From Sioux Falls to Tokyo: Claude Hone's Extraordinary Journey

These are extraordinary times affecting the lives of ordinary people.

As you might know, I have done quite a few stories on men and women who have heroically served our country in the military. It would be reasonable to think I have a great interest in military history, the conduct of battles, the armaments of war, and the like.

Not really.

What interest me is what happens to ordinary people who are thrust into extraordinary events that periodically transpire throughout our history (or their own). What were their experiences, how did they handle it and how did these events affect them at the time and in their futures.

In the case of this story, an ordinary office worker at the John Morrell Company enlisted in the Marine Corp in November, 1941 because he believes a certain megalomaniac European had gotten a bit too big for his britches. He thought maybe he could be of some help. This Sioux Falls, South Dakota office worker, Claude Hone, never made it to Europe, but as a fighter pilot would see combat action supporting the Pacific invasions of Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. And later to be one of 8 Marine pilots to first attack and strafe Tokyo airfields.

What was this ordinary man's journey from the seat at his desk at the John Morrell Company to the cockpit of a Marine Corsair over the airfields of Japan? That is what interest me, and that is what Claude Hone shared in this interview with John Mollison from a 2013 episode of Old Guys and Their Airplanes.