Transcripts For CSPAN3 Battle Of Midway 75th Anniversary Rec

CSPAN3 Battle Of Midway 75th Anniversary Recollections December 3, 2017

Welcome and thank you for being here. This is our 20th year of the event. E are very happy you are here we want to thank the Navy Memorial for their hospitality for this weekend. Theyve been great partners over the years. My only word i have to kick things off is for all of the students that are with us this weekend. I encourage you to take all of this in from where we start with veterans at the battle of midway 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 tonk admiral frank thorp say a few words of welcome. Welcome to the Navy Memorial. Honor,sion here is to recognize, and celebrate the men services,of the sea 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 like and i look at words trailblazers, legends, these are in the agenda. , 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 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 a do, 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 a durance 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 pressure it is my toasure it is my pleasure introduce richard frank, a historian of the second world war. He was a consultant for the hbo World War Ii Special on the cific 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. 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. 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 Commander joseph roche fort who was the commander at pearl harbor. Figure, helegendary is better remember 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 Rocheford was in the officer program and the officer training program, one of his evaluators wrote this individual should not be trusted with important responsibilities. The information that rocheford provided enable 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 boots. Came down toe that 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. Hey launched 15 aircraft all 15 were shot down. 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. Andlked to them before hand there was a natural chronology to the sequence of their recollections about that event. Without further do, we are going to go to that. We also had scheduled this crawford,ptain jack 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 1942 washo in 1941 in with patrol squadron 23. Jack, you are with the squadron at the time of the attack on pearl harbor. Joined december 12, 1940. Then you deployed from there to the battle of midway. In 1942. There he was flying in a catalina pgy, a patrol bomber. It had great range and considerable vulnerability. Your position on the aircraft was as Flight Engineer. What did that involve . Years ago, aircraft had an engineer the required a lot of instrumentation, unlike airplanes today. Aircraft today, the pilot has all the control. Pb why, the pilot cannot start a pby without the Flight Engineer. 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. Of aircraft was not just one 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 pb wise s had been set up to conduct surveys of certain sectors. There was an aircraft ahead of you that saw the incoming japanese flight. 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 reported a position we went to that position. You reported the presence of two japanese carriers . Yes. I should point out that although there were 14 japanese carriers, this initial sighting only saw two of them and this , becausese ripples 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. 13 hours. As you are flying that mission, you do not know what is going on at midway. All contact with midway. We do not know we do not know free still control it or the japanese had it. Attack hadmbing knocked out the radio and you guys cannot pick up anything. You did not know who held midway. What did you do . 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 droppedwere closed, we the first 500 pounder on the fantail and dropped another five right behind the tower. We flew circles around it watching it sank. We had a great day. Whatnce you didnt know was going on at midway, what did you do toward the end of the mission . 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 see. Out atunanimous, we set sea, throughout a sea anchor, drifted all night. I took a sleeping bag and climbed on top of the way, tied myself the antenna, and spent the night. At sunup we made contact with midway and large we had been successful. We are also told there was a loaded with navigation fuel, floated the shoals, refueled, went to midway. Also part of the missions flew with the battle was searching for our downed aircrew. 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. Let me go on to bill norberg. Bill, tell us how long you were on the enterprise . On board in september of 1941 and stayed until august of 1945 when the bomb was dropped on nagasaki. How many commanding how many Commanding Officers did you have to break in . Nine. And your actual job . Could you describe how you moved through those jobs . I started as a yeoman firstclass and worked in the captains office my entire term aboard the enterprise. Successes inch of was able to move rapidly and i was put in charge of the office when i became a firstclass human and i kept that job i declaim a first i became a firstclass yeoman. You had the whole war on what is the most famous ship in the navys history, the uss enterprise . Out foruld point 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 your cruising through it is dark and it is foggy and you had an encounter with the high and mighty . I did. I delivered a message to the captain up to the admiral. Ladder climbing down the and instead of hitting the steel cap wall i took it soft that steel cap walk, i took a kind of soft and i recognized william f bull halsey. , but shivering in my shoes i took off like a shot after i said yes sir to him and he never caught me. Surviving the last american seamen who outran admiral halsey. 