Incredible Victory!

On June 4, 1942 at the Battle of Midway, three American aircraft carriers, a handful of cruisers, submarines, and escort ships, a few dozen land-based planes, and some grim Marines stood between most of the Japanese navy and dominance of the Pacific Ocean. By sunset that day, four Japanese aircraft carriers, the cream of their navy, were mortally wounded.

The story of how a few squadrons of plucky Americans defeated what had become the world's best navy is one of the greatest stories of American history. I was in the 6th grade when I read Walter Lord's Incredible Victory. I read it again and again until the exploits, sacrifices, and good and bad luck of the airmen and seamen on that fateful day became a part of my American soul. Midway was a battle for the ages. I hope I have a fraction of the guts of the defenders of that little atoll.

These stories will grab your heart. The photo above is the U.S.S. Yorktown, which was lost in the battle. Here is one of the short stories:

'Known to his USNA classmates as “The Naval Academy Peter Pan – The Little Boy Who Never Grew Up,” CDR Dixie Kiefer had brought Yorktown “to a high state of morale, efficiency, and readiness for battle.” On 4 June, Kiefer led a fire-fighting party in battling the blaze consuming the ship’s photographic lab although he had been unable to obtain a rescue breathing apparatus. Later that day, the energetic executive officer directed the abandonment of the ship, suffering severe burns to his hands helping to lower a man over the side. Later going over the side himself, his badly seared hands could not grasp the line firmly and he fell, caroming off the armor belt and suffering a compound foot and ankle fracture. Nevertheless, he helped push a life raft, laden with survivors, to a nearby destroyer. For his heroism at Midway on 4 June, Kiefer received the Navy Cross.'

The lone survivor of one torpedo-bomber squadron, Ensign George Gay, lived until 1995. I am afraid that most of his shipmates on the Hornet and veterans of that war are no longer in the land of the living. Requiescat in pace.