Maj. Gen. Marion Carl, 1938, first WWII Marine Ace

Marion E. Carl was an Oregon State graduate, so he was originally commissioned in the Army but resigned it to join the Marine Fighting Squadron in December 1939.

Marion E. Carl was in San Diego on December 7th.  He went aboard the Saratoga the next day.  His force was part of an attack on Wake Island that was aborted the day before Wake Island fell to the Japanese.

Carl flew a Buffalo, a great plane for its time, but thoroughly outclassed by Japan's Mitsubishi Zero.  The Navy, painfully aware of the preceding sentence, stationed Carl and the other 24 Buffalo pilots in his squadron in a defensive position, far away from what was believed to be Japan's general plan of attack, Midway Atoll.  At some point after landing on Midway Atoll, Carl switched from a Buffalo to a superior Wildcat, the only pilot in his squadron that did so.  At the Battle of Midway, Carl's squadron was one of at least two tasked with defending against the initial Japanese attack on Midway Atoll before the American carriers could find an destroy the Japanese aircraft carriers.  Of the 25 pilots in Carl's squadron, 14 died, including the squadron's commander, Floyd B. Parks, and four others were injured, two seriously.  (A destroyer was named for Floyd B. Parks, which was commissioned on July 31, 1945 and served until a little more than three months after the end of the Vietnam War.)  Only 11 of the 25 planes were able to land and, of those, only three were able to take off again without repair.  Carl was credited with the downing of one Zero with his Wildcat.  His successful downing of a Zero at that stage of the war by a single Wildcat (it generally took multiple Wildcats to successfully combat a Zero) earned Carl his first Navy Cross.  Most of the men in his squadron were moved to Oahu for several months.  

One of the injured survivors of Carl's original squadron was Major John L. Smith.  After Smith recovered, he was made the leader of a new squadron, Marine Fighter Squadron 223, nicknamed the Bulldogs.  Carl was assigned to Smith's Bulldogs.  (I would be remiss, if I did not note that the John Wayne movie "Flying Leathernecks" is based directly off of Marine Fighter Squadron 223.)  The Bulldogs departed Oahu on August 2, 1942, after a little more than two months of rest and training.  18 days later, Smith and Carl were pilots of two of the first 30 planes to land at Henderson Field (which was named after the leader of the group in charge of defending Midway, who had also died at Midway).  The 30 planes became the nucleus of the Cactus Air Force, defending Guadalcanal from increasing Japanese attacks over the next 54 days.

In the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Bulldogs had to contend with Mitsubishi Betty bombers and Zeroes from Rabaul to the Northwest and occasional Kate Bomber and Zero attacks from Japanese carriers, as well.  Four days after landing at Guadalcanal was the Battle of Eastern Solomons, the first major carrier battle after Midway.  Due, in part, to bad intelligence, the Americans were caught by surprise.  Nevertheless, Carl shot down one zero, one Betty Bomber, and two Kate Bombers all in one day.  Two days later, Carl shot down two Zeroes.  One of the Zeroes was believed to have been piloted by Japanese Ace Lieutenant Commander Junichi "The Prince of Rabaul" Sasai on August 26, 1942.  In the next four days, Carl shot down a Betty Bomber and three Zeroes.  After a 10-day lull, caused by Japan's attempted invasion of Papua New Guinea, Carl shot down two more Betty Bombers.  Three days later, Japan launched a land invasion of Henderson Field, which was repulsed.  Bad weather then set in, which limited the airplanes' effectiveness.  Japan launched a second land-based invasion on September 24, 1942, which was similarly repulsed.  Carl shot down three more Betty Bombers and a final Zero over Gaudalcanal  in a week from September 27th to October 3rd.  In Carl's 54 days on Guadalcanal, he was shot down once but managed to parachute and return successfully to Henderson Field.  Of the original 18 Wildcats, after 54 days, only six remained operational with another six being damaged.  Six were shot down, including one of Carl's.

After Gaudalcanal, Major Smith finished with 19 victories.  For that, Smith earned the Medal of Honor by Franklin D. Roosevelt.  For his 16.5 victories, Carl was awarded his second Navy Cross.

Carl was outside of the combat zone for several months, learning how to fly the Corsair, superior to the Wildcats that he had been flying.  In the meantime, the United States had secured Gaudalcanal and had taken Bougainville.  recently-promoted Major Carl returned to the Solomon Islands before Christmas 1943, this time leading the Bulldogs, to participate in the neutralization of Rabaul.  Carl was part of the first "large scale" strike on Rabaul on December 23, 1943.  He shot down a Kawasaki Tony Fighter, which was Japan's improved Zero on that first "large scale" strike and shot down a final Zero four days later.  Rabaul was completely neutralized over the next two months and bypassed as part of America's island-hopping strategy.  Carl was recalled in the Summer of 1944.

In 1945, Carl graduated in the first class of the United States Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland.  In August 1947, Lieutenant Colonel Carl flew 650 mph in a Skystreak, which set a speed record that Captain Chuck Yeager broke in October.

In 1952, after trying to come out of a spin that he had created to conduct a test on a Guardian, his Guardian crashed.  He was barely able to parachute out of a spin after his seat failed to fire.  His unsuccessful test showed the Navy that backup bailout procedures in a seat failure situation were incorrect.

In 1953, Carl set an unofficial altitude record of 83,235 feet in a Douglas D-558.

Before the U-2, Carl was flying high-altitude surveillance missions over China after the Korean War had ended.

Thereafter, Carl primarily led Marine Corps aviation units.

Carl was the Director of Marine Corps Aviation for five months in 1962 and was promoted to a one-star general, consistent with being the Director of Marine Corps Aviation, in 1964.  Carl flew helicopters and jets in Vietnam.  Carl received his second star as a Major General in 1967, commanding the Second Marine Aircraft Wing, and was moved stateside to Cherry Point, North Carolina by 1968.  After 1970, he became Inspector General of the Marine Corps, retiring in 1973.

In 1984, 1986, 1989, and 1992, Carl was honored at the Gathering of Eagles in Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1992, Carl was inducted into the Lancaster Aerospace Walk of Honor.

Carl published a memoir titled "Pushing the Envelope" in 1994.

At the age of 82, in 1998, Carl entered his living room to see a man with a gun aimed at his wife, Edna.  Marion Carl lunged at the intruder.  The intruder fired twice, injuring Edna with the first shot and killing Marion with the second.  The intruder then stole the Marions' money and car.  The murderer was caught one week later and was sentenced to death.  In 2015, eight years after Edna's death, the murderer's sentence was reduced to life without the possibility of parole in exchange for agreeing not to appeal anymore.

Carl was buried with full honors in Arlington.

The Roseburg Regional Airport was subsequently named the Marion E. Carl Memorial Field.

Carl was also subsequently enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Class of 2001.

In 2009, the airfield at the Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay in Oahu was named the Marion E. Carl Field.

The Marion E. Carl Veterans Memorial was established in Hubbard, Oregon, in May 2012.