron in Korea -- but he had never met Williams himself as he served with VMF-311 in 1955 and by that time Williiams had already left Korea and the USMC. Learn new history all the time.
Ted also said that even though Williams and my Dad both flew off the USS Sicily in Korea that group photo I have of the Corsair fighter pilots (link in #7) may possibly have been taken here in the states (at either Cherry Point, NC or Pensacola, FL) as all the reservist fighter pilots were assigned to quick aviation refresher training before heading over to Korea.
So even though the picture shows my Dad and Ted Williams in that group of fighter pilots, I just can't say for sure whether or not it was definitely VMF-214. I do know it wasn't VMF-311 or VMF-323.
Moral of this story -- write down info on the back of all your family photos. Don't wait. My Dad is now gone so I couldn't ask him about the photo, another good friend of his who also was over in Korea who might have been able to tell me died two years ago, and my Dad's other USMC buddy Ted whom I called this morning is now in his late 80's. Soon all the WW II and Korean war vets will be gone so get their memories while you can.
