Lexington, Saratoga, Yorktown, Enterprise, Wasp, Hornet….Only two would survive 1942, but they and their crews and their airgroups would stand in the breech and provide America and its allies the vital year it needed to bring on line the ships, aircraft and trained personnel that would crush Japanese expansion.
Much like Winston Churchill’s “Few” the men of those six ships along with the grunts of Guadalcanal and the squids of Iron Bottom Sound held the line.
In 1945 U.S. fast carriers supported the final amphibious operations of the war—the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa—drawing the noose tight around Tokyo’s neck. Aircraft from Third and Fifth fleet carriers also pounded the Home Islands, disproving the airpower theory that naval aviation could not match land-based air. In July three days of strikes against the major naval base at Kure finished off the floating remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy.7
For all the American satisfaction of an overwhelming victory for U.S. naval aviation in 1945, the essence of the tailhookers’ war actually had occurred three years earlier. The most decisive victories for carrier airpower had been achieved during six months of 1942, when the United States and Japan fought four of the Pacific war’s five carrier battles. First defensively at Coral Sea and Midway, and then supporting the Guadalcanal offensive at the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands, U.S. carriers pointed the way to the Marianas—and to Japan itself. The Carrier Comes of Age by Barrett Tillman
This series was never intended to be a complete summary of the war in the Pacific in 1942 or of any of the particular battles. Its focus has been on the evolution of aircraft carrier operations in 1942. But the reality is, it’s near impossible to isolate the war itself from “the how of ops.” So, six posts will be used for concluding the series. Beginning here in the first of Reflections the focus is on the nature of the Pacific war as 1942 closes, then followed by a second part addressing the individual carriers of ’42, followed by selected elements of how carrier operations evolved and were conducted, fighter issues, and, finally discussion on the impact of land based air on carrier operations and the emergence of Close Air Support (CAS).
The final two posts will be Part 29 – Afterword by Barrett Tillman, addressing the state of carrier warfare as the Battle of the Philippine Sea in 1944 begins and #30 – Conclusions; Implications for Current Ops.
This offering contains the following two discussion areas:
Throughout our lives we receive multiple gifts, many simply because we are loved. But for aviators, we must love first, pursue a dream, and finally, through diligence earn the gold or silver wings. Only then will come the exposure to so many gifts over time. However, the wings are not the gift, rather they bestow special gifts upon the wearer, not the least of which is a never ending pursuit of perfecting the gifts – the gift of wings.
The Testimony of Pilot series focuses on the stories of aviators – in their own words if possible. In some cases the characterization of the chapters is obvious. Here for Chapter Four that may not be so readily apparent. The picture above and the previous three articles have one of those gifts woven into their telling, whether a piece of history, a marker at Arlington or Annapolis or San Diego, or Pensacola, an epic encounter with the sky, or simply a cold one with other ancient warriors – a gift of wings of forever young.
No matter what some might tell you, people do not enter into military aviation by chance. Some may leave, but all have dreamed and they come to comprehend the gifts that have come out of the dream. No matter what they might say this is where they want to be, what they really want to be doing.
For the “once weres” pictured above, we cannot “do” anymore, but our dreams are of real things, of events and of true friends, of hidden bunkroom Scotch, of remembered sky and those in it. We enjoy the gift, we remain forever young.
There is no such thing as an ex-fighter pilot. Once a young man straps on a jet aircraft and climbs into the heavens to do battle, it sears his psyche forever. At some point he will hang up his flight suit – eventually they all do – and in the autumn of his years his eyes may dim and he may be stooped with age. But ask him about his life and his eyes flash and his back straightens and his hands demonstrate aerial maneuvers and every conversation begins with “There I was at … ” and he is young again.
He remembers the days when he sky-danced through the heavens, when he could press a button and summon the lightning and invoke the thunder, the days when he was a prince of the earth and lord of the heavens. He remembers his glory days and he is young again. Robert Coram
This is the dream, the gift … forever young always
In Memory of Captain Boomer Bill Lebert (USN, Retired)
December 23, 1925 – May 6, 2020
Nickel on the grass
Stephen Crane once said that he wrote The Red Badge of Courage because reading the cold history was not enough; he wanted to know what it was like to be there, what the weather was like, what men’s faces looked like. In order to live it he had to write it. This book was written for much the same reason.
Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels
Few battles have received more research, attention and words by historians and authors than Gettysburg and Midway. Each stands as an un-argued hinge and view-port to the nature of that war, its beginning, and its end.
