He Never Came Home
Part One: A Young Man Goes to War
A Parking Space in Washington
In 1939, David Render Berry was visiting Washington, D.C., when a remarkably ordinary event changed the direction of his life.
David Render Berry before his wartime Navy service.
Berry was considering military service and, as he later told the story, drove to the War Department intending to investigate the Army. There was nowhere to park. Continuing down the street, he found an open space near the Navy Department instead and went inside to see what the Navy had to offer.
It is the sort of small decision no one would think to remember if everything that followed had been different. Berry learned that the Navy could give him the opportunity to fly. He enlisted, entered flight training and earned his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1940.
Within two years, that young Kentucky pilot would be flying from an aircraft carrier in some of the most important battles of the Pacific war.
Before the War Changed Everything
Assigned to Scouting Squadron Five aboard USS Yorktown, Berry flew the Douglas SBD Dauntless, a two-man dive bomber whose method of attack required a pilot to point his aircraft steeply toward an enemy ship, hold the dive as antiaircraft fire rose toward him, release his bomb and pull away.
In 1940, however, Berry was writing his mother from San Diego about considerably more ordinary things. He described watches and inspections, meals and laundry, movies aboard ship and the possibility of getting home for Christmas. He also asked her to send a few necessities, including soap and toothpaste.
Those small details matter because so much of what survives about David Berry concerns the extraordinary things he would soon do. His military records tell us about battles and decorations. His letters remind us that before history made him a hero, he was a son writing home.
Then came Pearl Harbor, and the life David Berry had been living changed almost overnight.
The First Navy Cross
By the spring of 1942, Japan had advanced rapidly across the Pacific, and American forces were fighting to stop an enemy that seemed, for a time, almost unstoppable.
On March 10, Berry flew against Japanese ships at Salamaua and Lae, New Guinea. His official citation describes him pressing a dive-bombing attack through heavy antiaircraft fire against a Japanese light cruiser and scoring a direct hit.
For his actions, Ensign David Render Berry received the Navy Cross, the Navy’s second-highest decoration for valor.
At about the same time, his letters reveal that something else had become very important to him. Her name was Jacqueline.
In a March 1942 letter to his cousin Will, Berry wrote about the war and the frustrations of being far from home. But when he wrote about Jacqueline, what came through was a young man very much in love and thinking about the life he hoped to have with her when the war allowed it.
The war wasn’t going to allow it anytime soon.
Coral Sea and Midway
In May 1942, Yorktown entered the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle in history in which the opposing fleets fought primarily through aircraft. Berry flew repeated attacks against Japanese forces through heavy antiaircraft fire and enemy fighter opposition. His actions earned him a second Navy Cross represented by a Gold Star.
Less than a month later came Midway.
The Japanese fleet intended to seize the tiny American outpost and draw what remained of the U.S. Pacific Fleet into a decisive battle. Instead, American carrier aircraft dealt Japan a devastating defeat that changed the course of the war.
Berry flew against the Japanese fleet throughout the battle. His citation describes concentrated antiaircraft fire, fierce fighter opposition and repeated attacks against enemy forces. Even after Yorktown, his home at sea, was mortally wounded, Berry and the surviving pilots of his squadron continued flying.
For his actions at Midway, he received his third Navy Cross, represented by a second gold star.
In the space of only a few months, David Berry had earned the Navy Cross three times, making him one of only 12 Naval Aviators of this era to attain this distinction.
It would be easy, looking back, to turn him into the fearless young hero described in wartime newspaper stories. His own words reveal someone more human. When Berry later wrote about combat, he acknowledged fear. He remembered diving toward enemy ships while guns fired at him, seeing his bombs strike and, beneath it all, how badly the men wanted to get home.
His courage wasn’t the absence of fear. He understood what could happen in those airplanes and continued to fly.
Home
David and Jacqueline married in Honolulu on June 20, 1942.
Later, Berry returned to the United States and became a dive-bomber instructor, teaching younger aviators some of what combat had taught him. A contemporary profile suggests that he was a practical teacher. Berry believed young pilots should sometimes be allowed to make mistakes, as long as those mistakes weren’t likely to get them killed. If they discovered for themselves what they had done wrong, he believed they were less likely to do it again.
For a time, David and Jacqueline were able to build something resembling an ordinary married life.
By then, he had already survived the kind of war that could have filled a lifetime. He had fought at Coral Sea and Midway, lost Yorktown and received the Navy Cross three times.
Most importantly, he had come home.
But the war continued, and eventually David Berry chose to return to it.
This time, Jacqueline was expecting their first child.
Part Two
In Part Two of He Never Came Home, David Berry returns to the Pacific as a squadron commander while Jacqueline waits in Bowling Green for their baby to be born. In the final weeks of the war, his two worlds draw painfully close: a father waiting for news of his child, and a combat pilot flying ever closer to Japan.
Sources & Acknowledgments
This story was researched primarily from the David Render Berry family research collection, compiled and preserved over many years by members of the Berry-Donnelly-Garvin family. The collection brings together David Berry’s personal letters and photographs, U.S. Navy service records, award citations and wartime action reports, contemporary newspaper accounts, family records, and other materials documenting his life and military service.
Additional historical and technical information was verified through U.S. Navy and naval aviation historical sources. We also gratefully acknowledge the Aviation Museum of Kentucky for its work in helping share David Berry’s story with a wider audience.
Aviation Heritage Park & Museum extends its special thanks to the Berry-Donnelly-Garvin family for preserving these records, photographs and family memories, and for making them available so that David Render Berry’s story can continue to be told.
Photographs and family documents: Berry-Donnelly-Garvin family collection, except where otherwise noted.
