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He goes on about how the “story goes” that Burch withheld information from the report (which he did not have the authority to do) but told the investigation members privately. The rumors involve Lt. Curtis as well. Supposedly he was afraid to testify truthfully before the Board when he said Taylor was normal in every respect—fear of repercussions because he let an unfit man fly that day. Kusche thinks that it is “ironic” that if there was a cover-up it was to spare Taylor’s mother and family the rumors he had been drinking that day.
Kusche relegates his entire dissertation to the bin of pointless rumors with his next paragraph by deferring to Willard Stoll, whom he says can “fortunately” clear it all up— Stoll’s firsthand encounters with Taylor in the briefing room convinced Stoll he had not been drinking at all.
The rumors were better left unmentioned than introduced and then nebulously clarified. If Stoll’s clarification didn’t take root with anybody, it’s because Kusche’s meandering carelessness latches on to Clark Miller’s fanciful recollections next, crediting him enough to paraphrase them from Lee Pearson’s notes. (Lt. Clark Miller was Taylor’s roommate at Fort Lauderdale at the time of the loss. In 1961 he spoke in depth to Lee M. Pearson, the Bureau of Naval Affairs historian. Miller, then a Commander in the Navy, apparently unloaded on Pearson. Some 14 years later, Pearson went over it with Kusche based on his firsthand notes.) Some of what Kusche offers from these “notes” shows his ability to ferret red herrings. Kusche said Pearson characterized Miller as “quite bitter about the loss,” especially the 1947 exoneration. He considered it a whitewashing of the man responsible. Miller described Taylor as “carousing all night and sleeping during the day,” and even, as Kusche paraphrases, “given to taking naps on his flights.”
Even a cursory examination of what Miller said would cause one to disregard it instantly. One, Taylor had been transferred to Fort Lauderdale in November, the 21st to be precise. This was only two weeks before he disappeared. His first flight was not until the 1st of December. Taylor had only 2 hops before Flight 19. This really isn’t enough time for Miller to be remotely familiar with C.C. Taylor’s flying habits. I have received the biggest laughs yet when asking TBM pilots “How do you take a nap in an Avenger?” After the laughter, the answer is predictable. “You Don’t.” Even a pilot’s inner leg muscles are used in flying an Avenger. If you fall asleep, you die rather fast! I am privy to the rumors that Taylor had a “cottage in Miami” at the time. If so, he spent little time on base at Fort Lauderdale. Miller’s punctuated two weeks as Taylor’s roommate, therefore, cannot qualify him as an authority on Taylor’s habits. What is interesting about his opinions is that they do not involve the accusation that Taylor was under the influence but only that he was a sloppy and careless pilot and semi-wild liver.
Miller was not the only Naval officer to make blunders. Some were not ill intentioned, but merely the product of a poor memory. Kusche’s inability to challenge patently impossible “remembrances” frequently places Taylor in a lazy or sloppy light. In quoting Taylor’s comrades from the Hancock (in particular Bill Brewer) that were also transferred to NAS Miami, there comes the following story of how Taylor was as much as 2 weeks late in reporting to his new position, then when reproached seemed to shrug it off carelessly. “Bill Brewer remembers, ‘Lieutenant Commander Spivey asked ‘Where is Mr. Taylor? He’s supposed to be here, too.’
“We had no idea where ‘Mr Taylor’ was; he’d left the Hancock months before we had. When Charlie finally came in two weeks later, [Commander] Spivey asked him where he’d been. ‘We’ve had the bloodhounds out after you,’ he said . . .Charlie sort of shrugged it off . . .”
From his own personnel record, of which I have a copy, comes the truth: “April 11 detached Air Force, Atlantic Fleet [Norfolk, VA], and to Naval Air Operational Training, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, for temporary duty involving flying and for further assignment. Reported 16 April. April 17 Ordered to Naval Air Station, Miami, Florida, for permanent duty involving flying. Reported 18 April.”
Where’s the two weeks? Where’s the tardiness? Where’s the careless attitude?
Although Kusche was not remotely trying to label Taylor as a drunk, his indiscriminate wanderings on rumors has caused Taylor and the Navy some of its worst injuries. The image he left of a careless pilot is equally groundless. Georgia and Whitney Lowe, Taylor’s sister and brother-in-law, freely gave him, a man who called them friends, family papers, pictures and stories, only to receive in return a book that characterized C.C. Taylor according to second and third hand rumors, vague 35 year recollections, and then fingered him with the blame. Thus ended the friendship.
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