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 ,y head against the bulkhead and i leaned against the general quarters alarm and woke up the whole ship. , took offin a hurry my coat because somebody said i do not know who but he was wearing a coat. That is the resourcefulness with which our armed forces are known. [laughter] lets move on to the actual battle itself. Youre up with the captain on the captains bridge. You are there all day long. You hear the messages. Which ones do you remember . Morning, i30 in the understand that his message came through. Includingleet spotted two carriers. You saw the takeoff of the enterprise aircraft . A very little bit before the admirals had everybody takeoff. Bridgeare there on the and eventually the aircraft comes back and there are not as many coming back as went out. Exactly right. About thistalking 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 . 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. It was bad. Again, as our planes came back, many had failed to make it. I think there were 20 altogether from the enterprise that were unable to come back. Everyone of us could feel that we were losing something great. You mentioned among the flyers, two of the most successful and famous and most famous and admired do you remember those gentlemen . I remember them quite well. Was of the bombing six group and he led the attack on the carrier. For some reason there was a planes and8 or 29 only three attacked. And he made aay perfect dive and landed his thousand pound bomb or in one of the most vulnerable spots. The bomb went down through the flight deck, detonated in the hangar deck and what should they but a full complement of japanese torpedo planes all cast up and armed to the teeth. It was a holocaust waiting to happen. And hethen he went out would fly a Second Mission despite the fact that he had serious problems. 1000 aboutatting point and he went out later that afternoon, his play not having been shot up very badly, and he helped the last surviving character and scored another hit 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. He took several years to recover. He retired from the navy, recovered from that, and lived a very productive civilian life until the year 2001. I was fortunate enough to meet him. The enterprise dive bomber groups there were two squadron 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 that this would leave the other ship uncovered and he led his group of three planes down and scored this head. If he had not scored this head, 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 . Ships. Ad three he hit three ships. Is wonderful memoir called never call me a hero just came out. You stayed on the enterprise the entire war. The enterprises greatest moments were to come later at water canal. Let me stop there 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. I joined the navy like these fellows prior to the war. I was in high school 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 ,arachute packing and it said high school graduates, join the navy and learn to fly. That was for me. , it was intory short later 43 before i got Flight Training in norman, oklahoma. From boot camp on friday, december 3, 1941 in norfolk. The jabs blew a hole and they sent all of us guys to the fleet that had returned from fleet patrol. The yorktown was a dry dock in we wents and they underneath the yorktown and scrape the barnacles off. Up to sannt to sea diego and arrived the day after christmas and stayed a couple of ofs and took a convoy marines, a whole battalion down to American Samoa and dropped them off. We did not go in. Tookittle battle fleet cruiser two cruisers and four destroyers, we went west and another carrier came over the offzon and then sbd took and landed on our ships and this guy got out of the backseat and i wast about halsey looking down at the deck in 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. Off and tns three stars on their. And he had three stars on there. He had come over with our admiral fletcher, and 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 mass. All sorts of mess. People like me 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. , we would put a campus under, you cannot touch them. I hate to tell you this, but we would roll them in. We developed great hate for our japanese friends there because these boys were continued 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 14 days 4104 days and we fought the battle of the cargo see. And we went down to an island which is about a thousand miles east of australia and got everybody settled in and harbor. Ssage from pearl back then they call it commander cincus, they decided that wasnt good for morale so they changed it. On theber standing back us to even watching 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 walking in the drydock to get all the waters out, 72 hours later i am getting ahead , as john said, yorktown was hit by several bombs at coral sea. I will be about a threeweek job to repair, and had realized the japanese were going to make this effort at midway so he ordered yorktown back to pearl harbor and gave the dockyard people the orders that she has to be ready for sea in three days. It was a frantic effort to do all of this. , mr. Ther yorktown veteran , reported aboard at this time. He was fresh out of annapolis and he told me that when he reported aboard he was sent to the executive officer to get his assignment. The executive officer is this was aut we know frenzy in order to get the ship repaired, replenished, everything set to go in three days. , he would. Crawford get back to them later. You was trained as a radar officer but he was never going to see radar on the yorktown. John, is youo do, to describe where your battle station was. Let me insert something for your record. The battle of midway wouldve been fought with the same six carriers that bombed pearl harbor. We sank one and heavily damaged the other two. They only had four carriers thanks to the battle of the coral sea. The enterprise was our sister ship. She is the one that lucked out. She is the only one of the original group of the yorktown class that survi

© 2025 Vimarsana