Night Birds

F4U-2N Corsair

  On October 31, 1943, Navy Lieutenant Hugh D. O'Neill destroyed an enemy plane at night aided by Radar; it was the first "night kill" ever recorded, radar had helped the United States gain an edge in the hard fought Pacific Theater of World War Two.
  Assigned to VF(N)-75, a "night fighter" squadron aboard the USS Enterprise CV-6 LT O'Neill made naval aviator history, also on board Enterprise was another "night fighter" squadron, making the two The Night Birds of the Big E - probably the spirit of those two squadrons, and the men and machines that made them up, might have shortened the war and saved a few lives.
  It was a "victory" of sorts for the engineers and technologists who had been working since 1939 to make Radar a military aircraft tool. 
  LT O'Neill went on to become Commanding Officer of VF(N)-74 for a period of March 1944 until the unit shut down and was De-commissioned in October 1945.

USS Enterprise CV-6 at sea

More history recorded