Before the United States entered World War II, author Tomlinson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. Following Pearl Harbor, he and most of the other Americans serving in the RCAF were "repatriated" into the U.S. military, most into the Army Air Corps. Tomlinson was one of the few who chose the Marine Corps. Following naval aviator training in Pensacola he was off to the Southwest Pacific and Guadalcanal with VMF-214, the squadron that became the Black Sheep.

There was plenty of work to be done with the constant CAP’s combat air patrols and increasing pre-invasion strikes on Okinawa and farther a field. The Corsairs were heavily loaded at launch and provided some new experiences. They could be carrying all or any part of the following 5,600 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, a large auxiliary fuel tank on one wing pylon, a 1,000 pound bomb  or a napalm  on the other pylon, and eight 5-inch rockets on the rails under the wings. For  a former strictly fighter pilot, bombing was something new, as  was dropping napalm. The first napalm drop I flew was on  a small islet just off the island of Okinawa. The whole flight was making drops, and the flames going up the side of the hill that  was struck  were rather frightening”.

Late in the war, while flying off a carrier during raids against Japan, Tomlinsons four-plane division was assigned to be a high-altitude radio relay for the attacking forces. During this mission they encountered the jet stream, at that time a little-known phenomena, especially among fighter pilots accustomed to lower, less hostile altitudes. Hours later, lost, out of radio range, and out of fuel, they ditched in the northwest Pacific. Three of the four were rescued by the Sea Devil (SS 400). Tomlinson ended up in the naval hospital at Pearl Harbor for the closing months of the war.

___________________________