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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Randy Adair

Horace Clyde McGlothlin, a native of Grand Prairie, Texas, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. As a member of the 1st Marine Division, he sailed from New Caledonia to Guadalcanal Island aboard a Navy merchant ship laden with drums of 100-octane gasoline, 500-pound bombs, and a supply of nitroglycerine (off-loaded on Tulagi). Following that leg of his journey, slowed by dive-bombers and torpedoes, he finally landed on Guadalcanal on Armistice Day of 1942, amid strafing fire from Japanese Zeroes, only to find himself on the front lines.
On Guadalcanal, Corporal McGlothlin, was involved in the repair of the original Henderson Field. Later, he and his crew loaded the machine guns in F4F fighter planes and after a tough four months of enduring mosquitoes, limited rations, and periodic enemy harassment, in February, 1943, Buck Sergeant McGlothlin was transferred out.
From there, he moved on to Espirito Santos for four months, where he joined others in building a coral runway for the use of U.S. pilots. While he was there, the first 80 Corsairs (F4Us) arrived on a baby flat-top, wings folded, guns packed in the gun bays. He and his crew cleaned, installed, and bore-sighted the guns, then flew on test-runs with the pilots to complete the fine-tuning of the sighting process.
McGlothlin finished out his service state-side as a Staff Sergeant in a training squadron, lecturing pilots on handling the guns they would be using against the enemy when they reached their battle zones.
Since that time, McGlothlin has had an abiding interest in the Corsair F4Us that he came to know so well during his Marine Corps days.