<p>
<em>“Bud” Sprague</em>, our third classmate to die in combat, came from a long and honorable military tradition. His ancestor, Captain Isaac Davies, was the first American officer killed in the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Concord. A kinsman, Captain Joseph Mansfield, fought in the Revolutionary War for six years.</p>
<p>
Colonel Jared Mansfield, another ancestor, was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in the developing USMA from 1812-28. He was a principal witness in the 1817 Court Martial of Captain Alden Partridge. Both grandfathers served in the Union Army during the Civil War, Bud’s father served 17 months in France in World War I.</p>
<p>
Bud was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on 6 August 1913 to Charles and Emma Sprague. It is not surprising, then, that, at age 12, he announced his intention to attend the United States Military Academy. He joined the Citizens Military Training Corps at age 16 and in 1933 was appointed to USMA from the National Guard.</p>
<p>
Bud applied himself enthusiastically to a wide range of activities—football, lacrosse, wrestling, and writing prose and poetry. He served on the Ring Committee and was chairman of the Lecture Committee.</p>
<p>
After graduation Bud married Lillian Oelschlager and proceeded to Randolph Field for flight training. Daughter Barbara was born in 1938 and son Charles in 1939. In May 1941 Bud was ordered to the Philippines.</p>
<p>
Bud, now a captain, joined 39 other classmates frantically working to build up the defenses of the islands alter a long period of peaceful austerity. Bud became Air Operations officer for Brigadier General Henry R. Claggett (USMA 1906). Thousands of pages have been written analyzing the Allies’ early disastrous defeats in The Far East. General George Kenny best summed up this calamity— “another case of too little, too late.’</p>
<p>
The task Bud faced was monumental. Clark Field had a token anti-aircraft capability; the other bomber base and the four pursuit aircraft fields were undefended except for small arms. Of seven recently received short-range radar sets, only one was on-site and operative. It could provide range only—not altitude, Radio, telephone and telegraph communications facilities were en route.</p>
<p>
Bud and his small staff worked around the clock to make the best of the inadequate resources. Not all of Bud’s actions were just paperwork. Major Emmett (Rosie) O’Donnell (USMA 1928) brought the first B-17 heavy bombers to the Islands on 12 September 1941, arriving on the tail of a tropical typhoon. The incoming bomber pilots were unfamiliar with the locale and did not have the sophisticated electronic equipment common today. Bud sensed the danger of the situation, ordered up a P-40, intercepted the B-17 flight and helped guide it to a safe landing at Clark Field.</p>
<p>
The 7th of December 1941 changed the complexion of the Pacific area forever. The situation in the Philippines deteriorated rapidly, and on 24 December all air elements were ordered to Bataan. Two days later Bud and a comrade intercepted a Japanese dive bomber and shot it down—Bud’s first aerial victory.</p>
<p>
On 2 January Bud and seven other pilots were ordered to Australia to obtain P-40’s and return to the Philippines. Their transport was a two-engine civilian Beech craft which had been declared unrepairable. There were 130 bullet holes in the fuselage and parts of the plane were wired hack on. The refueling system consisted of ten five-gallon tins of gasoline in the cabin, fed into tire tanks by an ingenious improvisation. When the party made a forced landing in southern Borneo, the Beechcraft finally expired. A Navy PBY gave them a ride to Java, and a transient B-17 took them to Brisbane, Australia.</p>
<p>
Bud immediately began organizing the 17th Provisional Pursuit Squadron, and on 16 January he led the first flight of his unit to Darwin on Australia’s northern coast. The flight then was informed that Japanese advances had cut off its route to the Philippines, and it was directed to Java instead.</p>
<p>
On 22 January Bud’s flight of 14 aircraft left Darwin, arriving at Soerbaja, Java on 24-35 January. Just getting the P-40’s from Brisbane to Java was a feat of no mean proportion. The flight over the Australian outback was without navigational aids, proper maps or weather information—an acid test of the skill and nerve of Bud Sprague and his fellow pilots.</p>
<p>
Bud, now Major Sprague, lost no time in joining battle. In bad weather he led his first combat mission in Java on 26 January to protect a crippled Dutch submarine returning to base.</p>
<p>
Conditions were far from textbook- perfect. Each aircraft had one pilot, one crew chief, and one armorer. All administration was in the hands of one sergeant with a portable typewriter. From Bud’s wing man:</p>
<p>
“Those days are hard to explain. The Dutch set aside houses that we could sleep in. One meal a day was prepared by Dutch women. It wasn’t good and most skipped it. Instead we bought bananas and peanuts from the natives. It doesn’t take much to survive when one is young. We had no spare parts, no supply lines, and no paymaster. We didn’t last long. In a couple of months we were through. We could only plan from hour to hour, not knowing if we would be alive in the next hour. Everybody was in good spirits despite our predicament.”</p>
<p>
Bud paid the men out of his own pocket initially. The high morale of the unit was a glowing tribute to Bud’s leadership.</p>
<p>
The operating environment was primitive. Ngoru, Bud’s base, was made from drained rice fields. The T-shaped runways were camouflaged by natives after each take-off and landing. Bud’s orders were to crash-land elsewhere rather than lead a pursuing Japanese aircraft back to the airfield.</p>
<p>
Bud, as Squadron commander, carried a full administrative load but still took alert duty under his P-40’s wing along with the other pilots. On 20 February 1942 the sparse American air capability carried out a combined attack on the Japanese naval forces and shore positions on the island, of Bali. The force consisted of three LB-30’s and seven A-24’s with sixteen P-4O’s for top cover, a pathetically slim effort but 100% of available capability. The mission was well-executed, but the cost was high; four of the P-40’s failed to return. Two of the pilots were killed; one of them was the recently-promoted Lieutenant Colonel Bud Sprague.</p>
<p>
The squadron commander who succeeded Bud gave us a first-hand picture of Bud Sprague in action:</p>
<p>
“For the record I cannot think of a single negative about Bud. He was straight-forward, no pretenses, no false front, no deviousness. He came at you with a friendly manner and a grin and said what he was thinking. I can’t recall ever being in any other organization where the commander was as well-liked and respected as was Bud Sprague by the members of the 17th Squadron.”</p>
<p>
Lieutenant General George Brett, upon the award of the Distinguished Service Cross for Bud’s superb work over Bali, stated, “His aggressive and cheerful leadership endeared him to his officers and men. His shining example of courage and devotion to duty will be forever remembered.”</p>
<p>
Bud’s unit received official credit for the destruction of 46 Japanese aircraft. In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross, Bud was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and The Purple Heart.</p>
<p>
Bud’s body was buried by a native chieftain on the small island of Noesa Penida off Bali, it was recovered and reburied in Java. Recovered again, it was taken to Calcutta. Finally, in 1946, it was disinterred for the third time and returned “home” to its final West Point resting place.</p>
<p>
From a 9 April 1942 NBC News broadcast of Bud’s saga: “Here was a man-Here was an American’’</p>
<p>
<em>His Classmates</em></p>