Minnesota Musician-Aviator Served in South Pacific

Guadalcanal is not a waterway like "Panama Canal." In Arabic the name means "Valley of Stalls," or "Markets."

It's also the name of a city in the Spanish region of Andalusia, and thanks to a homesick Spanish sailor who went to the South Pacific in 1568 the largest of the Solomon Islands has the same name.

Andalusia is a bucolic place. The Solomon Islands are hot, wet, and populated with poisonous critters. One member of the U.S. Marine Corps once said, "Guadalcanal only looks good from the poop deck of a departing ship."

In 1942 the island was the setting of a grim battle fought by U.S. Marines against the soldiers of the Japanese Empire. The imperial soldiers of Japan followed the warrior code of "Bushido."

U.S. Marines would take Guadalcanal from the Japanese and every other contested island ending with the battle for Iwo Jima. The year 1942 was a memorable one for the U.S. Marine Corps and for a young musician from St. Paul, Minnesota, named Eugene Trowbridge.

After graduating from the McPhail Institute in Minneapolis, Trowbridge played trumpet for jazz and swing bands in the Twin Cities. Like many musicians, he was often "Baroque."

A condition caused Trowbridge to join the U.S. Navy Reserve as a band master to earn extra money. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, he was doing his two weeks of active duty at the Naval Station in San Diego and getting ready for a concert.

The concert was cancelled, and Ensign Trowbridge signed up to be a naval aviator. By March, the trumpeter had been transformed into a fighter pilot. Since the Navy had no carriers available for training, he went to the Marines. Now Lt. Trowbridge, he was assigned to a fighter squadron (VMF-223) then equipped with the F2A Buffalo and sent back to San Diego.

Guadalcanal is where Trowbridge was headed, but first he went to Hawaii. Being transferred to the land-based Marines turned out to be a good move, because he was seasick for most of the two-week voyage to Pearl Harbor.

In Hawaii, his unit transited to the Grumman F4F "Wildcat," a major improvement in aircraft. On Aug. 2 VMF-223 loaded their 19 Wildcats on the USS Long Island (CVE-1) and headed for the Solomons. The carrier was the lead ship of her class and the U.S. Navy's first escort carrier.

Trowbridge made his first (and only) carrier takeoff on Aug. 20. He was the first to land at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. On final approach he heard the boss tell the rest of the squadron, "If he wipes out, you'll know what to avoid."

Everyone landed successfully. The squadron's first air combat was the next day and Trowbridge shot down two airplanes. The Japanese lost 10 that day, but the Marines lost three. Trowbridge was credited with a Zero on Aug. 23 and two more on the 24th becoming an "Ace" in five days. He got the next day off

Japanese bombers escorted by Zeros attacked Henderson Field on the Aug. 26 and Trowbridge ran to his Wildcat. He noticed the crew chief had painted five red balls on the airplane and said, "How nice."

The mechanic said, "Anything for an ace," then "Bring my airplane back in one piece, sir." Trowbridge got his sixth victory that day directly over Henderson when he shot down a Zero flown by Lt. Junichi Sasai who had been credited with destroying 27 American Aircraft including five Wildcats in one day. However, Sasai's wingman shot up his Wildcat so bad that Trowbridge had to crash land on the runway.

Two Marines ran to the aircraft and the nearly unconscious pilot heard one say, "That guy's had it. I was here first. That watch is mine."

The other Marine grabbed the pilot's wrist saying, "The hell it is," and noticed Trowbridge was alive. A medic checked Trowbridge over and helped him to his bunk. No one recorded what the crew chief had to say about his airplane not being in one piece.

The medic thought Trowbridge had a concussion, so he got "a few hours off," and was ready to fly the next day. But the Japanese had enough for a while. Trowbridge was in combat almost every day from Sept. 1 to Sept. 13 and shot down seven more Japanese.

That was a rare dry period at Henderson Field, and aircraft raised a lot of dust despite a Navy Construction Battalion having paved the airfield with pierced steel planking. On Sept. 14 Trowbridge was taking off on the dusty runway to intercept a Japanese raid and failed to see a 55-gallon drum. His Wildcat hit the drum then collided with a taxiing airplane. His luck had run out. Trowbridge was taken to a field

hospital then evacuated on September 16. He arrived back in San Diego on Oct. 9 where he was confined to the base hospital. On Nov. 20 he was awarded the Navy Cross for "extraordinary heroism and distinguished service."

Trowbridge made his first (and only) carrier takeoff on Aug. 20. He was the first to land at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. On final approach he heard the boss tell the rest of the squadron, "If he wipes out, you'll know what to avoid."

Virginia Burvenich had traveled to San Diego with Trowbridge and planned to attend the concert on Dec. 7, 1941. They were going to be married in January, but the Japanese messed up that plan. After Trowbridge recovered from Guadalcanal, he married the girl he left behind on Dec. 9, 1942, wrapping up a rather interesting year for a band leader.

Capt. Trowbridge spent the rest of the war as an instructor and was promoted to major In 1946, he commanded a Marine squadron in China but left the Marine Corps the next year, returned to music and led the bands at several schools in the Twin Cities until he retired in 1979. In 2002, Eugene Trowbridge was an inductee of the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame.