Weekend. I encourage you to take all of this in from where we start with veterans at the battle of midway 75 years ago through the 75 years of American Military history. This is your own past and present and future so this is a great opportunity and a onceinalifetime opportunity to make the most of it. I would like to welcome admiral frank thorp to say a few words of welcome. Welcome to the navy memorial. As you all know, our mission here is to honor, recognize, and celebrate the men and women of the sea services, past present and future, and to educate the American Public about your service. It is a tremendous honor for us to be here and on a day like today, we use the term sea services, but we are all in it together. These gentlemen represent the idea of being in it together. I want to say one thing about why i am honored and why we are honored to be here today and the opportunity you have today. When i looked at the program here, and i look at words like trailblazers, legends, these are in the agenda. The last ace, leadership, saving lives, the greatest generation, the medal of honor. Why we fought. Valor, witness to history, and right here, the turn of the tide. It is an honor for us to be here. I hope you get a lot out of the next couple days because as was just mentioned this is an opportunity of a lifetime that we have in the next couple days to be able to listen to these great americans who gave of themselves, set an example and paved a path for us to walk. Welcome to the navy memorial, i hope you appreciate the hospitality and when i say that what i am really saying is i hope we can make the hospitality as great as it can be to make your experience as great as it can be. [applause] without further ado, im going to welcome craig horn who will be our mc throughout the day, to introduce our first panel. Thanks everybody. Craig good morning. My name is craig horn. This is my 20th year as well with the annual American Veterans conference. We are going to begin an adventure as we look back so that we can see further ahead. It has often been said that ignorance of the past can create irresponsibility in the present and recklessness in the future. This morning we are going to begin with the battle of midway. It is my pleasure to introduce richard frank, a historian of the second world war. He was a consultant for the hbo World War Ii Special on the pacific and in that he wrote, the pacific war will inspire a long overdue reawakening of the strategic importance, sheer scale, and unsurpassed savagery of the wars unleashed by japan. The battle of midway was the turning of the tide. Please welcome mr. Richard b. Frank. [applause] richard thank you for those kind remarks. We are here on the 75th anniversary of the battle of midway. It is on the perennial list of the most important battles of world war ii, it is often cited as the single most important naval battle in United States naval history. It is usually listed as among the most decisive naval battles in all of history. It is an enthralling story that has been told a number of times. We do not have time to go into all the details of it today. In a sparse outline, let me point out the battle ultimately was one of a great triumph against odds. The foundation was intelligence, particularly radio intelligence developed by american radio officers with british and australian support. The key figure is Lieutenant CommanderJoseph Rochefort who was the commander at pearl harbor. Joe is now legendary figure, he is better remembered than dozens of admirals who served in world war ii. He is also an inspiration, those of you who are feeling that your efforts are not properly appreciated, you should remember that when Joe Rochefort was in the officer program in the officer training program, one of his evaluators wrote this individual should not be trusted with important responsibilities. The information that rochefort provided enabled admiral chester nimitz to station his carriers off the island of midway. After the event, we learned there was more back story. President roosevelt had appointed admiral chester nimitz, but nimitzs immediate boss did not think nimitz was fit for the job and showed it in various ways. In the weeks leading up to the battle of midway, nimitz and king were in conflict over what the japanese move were going to be. King believe the japanese were going to the South Pacific and nimitz believed it was midway. He was in the position of explaining to his boss why he was right and his boss was wrong, which he did. The battle itself was commanded by admiral Frank Kutcher and admiral raymond spruance. It is a battle that came down to the professionalism and skill and valor of the ships complements of our task forces off midway, most notably our aviators suffered tremendous losses, both those who flew from midway and those who flew from the carriers. Among those were the members of torpedo squadron 8. They launched 15 aircraft. All 15 were shot down. Of 30 crew men, only one survived. Only six of 41 torpedo planes returned to an american flight deck. Dive bombers also suffered heavily. We are fortunate today to have with us three actual veterans of the battle. I talked to them beforehand and there was a natural chronology to the sequence of their recollections about that event. Without further ado, we are going to go to that. Im going to move through that. We also had scheduled this morning captain jack crawford, who unfortunately is not yet here with us john crawford. Should he get here in time, maybe we will hear from him. We are going to start with jack holder, who in 1941 in 1942 was with patrol squadron 23. Jack, you are with the squadron at the time of the attack on pearl harbor. Jack i joined december 12, 1940. Richard then you deployed from there to the battle of midway. Jack i got there in 1942. Richard your aircraft he was flying in a catalina pby, a patrol bomber. It had great range and considerable vulnerability. If it ran into japanese zero fighter aircraft. Your position on the aircraft was as jack Flight Engineer. Richard what did that involve . Jack years ago, aircraft had an engineer they required a lot of instrumentation, unlike airplanes today. Aircraft today, the pilot has all the control. Pby, the