Kingfisher To The Rescue

Balancing himself carefully on the root of the OS2U Kingfisher’s right wing, Chief Aviation Radioman Ruben Hickman waited for the opportunity to grab the cable and hook suspended from a crane aboard the heavy cruiser USS Baltimore.

- Jack Cook

Hickman and his pilot, Lt. (j.g.) Denver Baxter of the Baltimore’s aviation detachment, had minutes prior made a miraculous rescue under fire of a Hellcat pilot who had been shot down while attacking the Japanese naval stronghold at Truk Island on the morning of February 17, 1944.

First flown in 1938, the OS2U served throughout World War II from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. It was used as a seaborne and land-based observation, antisubmarine, and rescue aircraft in addition to being used for training. A Kingfisher from the USS Pensacola even shot down a Zero fighter off the coast of Iwo Jima on February 16, 1945.