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McTaggart, Robert Edward_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Robert McTaggart was born April 7, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. He enlisted in the Marine Corps February 13, 1943. He, like many other young men, joined the service because of the national patriotism at the time. He took his basic training in San Diego and was subsequently transferred to the Naval Training Station and attended clerical school there. After completing his training he was sent to El Toro and assumed duties in VMTB-131 as a squadron payroll clerk, a duty he retained for the remainder of his service with the Marine Corps. In about 1943, Mr. McTaggart sailed for Espiritu Santo in New Hebrides. He relates an interesting story about crossing the Equator when he became a Royal Shellback. He related the induction into the Shellback and states, “no mercy was shown, regardless of whether you were an officer or an enlisted man.” He stated they had built a pool on the fantail of the ship, sat you on a plate that was electrically charged, and when the plate was hit with an electric charge it pivoted and the man sitting on the plate was catapulted into the pool and one did not get out of the pool until they could say ‘Shellback’. Mr. McTaggart described this ordeal as horrible and that all those being initiated, especially officers, were given very, very hard treatment. From New Hebrides, the Squadron sailed to Eniwetok, and eventually landed in Guam. While on Guam, Bob spent time as a payroll clerk stationed near the Marine Air Group and their headquarters in Agana. In total, he had about 8 months duty on Guam and rotated back to the United States. The squadron reformed and subsequently went to Okinawa. While on Guam, Mr. McTaggart did not venture out about the island. He did his duties as payroll clerk and socialized mainly with other servicemen in his immediate area near the Agana air strip and played baseball and went swimming for recreation. He recounted that the Chamorro people were enlisted to do laundry there, but other than that he did not have any contact with native peoples from the island while he was on Guam. He did recount one story about a young teenager who had come out of the jungle in nothing but a loin cloth. He assumed this young man was a Japanese soldier, and so the men in his unit got the boy clothing to wear and food, and kept him at the offices there for several days. However, he had no knowledge of what became of this young man. After his discharge from the Marine Corps Mr. McTaggart states that he had several jobs where he felt he just wasn’t fitting in and decided to return to college. He attended a Seminary for two years and entered a Monastery to study for the priesthood, but changed directions and went to college at Wayne State University instead. He became a substitute teacher of Latin and English in a local high school but decided after a year that he didn’t like teaching because he felt the students didn’t want to learn. Subsequently, he went to Ford Motor Company and completed an apprenticeship to become a metal model maker, a job that he stayed with for 30 years until his retirement. Mr. McTaggart did not see any combat at all during his service. However, there was one story he told about a pilot who lost control of his plane at the Naval Air Station on Guam. He stated that on landing, the pilot spun his airplane into the parking area and destroyed 4 airplanes partially destroyed 12 other planes. The pilot and 8 or 10 other servicemen were killed in the incident. The squadron took the damaged airplanes and were able to rebuild four of them from the parts. Bob stated that while he was attending the Seminary he was also in the reserves and after graduating from college he enlisted in the regular Navy. He attended school for six months and became an aviation structural mechanic and worked on Panther jets, F9F5’s. During his service in the Navy, Mr. McTaggart sailed on the USS Bennington and the USS Antietam, the first candidate carrier, which sailed to England and allowed the British to qualify as candidate pilots. After he left the squadron, Mr. McTaggart was sent to Pensacola and continued his duties as an aviation structural mechanic. When he left the Navy, Bob returned to the Ford Motor Company and as a metal model maker and, after 30 years, retired for medical reasons. Mr. McTaggart had very diverse careers: as a payroll clerk in the Marine Corps, an aviation structural mechanic in the Navy, a substitute teacher, and a metal model maker for a car manufacturing company. In addition, when the 82nd Airborne Association in Detroit started a skydiving team in 1959, Bob joined that team and began parachuting. He states he parachuted actively for about 23 years and formed his own parachuting school that he maintained for 15 years. During that time Bob also got a private and commercial pilot’s license along with a senior and master parachute rigger’s license. Mr. McTaggart made 1100 jumps during his career in parachuting. He also sailed around the world in 1979 on a 180-foot steel hulled made-over oceanographic ship.

U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Saturday, April 5, 2025 12:05:04 AM

Saturday, April 5, 2025 12:05:04 AM

McTaggart, Robert Edward_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

2983.9 MB

Historic

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