32 Nebraskaland • November 2023
By then, a month had passed, and Dugie was still missing.
He had gone down off the Philippine island of Luzon, but it
was occupied by the Japanese.
In 1993, Dugie Doyle — still very much alive — told his story
to fellow Lincoln attorney Sam Van Pelt. Doyle explained
that after he and his crewman took to their raft, they fl oated
for more than a day waiting for a rescue sub. Then, "all of a
sudden, I never saw this Japanese plane coming. He was right
on top of us." Doyle and his crewman fl ipped the raft over
while the Japanese plane fl ew so close that Doyle could see
the observer's goggles.
After that, they fi gured they had better take their chances
on shore. A Filipino man guided them to a small village of
bamboo huts, where local people fed them. But "the word got
out that Americans were up in the hills … We got the hell out
of there just in time."
A local guerilla leader led them to the hideout of Lt. Colonel
Giles Merrill, who had escaped the Bataan death march in
1942 and had been living in the jungle since. Rail-thin from
malaria and dysentery, Merrill "was a character and would
strap on his pith helmet and his .45" while working with
local Filipinos to protect any Allies who came his way. He
kept up with the latest news in a hut that was "a regular war
room" with a card table, road maps and a bicycle-powered
shortwave radio receiver.
Merrill knew that three downed American fl yers were
Luzon, the Philippines. Robert Ross Smith, United States
Army in World War II, The War in the Pacifi c: Triumph in the
Philippines. OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, 1993
The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) lists
to port in the aftermath of a kamikaze attack in which four
suicide planes hit the ship on Jan. 21, 1945. This was Doyle's
carrier, but he was not aboard at the time of that attack.
U.S. NAVY - U.S. NAVY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NAVAL AVIATION PHOTO NO. 2000.219.001 [1]
Doyle and the other rescued fl iers aboard the aircraft
tender at the U.S. fl eet anchorage near Leyte, January 1945
(left to right): Maurice Nayland; Doyle, N. J. Roccaforte; P. R.
Schleitchy; W. W. King. Nayland, Roccaforte, and King were
killed in an airplane crash soon after the photograph was
taken. COURTESY OF THE DOYLE FAMILY
