ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
J. Neville Ammen Jr. was a private man, not apt to talk much about himself or his achievements. The Roanoke native also was a decorated war hero, awarded the Navy Cross for his "extraordinary heroism" at the Battle of the Coral Sea.
Ammen, who was 81, died Monday at the Virginia Veterans Care Center.
He earned the Navy Cross - the Navy's highest honor after the Medal of Honor - for his part in sinking the Japanese carrier Ryukaku.
It was May 1942, and Ammen was a newly trained pilot stationed on the USS Yorktown when his squadron received orders for what would be his first air raid. At first, he was nervous.
In a story published in this newspaper later that year, Ammen described his thoughts that day.
"As soon as we were in the air, though, I forgot all about being nervous," Ammen said. "You have to keep pretty busy flying."
His squadron came in at a high altitude before diving to bomb the carrier, which caught the Japanese off guard, he said. The pilots withstood anti-aircraft fire, and dropped their bombs.
Ammen told his family that one of his bombs found its way down a steam pipe and presumably reached the engine room.
One month later, Ammen was aboard the Yorktown when the Japanese sank it.
"I saw one plane turn loose a bomb and watched it straighten out," Ammen said in the newspaper story. "I followed it all the way down with my eyes, and it seemed to me that thing was going to hit right on top of me, but it didn't have my name on it."
He jumped into the ocean and was rescued by another ship. When he came home on leave, he got off the plane with empty bags, his wife, Billie, said. He jokingly lamented the loss of some white buckskin shoes.
After the war, Ammen worked for a time as a Navy flight instructor. He went on to work at a variety of places in the Roanoke area, including a water bottling plant and an educational material company.
He retired in the early 1970s and volunteered at Lewis-Gale Medical Center for 17 years.
Ammen and his wife, Billie, were married for 55 years, and the story of the early days of their marriage speaks to the times and their determination to be together.
He was an ensign in the Navy at the time, and ensigns were not allowed to be married, a policy that changed later. She was a clerk at Appalachian Power Co., where women clerks lost their jobs if they got married.
With Ammen about to be shipped off to the Pacific, the couple decided to marry anyway. They planned the ceremony in a weekend and said their vows on Valentine's Day 1942. She went back to work and told only her closest friends she was married. He did the same. Five months later, he was back from the Pacific and she quit her job.
In addition to his wife, Ammen is survived by two sons, Jay of Roanoke, and Tip (who is also in the Navy) of Coronado, Calif.; and a daughter, Cassy Ammen of Alexandria.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Ammenby CNB