In the photograph above, taken by crewmen of the USS Healy, the destroyer which had picked up Dick Houle and his crew three days before, we see that there are two Japanese and some Americans.
The two Japanese are from the three-passenger Betty aircraft which was shot down around noon on June 22, 1944 and whose "crew" was picked up by the Healy's whaleboat (above). We see the two Japanese actually recorded as being picked up lying in the bow and stern of the boat.
We also see the crewmen from the Healy, equipped with life jackets, hats, shirts, and, with some, guns. However, bending over one of the Japanese--both of whom are shirtless--is an unusual appearing American. He is shirtless, with no hat and no life jacket--as was required for the crews going out into the whaleboats.
Who is this tall, lanky American? Why is the sailor immediately behind him apparently halfway leary of him, so much so that he is holding his gun on him?
One possible explanation would be that he is a medical corpsman. This photograph appears on page 84 of Stinnett's book, but an additional photo of medic John Tarrant on page 85 shows him accompanied by a shirtless corpsman. This might seem to account for this American as being a corpsman, but for two major problems:
1. This photograph is the first of three taken of the whaleboat. It is the one where the boat is furthest from the USS Healy. Previous to this photo, the whaleboat wasn't in leaping distance of the Healy. How, then, did this un-accoutred "corpsman" manage to reach the boat at such a distance? It is hard to believe he leaped this distance, and he wouldn't even have been allowed to board the boat without life jacket, shirt or hat--and especially, without his kit.
2. The shirtless corpsman who appears beside Tarrant onboard the Healy in the photo on page 85, is clearly shorter than the average height Tarrant. The American in the photo above is clearly a taller, lankier man, who is taller than the sailors immediately on either side of him. Therefore, it seems unlikely the shorter man in the photo on page 85 is this man.
One other point is that the other two photos show the other medical corpsmen involved with the rescue whaleboat operation. They are shown bending over the deck of the Healy as the Japanese are lifted aboard. They are clearly not shirtless--and are clearly the main other personnel involved. It is even possible that one of these two shirted corpsmen is the shorter man in the photo beside Tarrant on page 85, as his hair color and part seem similar to the one of the shorter, shirted men in the other two of the three Healy whaleboat photos. Therefore, on balance, it seems relatively unlikely that the American in the whaleboat is a corpsman.
Other questions raised by data from the Naval vessel deck logs of this time frame:
On this date--apparently June 22, 1944--these Japanese POWs were transferred to the USS Lexington, the big carrier that was Admiral Mitscher's flagship and the intelligence hub of that section of the Seventh Fleet. Why, in light of this, was not Dick Houle's crew also transferred to the Lexington from the Healy along with the Japanese?
The reason this issue comes up, is that an official explanation for why Bush and crew were transferred to the Lexington on June 21, 1944, rather than to the San Jacinto, initially, was because Ensign Wendorf, a Lexington crewman, had been picked up only a few hours previously.
According to this official explanation, it would have simply been more convenient to send Bush and crew on to the Lexington with Wendorf, rather than awaiting the San Jacinto transfer. But, again, if that were the real reason, why wasn't Houle's crew transferred to the Lexington along with these passengers of the Japanese aircraft--or whoever it was that was found in the water around this Japanese aircraft.
Another interesting point in connection with the C K Bronson's record in its deck log of the pickup and subsequent transfers of crewmen Wendorf and Bush's crew, has to do with the ostensible "second" mention of each. Wendorf was picked up early in the morning on June 21, 1944, around 1:30 a.m. At around 4:00 p.m., Bush's crew and Wendorf are recorded as having been transferred to the Lexington.
In the second mention of Wendorf, virtually no detail is given. In the "second" mention of Bush's crew, however, full details are given as to names, status and any relevant ranking numbers. It is an interesting contrast in light of the other data we see about these odd-looking deck log references to Bush during this time.
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There are also several details about the possible scenario of this mysterious Bush June 19, 1944 flight that may never be worked out at this late date. They include:
1. Was Delaney aboard the plane on June 19, 1944? Or was he detained by Nadeau?
2. If Delaney wasn't aboard either (along with Nadeau), who was there in his place?
A likely replacement for Nadeau would have been Ted White, who later also replaced Nadeau over Chichi Jima on September 2, 1944, where he was killed.
But who would Delaney's replacement have been, if any? On the one hand, it would seem that Stinnett, author of the book from which this photo was copied, is a likely candidate. Yet Stinnett, though he seems sometimes to hide or obscure data, and is a ready defender of Bush, brings up somewhat thought-provoking data in the course of his book.
In a sense, the simpler scenario would be that Delaney was, indeed, on the plane on take-off on June 19, though Nadeau was not. If that were true, it would be strongly suggested that Bush somehow was able to separate himself--and perhaps himself and White--from Delaney, and perhaps was able to render Delaney unconscious.
