“THE FIRST HELLCAT ACE”, by Cdr HAMILTON MCWHORTER III, USN (RET.). CasematePublishers, Havertown, PA. 19083: 2024, 226 pages, 70 b&w unpublished photos, 6 ¼” x 9 ¼”,hardback, $34.95. Visit, www.casematepublishers.com.No greater Introduction could alert the reading World War II enthusiast-buff better than thefollowing publicity lead-in written in 2001 when the initial version of “The First Hellcat Ace” waspublished: “Today the U.S. Navy’s World War II fighter pilots remain less known than their ArmyAir Forces counterparts. One reason is that they have left far fewer memoirs, a great lossbecause nothing can replace authentic descriptions of fighter combat by those who actually didit. Fighter ace, Hamilton ‘One Slug’ McWhorter, a member of elite Fighting Squadron 9, flewnearly the whole war, first over Northwest Arica, then in the 1943-44 Central Pacific offensives,and finally in the grim assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and finally in the skies over theJapanese homeland. No story like his exits. Vividly written, ‘The First Hellcat Ace’ is animportant contribution not only for the Pacific battles but the air war in general.”When yet another legend, John Lundstrom, author of the great “The First Team: Pacific NavalAir Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway”, wrote the above paragraph in 2001, Hamilton’s firstmemoir “The First Team”, had just been published by Pacific Press.So much more praise can be heaped on the 2023 revised version of, “The First Hellcat Ace”.But, for this reviewer, no amount of secondary eulogizing and extoling can be warmer andmore endearing than the final paragraph penned by Jay on August 11, 2023, via his Afterword(page 226): “Mac ‘went West’ in 2008 and I’ve missed him dearly ever since. As kind, modest,skilled, and intelligent as he seems within these pages, he was even more so in real life. Whenwe worked together on the book, he was almost embarrassed to discuss his successes, and wasalways considerate when talking of others. He was a true, sincere, gentleman, a devoted father,and a man who was as much in love with his wife as anyone I’ve met. These are the attributes I
most want people to know about my friend, Mac.” Jay A. Stout