In his just released book The Silver Waterfall: A Novel of the Battle of Midway, author of the Raven One series centered on Navy F/A-18 action, Kevin Miller (Capt., USN Ret) in telling the story of the men and events of Midway, follows the approach of the highly acclaimed – 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction – The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Nothing in the events of the story is fiction; rather his approach gives human feelings, thoughts, and words to players at multiple layers during the June 1942 battle, as Shaara did for Lee, Longstreet, and Joshua Chamberlain and the soldiers at the Little Round Top battle at Gettysburg. As a former A-7 Corsair attack aviator and commanding officer of a F/A-18 strike fighter squadron, he knows well the human internal and external context of the combat pilot – with the not so common ability to express in an exceptional manner.
I was really honored to be asked by Kevin to read an early draft and comment. I’ve been fascinated with Midway for years and done some writing on this site in the Year of the Carrier series – Kevin’s telling was just outstanding!
If you’re going to read some historical fiction THE SILVER WATERFALL: A Novel of the Battle of Midway IS THE BOOK.
The purpose of the Testimony of Pilot series is to provide an anthology of stories of aviation, particularly those often referred to as TINS (“this is no shit” ) – a term of endearment for true events or at least those with only minor aviator-can’t-help-it embellishment as contrasted with fairy tales and “once upon a time.” The focus mostly is on finding good stories from aviators in their own words with a major consideration of preventing some really good TINS from being lost within the vastness of Google or lost forever through the passage of time.
This piece is from a current naval aviator and squadron commanding officer flying EA-18G Growlers from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN -69). His extraordinary insight is in perfect alignment with testimony and I’m honored to have his permission to re-post from his own site on Medium.
CDR Jack ‘Farva’ Curtis Continue reading
On the evening of 10 January 1973 , VA-115 “A-rabs” aircrew Lt. Mike “Mondo” McCormick and Ltjg. Alan “Arlo” Clark, were catapulted from the USS Midway, flying “Arab 511.” They were on a single plane low level SAM and Radar Suppression mission in support of B-52’s on a bombing operation over North Vietnam. That night Mondo and Arlo would become the last Intruder Crew to make the ultimate sacrifice in that long war.
This January 10th on the anniversary of the shoot down of his father, Col Tad Clark (USAF) returned to the crash site to honor his Dad and Mondo.
VA-115 Family,
A few thoughts, as this trip to Vietnam comes to an end and I reflect on the last several days. Right or wrong, one man’s perspective… Continue reading
The provision of daytime airpower by 1) the Cactus Air Force, 2) Air Group 10 (both from Enterprise and in augmenting the Cactus Air Force from Henderson Field), and 3) the 11th Bombardment Group from Espiritu Santo by Navy, Marine and Army Air Corps aircrews was a significant but only partially recognized element of the U.S. victory in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Continue reading
As the end of this series approaches please note that the year of the carrier is not intended to address the overall war in the Pacific nor all aspects of the Guadalcanal Campaign which included significant land and sea battles in addition to the two carrier vs. carrier battles. While the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands was the last of four carrier battles in 1942, the series would not be complete without some discussion of the actions of the Cactus Air Force and USS Enterprise/Air Group Ten during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal fought November 12-15, 1942.
American observers take a variety of positions on the outcome at Santa Cruz. Marine General Vandegrift termed the battle a “standoff.” Theater commander Admiral “Bull” Halsey wrote that “tactically, we picked up the dirty end of the stick but strategically we handed it back.” Similarly, official Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison rated the battle a Japanese tactical victory that gained precious time for the Allies. And aviation historian John Lundstrom, author of the most detailed examination of the aerial exchanges, wrote of a “supposed” Japanese decisive victory. Robert Sherrod, chronicler of Marine aviation in the war, said Santa Cruz was a case in which “the box score is deceptive.” Continue reading
On the morning of 26 October, during the attack on the Enterprise, Task Force 61 Commander Admial Thomas Kinkaid remarked with pardonable hyperbole to AP correspondent Eugene Burns: “You’re seeing the greatest carrier duel of history. Perhaps it will never happen again.”
We come now to the fourth and final carrier battle of 1942, what the Japaneses referred to as the Battle of the South Pacific. Yet despite the task force commander’s comment above, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands is arguably either the forgotten or least noted of the carrier battles of that year or at best remembered as the battle where the USS Hornet was sunk and a Japanese victory. But, the Japanese “victory” was Pyrrhic. The true mark of the Battle of the Santa Cruz is that Japanese losses were so grievous that they withdrew from significant carrier participation, not to return until the the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 – the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, [25–27 October 1942] was the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific campaign and was the fourth major naval engagement fought during the Guadalcanal campaign.
