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So Who's this "Jig Dog" Guy?
The Lt. Cmdr James D. Ramage was widely known in Task Force 58 as "Jig Dog," the popular, aggressive skipper of VB-10 (Uss Enterprise). Ramage, and Lt. Cdr Ralph Weymouth of VB-16, led the last two carrier-based SBD squadrons, as the other five "big-deck" carriers began using the SB2C-1 Helldiver, which fully replaced the Dauntless in the Fast Carrier Force at the end of July 1944.
Eventually rising to the rank of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, James Ramage is one of the most decorated individuals in the history of U.S. naval aviation. Nicknamed "Jig Dog" for the semaphoric pronunciation of his first and middle initials, Ramage grew up in the Highland area of east Waterloo. He graduated from East High School and attended what is now the University of Northern Iowa. His grandfather served in the Civil War and his father in the Spanish-American War.
During World War II, Ramage became commander of the carrier USS Enterprise's dive bomber squadron. He was a squadron mate of air ace, Medal of Honor winner and Chicago O'Hare International Airport namesake Edward "Butch" O'Hare.
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Ramage participated in 11 combat operations in the Pacific. He directed air attacks in the 1944 invasion of Saipan and was personally credited with crippling a Japanese carrier "and leaving it in a sinking condition." He also served in the Korean and Vietnam wars and commanded aircraft carriers, attack wings and a carrier division in Vietnam.
He has received the Navy's highest honor, the Navy Cross, as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal, all for valor in combat. He has lectured on World War II Pacific campaigns in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution. In 2001, the annual "Jig Dog" Ramage Award recognizing excellence in Navy carrier operations was created and named for him.
The photo at the right shows RADM James Ramage flying in a VB-10 formation on March 30th, 1944 near Palau. Ramage is the SBD #10 in the forefront of the photo.
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Ramage at the Philippine Sea
Ramage led 12 of his Bombing Ten Dauntlesses with 17 other Enterprise aircraft on the maximum-range evening attack of the June 20th, 1944 in the Philippine Sea. Bombing Ten lost only one plane due to lack of fuel (the crew was rescued). His Radioman First Class David J Cawley had flown in VS-10 during the Santa Cruz batttle of October 1942.
The photo at right shows ships in Ozawa's Mobile Fleet turning sharply to evade SBD Dive Bomber attacks during Ramage's June 20 evening raid.
Below are excerpts from Jig Dog's account of the mission...
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About two hours out (300 miles) I sighted a strike group off to our port in an attack situation. Beneath them I could see four oilers and several escorts. I broke radio silence calling to Lt. Van Eason, our torpedo element leader, "85 Sniper from 41 Sniper. We will not attack. The Charlie Victors (carriers) are dead ahead."
I then opened up on VHF guard channel saying, "Unknown Strike Leader from 41 Sniper. The carriers are dead ahead. What are you trying to do? Sink their merchant marine?" The other strike group continued on with the attack in spite of the information that the Japanese carriers were the prime targets. I was exasperated. I later found out that their commander stated that his SB2Cs were low on fuel! Who wasn't?
The Japanese fleet was easy to locate; there were black AA puffs over a wide area - also some colored detonations. Soon, I could make out two carriers below and to port. It was just as we had been briefed. I took the closest carrier and Bangs' division took the second carrier in the middle task group. Eason's torpedo planes split between the two. The TBFs carried four 500-lb general purpose bombs, while the SBDs each carried one 1000-lb bomb: half general purpose and half semi armor piercing.
As I rolled in, I had a fine view of the carrier. I split my dive brakes at about 10,000 feet. Shortly thereafter I could hear Cawley's twin thirties chattering; then I looked over to the right and within five feet of me, passing below, was a Zero. The dive brakes had thrown him off aim. My dive was a good, standard 70° attack.
At about 5000 feet I opened up with my two 50-caliber machine guns. The tracers were going directly into the forward elevator. The carrier was steaming into the wind. Allowing for the wind and target motion, I moved the pipper to just ahead of the bow of the carrier, and released at 1800 feet.
