Herbert K. Anderson
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Navy
Herbert K. Anderson
Mr. Anderson entered the U.S. Naval Reserve on November 11, 1942, Virginia, Minnesota.
He served as an aviation cadet at the Naval Air Station in Minneapolis, Minnesota and later transferred to the NAS Pensacola, Florida.
Injuries to his ear drums while flying acrobatics there resulted in medical discharge in May 1941. Later, he worked at the Naval Research Lab at Anacostia, Washington, D.C. on aircraft identification equipment to be used on surface vessels.
On the advice of Navy flight officers, he re-entered the Navy as an Ensign. He was transferred to Traverse City, Michigan, with VJ-3 and moved to the Naval Research test base, China Lake, California in the Mojave desert.
In his words: "Then, Proximetry Fuse appeared ... to be mounted on the five-inch ''Holy Moses'' rocket for aircraft use. The question arose: would the fuse self-detonate on the firing aircraft? JV3 was a squadron specializing in flying remote-controlled aircraft called drones. It was planned that we would mount rocket launching racks on drones and fire two rockets by remote control from drones. This proved that rockets would not self-detonate by the drones."
"With this fact proven, the next step was how close to another aircraft would the rocket have to come to detonate and would it knock the target aircraft out of the sky. So we mounted rocket launching racks on an F-6-F fighter and fired at a drone. It was determined that if the 5-inch Holy Moses rocket came close to the drone it would detonate and knock it out of the sky."
"Later, the fleet mounted two 11-inch Tiny Tims on the Corsairs and ten 5-inch Holy Moses on them, too. In other words, the Corsairs had more firepower than a destroyer and equal to a salvo from a cruiser. The Marines then used the Corsairs to clear a beach for a landing as well as being pounded by the fleet."
Honorably discharged from active duty on January 1, 1946 as a Lieutenant.
He received the following: American Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. Retired on October 1, 1958.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The Saint Louis County World War II Project, page 20.
