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Bobby Dagdigian: The Legend
By Maggie Claus
Introduction Last year for Christmas, my Nana Bea presented to my grandfather, Bobby, the medals, mounted and framed, that he had earned many years ago for the work and time he served in the US Navy during World War Two. It was not until nearly a year later that I learned what those medals mean and how important they are. My grandfather, Robert Dagdigian, entered the Second World War as a teenager and returned from it a man. I am very lucky to still have him with me in good shape after hearing of his time in the war. This page is dedicated to him, my Bobby, with love and thanks for all he has taught me. Some "really, really exciting stuff" "When the United Sates got into War World Two there was no question; everybody wanted to be in the armed forces or some capacity and help out because there was no opposition to being in the war. None whatsoever." Bobby joined the Navy when he was only seventeen years old with the eager ambition that had swept the nation to serve his country. Due to his natural intellect and the good marks he had received from school, Bobby was able to receive his first choice for training and become an ammunition radioman. After training in Dive-Bombers in Florida as a radioman gunner, Bobby came to love flying and firing. "That was really, really exciting stuff." After training was finished in Florida, Bobby went onto his CASU (Composite Aviation Service Unit) and then to his Squadron where he was introduced to the Torpedo Planes. Bobby's job on the Torpedo Plane consisted of being a radioman gunner and taking care of the radio gear and the bomb sites. He laid on his stomach and would shoot a 30 caliber machine gun out of the back of the Torpedo Planes. Bobby grew to love being in the Torpedo Planes as he had the Dive-Bombers. He continued to travel all around the country to the different training camps the Navy assigned him to. Soon he was on his way to the Pacific. Earning Those Medals General Douglas Macarthur of the US Navy had a plan for the war in the Pacific called "The Octagon." "The Octagon" was a strategy of "island hopping" to invade and gain control of larger islands. The goal of it was to stop Japanese air forces and to take over islands on their way to the mainland of Japan. They hoped to weaken the Japanese air forces, and that's exactly what they did. Phase one of "The Octagon" consisted of "island hopping" from some of the smaller islands that were weakly defended, over the course of a month. The attacks went very well so Admiral Halsey felt that it would be unnecessary to proceed in the planned landings for the other Philippine islands Palau, Yap, Morotai and Mindanao (WWII Encyclopedia). Bobby was operating on the Palau Islands when during an invasion he earned one of those medals my Nana mounted. His pilot was very good at aiming the rockets into the caves of the Palau Islands. One day during an invasion of Palau, his pilot had closed the doors of the bomb bay a shade too soon and the last bomb was stuck in between the doors while still live. If they had jarred it or anything the bomb would have gone off. So Bobby reached down and was able to hook his finger in a hook on the bomb to gently move it and place it over the opening of the doors and the bomb was released. "You know," Bobby tells me, "when the adrenaline gets going, you can do anything...they thought that was a good thing I did so they gave me a medal for that."
"I had a lot of interesting experiences" Because the US Navy had already greatly weakened the Japanese air forces, General Macarthur agreed with Admiral Halsey that they should move the invasion date of the large island of Leyte in the Philippines up from December 20, 1944 to October 20, 1944. By moving the date of invasion two months ahead, the Japanese were very unprepared and had even less time than before to rebuild their air forces. All shipping fire support ships and escort carriers came to the southwest Pacific to be used during the invasion of Leyte. The battle of Leyte, one of the war's greatest battles, led to important battles such as Iwo Jima. After the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the U.S. gave Japan the option to surrender. When Japan didn't surrender, the U.S. dropped the Atomic Bomb onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result of the bombings, Japan surrendered unconditionally. During the invasion of Leyte, Bobby was flying over a beach area looking for people firing guns pretty low and their hydraulic system got shot out from some ground fire. The hydraulic system controlled the flaps that open up to slow down the plane to land. When they got back to the ship, they had to land really fast since they didn't have any flaps. "We got the cut land, the hook grabs and we're going so fast the back end of the planes come right off. Right in back of me." The plane kept going and hit the wires in front. "That was a scary one. I had a lot of interesting experiences, but we got out of that one all right too."
UMaine After the battle of Leyte, Bobby was ordered back to the United States. The stopped in Hawaii on the way back, and he was able to see even more of the States. Bobby quit the Navy later that year and went on to finish school. He had already been accepted to the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. The battles that Bobby was involved in during the war in the Pacific are very important. The Invasions of Palau were important to the war because it allowed the battle of Leyte to advance its target date. Bobby's participation in this battle is just as important as his participation in the battle of Leyte. It took every person trying and fighting together to end the war, and I am proud to say that my grandfather helped bring the war to an end.
Some Words of Wisdom "I had a very enjoyable time. I learned a lot, and saw a tremendous amount of the country. I was stationed in Oklahoma for a while and the Montgomery school, twice. I had a lot of interesting times. (So you had no regrets about the war?) Oh no not at all. I was one of the really lucky ones. I had a lot of friends who got killed and I was one of the lucky ones. You get so, that after a while, the way it worked with me was, you get so thinking that people were always getting transferred, so you think of the ones who got killed as getting transferred. So death has never effected me as much that way and I always kind of thought of death as a transfer. That's my advice to you." |
Bibliography Dagdigian, Robert E. Personal interview. 30 Nov. 2003. history. 2003. 20 Nov. 2003 http://www.ehistory.com/wwii/interactive/images/macarthur2.jpg. "Leyte: The Planning." World War Two Encyclopedia. 17 vols. N.p.: n.p., n.d. O'Boyle, Shaun, and Wendy L. O'Boyle. WW2 Images. 20 Nov. 2003 http://oboylephoto.com/planes/tbf_torpedo_bomber.jpg. USS Peleliu History. U.S. Navy. 11 Nov. 2003 http://www.peleliu.navy.mil/History/Palaumap1.jpg. USS Peleliu History. U.S. Navy. 11 Nov. 2003 http://www.peleliu.navy.mil/History.html. |
