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| Lt. Dupont Landry was a carrier based pilot on the USS Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz Island. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/14115153/person/58461288/media/fcd81e1f-cd40-45ae-9a2c-162d2412e297?_phsrc=tPq7&_phstart=successSource https://www.pinterest.com/pin/474215035746856671/ |
Dupont Paul Landry never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on December 17, 1917 in Louisiana. His parents Eugene and Anna were also both born in Louisiana. His father worked as an oil mill assistant engineer and later as a barber. Dupont had an older brother, older sister, younger brother and younger sister. His older brother served in the US Army during World War 2 and returned home.
By 1940 Dupont had finished four years of high school and had moved 35 miles from Jeanerette to Lafayette and was living as a lodger while working at an oil terminal. He was also a student at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and was most likely in the Navy ROTC program.
He enlisted in the Navy on March 11, 1941. His first station was in Washington DC as a seaman 2nd class, but he somehow was selected for flight school. By May 1942 he was a lieutenant junior grade and fighter pilot in VF-72. Lt Landry's first assignment with the VF-72 was with the USS Wasp. In August 1942 VF-72 was assigned to USS Hornet. At that time Lt. Landry was flying F4F-4 Wildcats.
By September 15, 1942, Hornet was the only operational American carrier in the South Pacific. Enterprise and Saratoga had been recently damaged and Wasp had been sunk. Lt. Landry provided air cover for carrier duties in support of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Enterprise rejoined Hornet on October 24, 1942. Two days later they fought the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. When the American located the Japanese ships, Hornet sent two attack groups which included 15 Wildcats. When the Japanese attack group found Hornet, there were 37 Wildcats on defense. I was not able to find out which group Lt. Landry was in.
I don't know if Landry was downed dogfighting more experience Japanese fighter pilots, or if he was lost because the Hornet was too badly damaged to land planes so the Hornet based planes that couldn't find Enterprise had to ditch when they ran out of fuel. (see comment below for update) The Americans lost 81 aircraft out of 136 in the battle. Along with Lt. Landry, 6 other VF-72 pilots were killed that day. Lt. Landry was posthumously awarded the silver star.
His official date of death is listed as October 27, 1943 but this was due to the Navy's practice of how they handled those missing at sea by waiting one year and one day to list them as killed.
His cenotaph grave is at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Cemetery in Jeanerette, Louisiana.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
Thanks to Steve Nine from the WWII Pictures Facebook group:
ReplyDeleteLt Landry was a member of Bob Rynd’s division of four F4F Wildcats. They intercepted Aichi D3A1 dive bombers attacking the USS Hornet. He was flying as part of a two plane section; his section mate was K.C. Kiekhofer. Between them, they knocked a dive bomber down but were bounced by Zero fighters from the carrier Zuikaku. Kiekhofer knocked a Zero down but the other shot down Lt Landry, last seen diving straight into the sea. This info can be found in “The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign- Naval Fighter Combat from Aug - Nov 1942” by John Lundstrom. It is an excellent book.