Isaac Walter Budd

LIEUTENANT ISAAC WALTER BUDD was born in Camden NJ in 1918 to Hiram Epright and Margaretta Budd of 1407 Baird Avenue. His father was the president of the City Line Brick and Lumber Company, founded in 1890 by his great-uncle Hiram and grandfather Isaac W. Budd. Prior to founding the brick business had been Budd brothers had worked as stone masons, operated a feed and and grain business, and were connected, through Isaac's brother-in-law Frank, to a successful lumber business in Camden, William C. Scudder and Son Lumber, at Front and Arch Streets. The brick business prospered, and the Budd's built two of the first houses in Parkside, at 1401 Baird and 1407 Baird Avenue, the corner of Baird and Kenwood Avenues, early in the 20th century.

Isaac Budd, "Ike" to family and friends, was the one of six children, and he grew up and went to school in Camden. Besides Isaac was older stepbrother Harry, and the younger children, Geraldine, William, Margaretta, and Hiram. Isaac graduated from Camden High School. He attended Wenonah (NJ) Military Academy, and was a graduate of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore PA.

Isaac W. Budd entered the Navy prior to Pearl Harbor. He trained as a pilot, and part of his training included take-offs and landings from Camden's Central Airport. After he was commissioned and awarded his wings, he served as a flight instructor at Miami FL. On January 19, 1943 he married Miss Jeanne Coleman. Isaac Budd also was stationed at Whidbey Island and Pasco in the state of Washington prior to being sent to the Pacific for duty as a naval fighter pilot in November, 1943. A member of Fighter Squadron VF-39, flying Grumman F6F Hellcats, he was shot down while strafing Japanese forces at Mili Island on March 7, 1944. His plane crashed into the sea, and neither Lt. Budd or the plane were recovered.  

Isaac Budd was survived by his mother, siblings, and his wife, Jeanne Coleman Budd, all of the 1407 Baird Boulevard address. All of his brothers were serving in the Navy at the time.

Isaac Budd was related by marriage to the Hineline, Wilson, and Haines families. His Aunt Alberta Budd was married to Frank J. Hineline, president of the Camden Lime Company. His first cousin, Frank B. Hineline was married to Elizabeth Haines, daughter of Dr. Rowland Ivins Haines and neice of Admiral Henry B. Wilson and banker Philip Wilson; their father was H.B. Wilson Sr., for who a school in Camden was named after.

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The Mili airbase. In the late 1930s Japan began to fortify its Marshallese possessions contrary to the Covenant of the League of Nations. These fortifications were centered on Kwajalein, Maloelap and Wotje. Any development of Mile Atoll, however, was not part in the grand strategic scheme.

Mili during World War II.
In order to create a suitable defense system at its perimeter, the Japanese navy decided to develop some of the atolls of the Marshall Islands into bases for seaplanes, for naval surface units submarines, and, with the advent of long-range land-based bombers, as airfields. Mili was only to become a small lookout, radio direction finding and weather station. After the begin of the war and the Japanese occupation of Kiribati, however, the strategic concepts changed. The development of Mili air base began in in autumn 1942 when the Korean and Marshallese labour force building the seaplane base on Majuro was transferred.

However, as the base was begun very late in the war, when Japanese resources were being stretched and when Japanese shipping was under attack by U.S. submarines, the base development is characterized by a relative absence of large concrete structures, such as command buildings, power stations or bunkers. In a very short time, between late 1942 and late 1943, the Japanese had constructed an airfield with three runways (4750', 4550' + 4400'), two hangars and a service apron. By end of 1943 there were also several hundred buildings, mainly of wooden construction, a wooden pier and several repair shops.

There was one radar set (range 50 miles) on island, giving the air wing some 10 minutes warning. During the war two squadrons of planes were temporarily stationed here many of which were destroyed on the ground. A large number of plane wrecks, mainly Zero-fighters (Mitsubishi A6M) and Betty-bombers (Mitsubishi G3M) are scattered about on the island.

The perimeter of the island, especially the ocean side, bristled with guns, which were a mixture of British and Japanese manufacture: 8 6" and 3 14cm coastal defense guns, 4 127mm dual purpose guns, 2 10cm mortars, 35 heavy and over 70 light anti-aircraft guns as well as an assortment of small guns.

Between mid-1943 and Aug. 1945, the US aircraft dropped 3350t bombs and US ships shot 450t shells onto Taroa. While the first attacks were carried-based and irregular, daily attacks were started after Majuro and Kwajalein had fallen to the US. At the same time, all supply lines to Mili were cut off, and the Japanese garrison was left to starve. Of the originally 5100 strong Japanese garrison (2600 Navy, 2500 Army,) only 2500 (50%) survived. Casualties occurred from air raids, diseases, accidents, and suicides, but mainly from starvation.

Plan of the Japanese airbase on Mili Island, Mili Atoll

 1940 Stearman N2S-3 'Kaydet' Trainer Biplane

The N2S-3 traces its roots to the Stearman Model 70, built as a private venture to meet a 1934 U.S. Army Air Corps request for a new plane to replace its aging primary trainer fleet. Re-engined with a Wright J-5 Whirlwind, the design was first ordered by the U.S. Navy in 1935 as the NS-1. Using a Lycoming R-680-5 radial engine and known as the Model 75, the Air Corps ordered the type into production as the PT-13 in 1936. With a variety of engines and designations, the Model 75 went on to become one of the most widely produced and used primary trainers in U.S. military service.

The Model 75 biplane featured a fabric-covered, welded steel tube fuselage and spruce wing construction, and enjoyed a reputation as a simple, cost effective design. Student pilots occupied the front cockpit, while the instructor sat in a rear cockpit with identical controls. Its rugged, forgiving nature made it an excellent primary trainer, providing a relatively safe introduction for pilot trainees into military flight.

Boeing bought the Stearman Company in the middle 1930s, and continued production of the Model 75 for the military. Although built by Boeing, the Model 75 continued to be known as the "Stearman". In 1940 a Continental R-670-5 engine was fitted to the design to create the PT-17, of which over 3,500 were eventually ordered for U.S. Army service. The plane also enjoyed large Navy use as the N2S, and in 1942 both services adopted an interchangeable version known as the N2S-5/PT-13D. Stearman demand at the outbreak of World War II outstripped engine supply, so another powerplant, the Jacobs R-755-7, was used on the airframe to create the PT-18.

Several countries bought Stearmans, including Canada, which employed 300 PT-27s under a Lend-Lease agreement with the United States. The PT-27 differed from the PT-17 in having a canopy over both cockpits, a crankcase cowl and landing lights in the lower wings, as well as heat and electrical systems. Thousands made their way to the civilian market after World War II as crop sprayers, light transports and sport planes; several hundred were still flying over fifty years later.

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Camden Courier-Post
March 10, 1944

Isaac W. Budd
Joseph C. Arrison