pilot cannot start a pby without the Flight Engineer. Richard these were full of fuel systems and stuff like that, you are monitoring things like that . I do not know that the Flight Engineer actually started the plane. His aircraft was not just one of the search aircraft that would fly a Critical Mission at the battle of midway. It flew the most Important Mission that morning. Because the intelligence we had been provided, the pbys had been set up to conduct surveys of certain sectors. The japanese carriers were expected. But actually, there was an aircraft ahead of you that saw the incoming japanese flight. Jack i was in a second aircraft. We left midway on a deviation of seven degrees and the pilot of the plane to our left when they spotted the fleet first, when they reported position, we saw the same thing. Richard you reported the presence of two japanese carriers . Jack yes. Richard i should point out that although there were 4 japanese carriers, this initial sighting only saw two of them and this would cause ripples, because they knew there should be four carriers present. What is interesting is when we were talking about this, there is this moment when you see the japanese carriers, but you continue on with your mission for hours after that. Jack 13 hours. Richard as you are flying that mission, you do not know what is going on at midway. Jack thats right. We left in the afternoon. We lost all contact with midway. We do not know if we still control it or the japanese had it. Richard their bombing attack had knocked out the radio and you guys cannot pick up anything. You did not know who held midway. What did you do . Jack we continued to search and do exactly what we were supposed to do. We reported missing ships. Early in the afternoon we struck gold, we caught a submarine attempting to submerge, all hatches were closed, we dropped the first 500 pounder on the fantail and dropped another five right behind the tower. We flew circles around it watching it sink. We had a great day. Richard since you didnt know what was going on at midway, what did you do toward the end of the mission . Jack after we found that we had lost contact, we had an option we could take a chance on going back to midway or we could set out to sea. It was unanimous, we set out at sea, threw out a sea anchor, drifted all night. I took a sleeping bag and climbed on top of the wing, tied myself the antenna, and spent the night. At sunup we made contact with midway and large we had been and learned we had been successful. We are also told there was a destroyer loaded with navigation fuel, floated the shoals, we took navigational sun shots, refueled, went to midway. Richard also part of the missions that pbys flew with the battle was searching for our downed aircrew. Jack we spent all of the next day searching. We found two gentleman and a life raft but we were low on fuel. We radioed a sister ship, they landed, picked up the gentleman, took him to midway. Richard let me go on to bill norberg. Bill, tell us how long you were on the enterprise . Bill i went on board in september of 1941 and stayed until august of 1945 when the bomb was dropped on nagasaki. Richard how many Commanding Officers did you have to break in . Bill nine. Richard and your actual job . Could you describe how you moved through those jobs . Bill i started as a yeoman firstclass and worked in the captains office my entire term aboard the enterprise. Through a bunch of successes i was able to move rapidly and i was put in charge of the office when i became a firstclass yeoman. I had that job for about 23 months. Richard you had the whole war on what is the most famous ship in the navys history, the uss enterprise . Bill amen, brother. Richard i should point out for historians, someone like this is a wonderful person. He is near the great and powerful as they talk and make decisions and you can go to people like this who can find what really happened as opposed to what is in the memoir from the admiral. Before we get to midway, you had a story i wanted to have you share with people. This is on the transit enterprise delivered the doolittle raiders and you are cruising through it is dark and it is foggy and you had an encounter with the high and mighty . Bill i did. I delivered a message to the captain up to the admiral. Bill i did. I delivered a message to the captain up to the admiral. Started climbing down the ladder and instead of hitting that steel catwalk, i hit something kind of soft, and i recognized william f. Halsey. I was kind of shivering in my shoes, but i took off like a shot after i said yes, sir, to him, and he never caught me. [laughter] richard we have the last surviving american seamen who outran admiral halsey. [laughter] bill i had another affair on that same cruise. I was standing the midnight watch, and i was feeling sleepy, and i was on the bridge and lean leaned my head against the bulkhead, and i leaned against the general quarters alarm and woke up the whole ship. Boy, i will tell you, i scooted off in a hurry, took off my coat because somebody said i do not somebody, i said i do not know who, but he was wearing a pea coat. Richard that is the resourcefulness with which our armed forces are known. [laughter] richard lets move on to the actual battle itself. Youre up with the captain on the captains bridge. So, you are there all day long. You hear the messages. The remember any particular messages . Bill about 9 30 in the morning, i understand from this gentleman right here that his message came through. Japanese fleet spotted including spotted, including two carriers, from my recollection. Richard you saw the takeoff of the enterprise aircraft . Bill a very little bit before the admirals said everybody, take off. Richard you are there on the bridge, and eventually, the aircraft comes back, and there are not as many coming back as went out. Bill exactly right. Richard we were talking about this relationship of the air group and the Ships Company as very close. Tell us about how the reaction of the crew was when the aircraft comes back . Come back . Bill first of all, the ready room scene was very bad. I did not hear of any tears being shed, but it was very close to that. Among the torpedo