If so, this could explain why Nadeau frequently asserts that Delaney was unconscious and "dazed" during a good part of their "water landing". He could be basing this on data given him by Bush as to what happened on the flight. Nadeau would have no inkling what had really occurred, but would be fabricating this to cooperate with Bush, who had been a "nice guy" in "covering" for Nadeau's having not be aboard for the emergency take-off on June 19.
But, while this scenario is simpler in a way, it is also more complex. It requires fewer persons around keeping the secret, but also suggests that Bush got separated from Delaney at some critical point; this, in turn, suggests Delaney was picked up separately from Bush and perhaps White.
Another gray area is pertaining to the first mention of Bush and crew by the CK Bronson. If the June 21 mention is in fact the first mention of them, when and how were they picked up? How did they arrive on the Bronson? Why are they referred to as a "FIT" (Field Intelligence Team)?
Such gray areas don't discredit the "cover up" theory of the June 19 flight, but they do suggest that at this late date, we may never know the details of exactly what happened. Was Bush actually delivering a message, or did he merely land on Guam proper because he didn't know how to perform a water landing? Was the Guam landing covered up by Forrestal later (in burning Bush's plane), merely as a favor to his friends and business partners Prescott Bush and Allen Dulles, or was it done to cover up a message delivery to Japan.
Because it occurred during a time frame when Dulles and Forrestal and Standard Oil were actively engaged in illegal and secret negotiations with the Axis, including Dulles's courier network out of Japanese-occupied Manchuria run by "Bishop" Cikota, it seems rather likely that Bush's mission was that of a courier.
On the other hand, the effort to be such a courier, may not have worked out to be anything except a brief touchdown on, and escape from, Guam by Bush and his crew. Or, could it be that a quick remark by Delaney ("We were on Guam") as to how they came to be in the raft, was what prompted them to be listed as "FIT" (Field Intellligence Team)?
If so, such comments by Delaney would have been dangerous to Bush, and could explain Delaney's death over Chichi Jima. In one scenario, White shoots Delaney while they are airborne over ChichiJima on September 2, 1944, and then plans to "bail out" with Bush. But White's chute fails to open.
Also, such a scenario would mean that the complaint against Nadeau was filed, not by Delaney, but by the Chief Petty Officer, with Bush quickly springing to Nadeau's defense on his return on June 25, 1944.
What does seem apparent, is that any courier mission failed. Hitler wasn't killed on July 20, 1944, as such a negotiated settlement plan would have required. And tankers out of Saudi Arabia were vulnerable to Allied air attacks.
Another possible explanation--that Bush, Delaney and Nadeau (or White instead of Nadeau) (or even, Stinnett instead of Delaney) were involved in a planned landing on Guam for legitimate intelligence-gathering purposes--seems equally unlikely. Bush would have quickly, as a Presidential and even as a Vice-Presidential candidate, acted to bring this out as to his record as a World War II hero and veteran.
However, what might work in that regard, is that this is what Bush told Delaney as he landed on Guam. If that were the case, Delaney may have been kept unconscious in order to prevent his knowledge of the events on land on Guam itself. If true, White may have dragged Delaney into a raft and been shoved out to sea, even with Japanese assistance, shortly after the landing. Bush, on the other hand, may have left Guam much later--as much as 48 hours later. This would explain the "American" in the Healy's whaleboat pictured above. It would be accounted for by the "open" log records as searches for missing crewmen were in progress in various vessels. Such records would have been added to as new crewmen were found or located on other vessels. Within ten hours of the final entry of the Bush crew transfer, Bush himself was "located" on the same carrier his crew had been transferred to--the Lexington. But he'd gotten there via the Healy.
If Delaney were indeed unconscious until they were out into the open water, in rough keeping with Nadeau's "version" of events, he would have indeed been "dazed" as Nadeau suggests, when they were picked up by the Bronson.
This would also explain the odd nature of the "unnumbered" page. It was added into the log some time after the other pages were written, because one section of it was incomplete. This section had been left open due to input from one the the crewmen--either Delaney or White--that Bush was still in the water. Since Delaney had been unconscious, much of the account must have come from White, Nadeau's replacement on this flight as on the September 2, 1944, Chichi Jima flight.
This would also explain why the San Jacinto and the Cleveland were in virtually constant contact with the Bronson from the time they first reported finding Bush's crewmen. First the San Jacinto--at 1:20 a.m, June 21, and then the Cleveland, were reporting constantly to the Bronson about possible missing crewmen. It was always the Bronson, during this hourly period, which was called to investigate these sightings. It seems as if the other two vessels were aware that the "Bush crew" recovered by the Bronson was not yet "complete".
These final details help to "flesh out" the scenario to some extent, providing a simpler and somewhat solider set of alternative scenarios for what happened on June 19, 1944--an alternative to the official version of events.
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