Stratton would locate and rescue those nine men, but he would never return from that mission. Forced to ditch their plane, the crew was adrift and unprotected in the open ocean of enemy waters between Tokyo and Iwo Jima.
The Superfortress had sustained catastrophic flight control and electrical system damage from Japanese anti-aircraft flak. On that Tuesday morning, Stratton and his crew, who had been stationed on the island, were charged with locating the downed airmen of the B-29 Dragon Lady. There, Navy Seabees rebuilt its airstrips for Air Force pilots to use as a place of rescue for battle-damaged B-29s returning from missions over the home islands of Japan.
The island had been designated a strategically imperative military objective. in one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history. Eight weeks earlier, after a protracted 36-day assault, the volcanic island had been taken by the U.S. Stratton and his crew from the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron boarded their amphibious aircraft, a PBY Catalina christened Pistofe, and took off from South Field airstrip on the diminutive island of Iwo Jima. Courtesy Misty Falls Motion Picture Company Mensa member and producer Mariana Tosca instructs a cast member inside a B-29.
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