Cornelius N. Nooy

The Meataxers' next saw action at Iwo Jima. Following on the heels of the surprise attacks launched by Joseph J. Clark's TG 58.1, Cabot's fighter squadron flew top cover for the first TG 58.2 fighter sweep early on 4 July. Hellcats from USS Franklin and USS Wasp strafed airstrips and barracks in an attempt to nullify any possible aerial counterattack, also silencing anti-aircraft fire for the impending bomber strike. Meanwhile, the three divisions from Cabot were holding at 15,000 feet above the target area, watching the mayhem unfold below while they waited for retaliation from above. Japanese fighters arrived on the scene fifteen minutes later with a 3,000-foot altitude advantage. Nooy was flying wing on Wallace, the VF-31 strike leader and point man in the first of its three divisions. His division was the first to nose up into the Zekes, who Split S'ed away from the incoming Americans. Nooy fired at the extreme range of his guns while he chased the Zekes down but remarkably scored fatal hits on both of his targets. One enemy pilot bailed out. The other never had a chance. Just as soon as he had climbed back to altitude, Nooy spotted a Hellcat almost at sea level being hotly pursued by an enemy. He once more pushed his plane down, turning pursuer into pursued. He splashed this third Zero of the day with little difficulty. Nooy's fourth and final confirmed kill on the 4th was part of a team effort with a fighter from Wasp. They pounced on a Zero rapidly losing altitude as it sought to extract itself from the melee. Nooy is recorded as scoring hits from all angles, all over the doomed aircraft. He and the Wasp pilot went on to maul another enemy together, and Nooy probably destroyed yet another fighter later while he escorted a damaged friendly back to the carriers. Overall, the fighter squadrons from Wasp and Cabot each claimed over a dozen enemies shot down with only a handful of losses between them.

Cornelius Nooy died as a result of cancer on 12 March 1958. Nooy is buried at North Branch Reformed Church Cemetery in Somerset County, New Jersey.

After the war, Nooy moved back to New York and stayed with the U.S. Naval Reserves and was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1952. He was vice president of the American Partition Company and ran for political office in Branchburg, New Jersey in 1954.

VF-31 was officially established May 1943 and underwent unit training until August 1943, when it was attached to USS Cabot. The ship had its shakedown cruise September – October 1943 before transiting the Panama Canal on 13 November 1943, headed for Pearl Harbor. Cabot arrived at Pearl on 27 November. By January Cabot was again in motion, now attached to Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's Task Group 58.2 as part of Marc Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force. Their first strikes, launched in January, would be the opening salvo of Operation Flintlock in the Marshall Islands campaign.

Nooy enrolled in the US Navy's Aviation Cadet Program on 18 March 1942 and was quickly sent to the Naval Reserve Aviation Base in New Orleans, LA. He earned his wings on 15 January 1943 and was subsequently attached to Fighting Squadron 31 (VF-31) "Flying Meataxes", the outfit he'd stick with throughout the duration of the war.

Cornelius Nicholas Nooy (April 15, 1921 – March 12, 1958) was a United States Navy flying ace of World War II. Nooy ended the war as the highest-scoring fighter pilot operating from a light aircraft carrier (CVL), and tied for fourth-highest-scoring ace in the US Navy (with Patrick D. Fleming and Alexander Vraciu). Nooy served two tours with VF-31's "Flying Meataxers" aboard USS Cabot and USS Belleau Wood. The first of these tours set a record for kills by a CVL fighter squadron.

Nooy was born in Smithtown, New York, on April 15, 1921. He graduated from Long Island High School in 1939 and studied horticulture at the New York State Institute of Agriculture.