squadron, first of all, we sent out 14 torpedo bombers, only four came back. And, it was bad. But then again, as our planes came back, many had failed to make it. I think probably there were 20 some altogether from the enterprise that were unable to come back. Everyone of us could feel that we were losing something great. Richard you mentioned among the flyers, two of the most successful and famous and admired, dusty and dick, do you remember those gentlemen . Bill i remember them quite well. Dick best was the skipper of the bombing six group, and he led the attack on the carrier. For some reason, there was a mixup, and 28 or 29 planes and only three attacked. Best led the way and he made a perfect dive and landed his thousand pound bomb or in one of the most vulnerable spots. In that carrier, the bomb went down through the flight deck, detonated in the hangar deck, and what should they have there but a full complement of japanese torpedo planes all cast all gassed up and armed to the teeth. It was just a holocaust waiting to happen. And thats what happened. Richard and then he went out and he would fly a Second Mission despite the fact that he had very serious problems. Bill he did, sir, he was batting 1000 about point and he went out later that afternoon, at that point and he went out later that afternoon, his plane not having been shot up very badly, and he helped the last surviving character and scored another hit, which gave him a 1000 batting average. He never flew again for the navy after that, unfortunately. He had an oxygen problem and he inhaled some caustic soda, which resulted in a rapid case of tuberculosis. It took some several years to recover from it. He retired from the navy, recovered from that, and lived a very productive civilian life until the year 2001. Richard i was fortunate enough to meet him. As bill says, the enterprise dive bomber groups, there were two squadrons, and as bill said, what happened when they saw the japanese carriers, there was a mixup, the lead squadron was supposed to go to the park carrier, the trailing squadron was supposed to go to the trailing carrier, they all started diving on the nearest carrier. Dick best had the presence of mind to realize that this would leave the other ship uncovered and he led his group of three planes down and scored this hit. If he had not scored this hit on , the ship would have continued on through the battle. He is one of the great heroes of the battle. And dusty, whose memoir was recently published, although dick best is a thousand, dusty was only three out of four. Is that right . He hit three ships. Richard his wonderful memoir called never call me a hero just came out. Now, you stayed on the aboard the enterprise the whole war. The enterprises greatest moments were to come later at later in the year at guadalcanal. Let me stop right here, and you can rest your heels. Let me go to john, and he was aboard the yorktown, right . Tell us about when you got to the yorktown. John i joined the navy like these fellows, prior to the war. I was in high school down in georgia, and had to cross the street to get on the school bus that sat in front of the post office, and they had this big sign with the pilots goggles standing on the wing of an airplane with a parachute hanging, and it said, high school graduates, join the navy and learn to fly. That was for me. To cut my story short, it was in latter 43 before i got Flight Training in norman, oklahoma. But anyway, i graduated from boot camp on friday, december 3, 1941 in norfolk. And sunday, the japs blew a hole in my order to go to pensacola, and they sent all of us guys to the fleet that had returned from the north atlantic patrol. The yorktown was a dry dock in newport news. It was a large ship. The first carrier i saw. Got underneath the yorktown and scraped the barnacles off it. Then, we went to sea up to san canal andugh the arrived the day after christmas and stayed a couple of days and took a convoy of marines, a whole battalion, down to samoa and dropped them off. We did not go in. Our little carrier, our little battle fleet, two cruisers and four destroyers, we went west and another carrier came over the horizon, and then sbd took off and landed on our ships and this guy got out of the backseat and we thought about halsey i was watching, looking down at the deck, and this guy got out of the plane and the plane handler flapped them on the back and said hey, chief, that was a good landing. And he took his off and he had three stars on there. He had come over to confirm what our admiral fletcher, and they admiral jack, they called them, they put their heads together, and without approval from us, we went and bombed the marshal islands, which was the first retaliatory strike of the war, and then we went to pearl harbor, and we got there on february 2. Bodies were still breaking loose from the wreckage and floating to the surface. All sorts of mess. So, people like me, who if you want to speak to someone with a little bit of authority and yorktown, you sent them to see me, because i had as little as everybody. These bodies, we would put a canvas under, you cannot touch could not touch them. I hate to tell you this, but we i hate toreat tell you this, but we would roll them in. We developed great hate for our japanese friends there because these boys were killed, a lot of them in their bunks. We stayed there for a while and we gathered up our skirts and we were underway for 104 days and we fought the battle of the coral sea. We got shot up, and we went down to an island which is about a thousand miles east of australia and got everybody settled in and got a message from pearl harbor. Back then, they call it commander in chief cincus, they decided that wasnt good for morale, so they changed it. But we got a message. I remember standing back on the flight deck watching us to even watching us, and oil streaked all the way to pearl, and we were concerned that the japanese summer rains would find that streak and follow us. We went into pearl, right in the drydock, and got rid of the likes of me and brought professionals aboard. I never saw so Many Shipyard workers. We were told to get out of there in 72 hours. Admiral nimitz and his staff were walking