MARVIN THEROUX
Age: 88
Born: July 10, 1922
Hometown: Red Lake Falls, Minn.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy Air Corps; VB-106 and VPB-106 squadrons
Years served: Aug. 18, 1942 - Dec. 20, 1945
Rank: Aviation Ordnance Man 1st Class
Family: First wife Lois (married 31 years); four sons, Steven Theroux of Downey, Charles Theroux of Long Beach, Roger Theroux of Buena Park, and Richard Theroux (deceased); seven grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; second wife Barbara (married 29 years); three stepchildren, Edward Armend of Covina, Richard Armend of North Plains, Ore., and Amy Freeman of Hesperia; five grandchildren.
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As a member of a U.S. Navy patrol/bombing squadron, Marvin Theroux flew more than 110 missions as a machine gunner aboard the Navy's version of the B-24 bomber.
Theroux's first eight months of overseas duty was spent as a belly gunner on a four-engine, PB4Y-1 Liberator aircraft.
The squadron scoured the Pacific Ocean — locating and attacking enemy ships, bombing and strafing enemy emplacements on tiny, yet strategically important islands, and performing reconnaissance operations in preparation for invasion landings.
“We were patrolling, looking for trouble, providing air cover to keep fighters away,” from planes carrying photographers.
Suspended from the bottom of the aircraft, Theroux manned twin, 50-caliber machine guns from inside the cramped, enclosed quarters of the belly turret.
Theroux was a perfect fit for the position.
“I was the shortest guy in the crew so I got the belly turret,” Theroux said. “I thought it was great. I didn't know it was the worst place to be.”
The squadron's first missions were to Japanese-occupied Midway and Wake islands.
The squadron flew photographic reconnaissance missions and also strafed and bombed the islands.
The enemy took defensive action, firing anti-aircraft guns at the attacking U.S. planes.
The squadron flew patrols from Hawaii, down to Christmas Island, south of the equator to New Hebrides, up through the Solomon Islands and into New Guinea.
On May 23, 1944, the crew suffered its first fatality.
“Our pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Johnson, did a masthead run on a (Japanese) destroyer escort,” Theroux said. “It was covered with camouflage that came off and it was loaded with lots of guns. One shot came through the starboard side and hit our waist gunner and killed him instantly. The waist gunner on the port side was hit in the legs three times. My belly turret was right between them and never touched.”
“What was hard to take was that we had only eight days until we were relieved of duty by a new squadron and we left for the states.”
By the time the squadron returned to the U.S., Theroux had racked up 912 hours of flight time.
The crew spent 30 days on leave before preparing for their second phase of combat duty.
Returning to San Diego after leave, the crew was split up and a new squadron was created.
“I was put in Squadron VPB-106 with pilot Lt. Cmdr. Goodloe.”
After retraining with new crew members, they were sent back to Hawaii for more training — in a new aircraft.
“We now had a type of plane called the Privateer (PB4Y-2),” Theroux said.
It was a modified version of the Liberator.
Instead of a double tail, the new aircraft sported a single tail; the belly turret was removed, and two waist turrets installed.
Theroux was now a waist turret gunner.
The squadron began combat patrols on Dec. 14, 1944, searching for enemy shipping north of Hawaii.
“On Feb. 10, 1945, we left for Kwajalein Island and then Tinian Island where we did photo flights over Iwo Jima before it was captured by American troops,” Theroux said.
The Seabees, the construction battalions of the Navy, built air strips after U.S. invasion landings, which gave airplanes another spot in the island-dotted Pacific from which to take off and land.
“After it was semi-taken (by the U.S.), we flew up to Japan and the China coast,” about a 15-hour flight from Tinian.
The squadron would stop at Iwo Jima for refueling.
“There were still Japanese in the caves,” he said. “They would shoot at us with rifles when we were taking off.”
On May 2, 1945, the squadron inflicted heavy damage on Japanese cargo-carrying ships.
“They were bringing supplies to Japanese soldiers on the islands. We were there to destroy them and all the supplies they were taking to the islands.”
The squadron bombed and strafed the ships — which the Allies code-named based on the size of the Japanese ship.
“We blew up one Sugar Charlie (300 -1,000 ton vessel) and two Sugar Dogs (smaller, 150 -300 ton ships),” he said.
The squadron followed all the way through on their mission to destroy the enemy.
“They did it to us,” he explained. “We would strafe the survivors in the water. (The feeling was) the more you kill, the less you have to fight.”
“We'd go down as much as 250 feet,” from the water, he said. “You couldn't see the expression on their face, you're going so by so fast. But they did it to us — we did it to them.”
In June, 1945, not long before completing his second, and final, tour of duty, a carbuncle on Theroux's backside saved his life.
Theroux said doctors shot the inflammation full of penicillin to ward off infection — and kept him under observation.
“The doctor was going to release me to fly that day,” Theroux said. “But at the last minute, as I was walking out the door of sick bay, the doctor had second thoughts and said, ‘Why don't you come back and see me tomorrow.'”
“My crew went out that day and never came back.”
Theroux's crew — led by Lt. Cmdr. Goodloe, who was among the casualties that day — was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for combat operations over heavily fortified installations in Singapore and northern Borneo in April and May, 1945.
Theroux, who considers himself extremely fortunate to have survived 114 missions and 1,700 hours in flight, said he didn't allow himself to worry about getting killed.
“I said, ‘I'm not going to die. It's just not going to happen to me.'”
