Papers of Captain John Timothee Trezvant O'Neill (USNR) aka "Tex"
1916 to 1980
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
My father's Biography in short:
Born: Dallas Texas 1916
Graduated United States Naval Academy 1939 (5 years due to a football injury)
Significant events or sea stories:
A few notes here, I did 4 years in the Navy as an aircrewman. I was cleared secret,
with situational top secret. As an AW (Aviation Anti Submarine Warfare Operator)
I was a nuclear weapon loading team member, a SERE graduate, and spent my last years of
duty working directly for the squadron's tactics officer. My conversations with my father
were sometimes very detailed. However the talks are old as he died when I was 24. I did verify
all the important points with my mother before she died in 2005.
My mother (Drury Dodge Anderson, daughter of a WWI four stacker officer, Berkeley grad.)
was my father's second wife. She was, at the time of their meeting (1946), doing work
for the OSS regarding the communist elements in China. She was a strong woman and her
opinion was always her own. Known acquaintances were the Chennaults (husband and wife) and
"Wild Bill" Donovan.
All the following stories were verified by my mother as being true.
Tex flew float planes off the back of the USS Helena during the battle for Guadacanal.
Apparently in the midst of heroism he was noted for numerous flights which entailed
landing in groups of Marines and then taxiing them to the beach under
fire. Apparently he did this to the limits of human endurance.
It is unclear which medal, if any, were related to this effort.
During this time he was instructed to take prisoners. Landing in an
area with Japanese he coerced compliance by "popping a few skulls with the 50 caliber".
An enemy officer attempted to board his plane and was killed with his .38 pilot's pistol.
A code book was obtained intact from this officer. He was told later (I think by Adm.
Sherman on whose staff he later served) that it helped to
break the codes to get Yamamoto shot down.
Tex's flight logs for the Battle of Guadacanal time period can be found here (tx_fl_log_page_)
It is unclear what happened as the Helena was not sunk until later in the war but
my father ended up on Guadacanal for some time (which seems to have included active ground combat)
and eventually returned for the States weighing 130 pounds after suffering from malaria.
His next combat duty was on the USS Shangri-la as the XO of VBF 85. The diary speaks
for itself.
Tex's diary from the USS Philippine Sea CV 47 as a pilot with VBF-85
In the last days of the war Adm. Metzger (check spelling)
directly communicated to my father a high level of urgency regarding some of the air strikes on Japan.
While not told at the time he later reflected that he thought it was heavy water production.
There is little documentation as to my fathers tour of duty on the USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) during the Korean War.
However the book and movie "The Bridges at Toko-Ri" contains many elements of my fathers life.
A prime example is the Operation Pinwheel event (aka operation pinhead), which is the use of the fighter aircraft propulsion
to dock the carrier).
My mom said the movie put a very kind spin on what really happened as my dad was
"completely livid" whenever it was discussed during the time after the war.
Flight Logs
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