I pulled out, easing down to about 300 feet and was immediately taken under fire by all sorts of ships - battleships, cruisers, and destroyers. Cawley yelled into his mike, "Skipper, look back. She's burning from asshole to appetite!" About that time there was so much stuff being thrown up at us that I just couldn't look back. Cawley then began telling me to climb or descend, depending on where the AA was aimed. We pulled out to the eastward.
As soon as I was clear of the Japanese outer screen, I started a gentle turn to the left. It was about 1930 and beginning to get dark. I shortly had six of my birds, then three more. Several Zeros were about to make a run on us, but Kane's fighters shot down four or five.
After three orbits, I knew that we'd have to start back to the task force. As I gave the hand signal indicating that we were squared away on our return course, we began to pick up all sorts of stragglers. As soon as they picked up our heading they added throttle and left us. They weren't going to get stuck with the SBD's 150-knot cruise speed.
James D. "Jig Dog" Ramage
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Recreating a Legend
So there you have it... a brief look at one of the 21 SBD-5's that flew off the Enterprise (VB-10) in June of 1944, and an idea of what some of the brave young pilots and gunners that flew them went through.
Now my task is to try to do these men justice in recreating a 1/5.5 Scale RC rendition of one of them... 41 Sniper. There are no actual photographs available of Ramage's 41 Sniper as far as I know. However there are adequate photos and documentation of other SBD-5's, and even those of Bombing Ten in the Philippines, to arrive at a very accurate conclusion as to what Jig Dog's SBD should have looked like. Wish me Luck!
UPDATE!!! - Talking to the Legend
After months of research and trying to clear up some issues regarding my SBD, I finally located Rear Admiral James Ramage and his aircrew/gunner Dave Cawley, thanks to a lot of help from some of the other veterans of the Enterprise. Dave Cawley's health was too poor at the time to assist me but 87 year old RADM Ramage was sharp as a tack and eager to help me. We spoke cross-country on the phone for quite some time and it was a huge help in clearing up my issues/questions. Here are some excerpts from our conversation...
"Well Tom, you've chosen a great aircraft to model. The SBD was the most successful dive bomber in the Navy, I think we ended up sinking 9 Jap Carries by war's end. She was an extremely stable plane, and flew very well, in spite of her slow top speed."
The callsign 41 Sniper was used to designate the strike leader in our bombing formations, it had nothing to do with our a/c number. 85 Sniper designated the strike leader for torpedo plane formations, and so on. While I flew a/c #10 most of the time, I also flew other planes from time to time depending on aircraft status, maintenance, etc."
"Just as we saw our target pass under our wing at about 10,000 feet, we would open the dive brakes, then do a rollout (half-roll to inverted) and pull elevator until we had about a 70 degree angle of attack straight at the carrier. The SBD would pick up speed to about 260 mph as we lined up the target, then at about 2000 feet we would release the 1000 pound bomb and pull out of the dive. Once the horizon came up level in front of us, we'd close the dive brakes and exit at a low altitude. When we were clear of the AAA and Jap fighters, we'd reform, climb and head back to the CV6."
RADM James "Jig Dog" Ramage
5/22/03
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RADM Ramage and I spoke for quite a while and he gave me tons of great info on the SBD, explained flight manuevers, how to execute proper dive bombing runs, etc.. It was the pinnacle of scale modeling for me, getting to talk to an actual WW2 hero and he's the actual pilot that bravely flew the full-scale warbird that I am modeling.
"Jig Dog" recalled information about flying SBD's to me like it was yesterday. What an experience listening to him recall his love for the plane, the dangerous missions, and how the "Slow but Deadly" got him safely home every time!
Tom Pierce
UPDATE 2!!! - Meeting the Legend
Fortune has smiled upon me again as I recently had to fly to California on a business trip and was able to take the opportunity to not only see an SBD-5 live - in person, but also to meet Jig Dog himself! Click the icons below to learn more...
 
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