The Coughlin (6th Generation) story
This is an Irish story written on behalf of John Coughlin, my uncle, and a proud 6th-generation.
In mid-1943, my uncle, JOHN COUGHLIN, a 23-year-old Naval Aviator, had already spent more than a year of active air combat service in the Pacific against the best of the Japanese Naval Air Forces. Serious injuries from air-to-air combat required him to take leave from active aircraft carrier flying as a Torpedo Bomber Pilot. He was transferred to Butler University to serve as a Preliminary Flight Instructor for Aviation Recruits.
The 52nd College Training Detachment (Air Crew) had been established on the Butler University campus in Indianapolis in March 1943, and it trained recruits in basic flight academics, military drills, and physical activities. In addition to his classroom duties, he was one of 8 instructors that gave the most promising recruits 20 hours of dual flight instruction at the flying field known as Hoosier Airport, later Stout Field and at some point, it was named Weir Cook Airport and then Holt Field.
Being a good Irish Catholic man in a strange city, he sought out his own. Far from his home in Philadelphia, the good folks at Holy Cross Parish took him in like a son. He was adopted by 4 families who, not being very well off themselves, made him a part of the Irish Catholic Community of Indianapolis. The ladies doted over him like extra mothers and the men made him one of the clan.
In March of 1944 he met his soon to be wife at a St. Patrick’s social gathering and 6 weeks later a wedding happened amongst his new family of Holy Cross. My grandparents and a few relatives came by train from Philadelphia and were welcomed as guests (like long lost relatives) to stay in the adopted family homes. Due to the many demands of war production, and the rationing imposed by the war effort, they stayed with those same grand people. Because of the very heavy rationing strictures imposed on America, everyone had to quickly settle back into daily war time life, and things settled down to a very modest lifestyle.
In September of 1944 he was promoted and transferred back to Fleet Air duty as a Commander and assigned a squadron command onboard the USS Hornet (CV-12). He participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where his squadron sank 2 Japanese Carriers, a Light Cruiser and a Destroyer. He personally scored a crucial hit on the ZUIKAKU, the last of the 6 Japanese Carriers that had been used in the attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.
He participated in many other engagements and served with distinction through the end of the war in the Pacific. My aunt had remained in Indianapolis and stayed with her local family. The rationing was becoming very hard for everyone and had become almost impossible for a married and pregnant woman to get along on her own. The baby, my older cousin, had so many adopted grandparents that he was probably the most pampered boy of his time.
When the war finally ended, John was mustered out and came back to Indy to a huge welcome from everyone at Holy Cross and the Golden Ace Tavern. Despite his love for those good folks, he needed to return to Philadelphia to assume his post war work as an engineer in my grandfather’s business. John, Sally and my cousin moved to Philadelphia to settle in for the future. Sadly, he passed away at age 35 from a serious heart condition that had been previously undiagnosed.
I was born in Pennsylvania a few years later but grew up with the glowing stories of his welcome and acceptance at Holy Cross. I knew about the Golden Ace Tavern long before I moved to Indianapolis in 1988.
Tim Coughlin
7th Generation Irish American