The Advisory Board Proceedings referenced above include a forty-two-page summary of Ring’s performance in flight school at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1926–27. The report culminates in the recommendation by Lieutenant T. L. Sprague, the officer in command of the flight school, that he be dropped from flying status. On July 14, 1926, then-Ensign Ring formally requested that instead of being dropped, he be allowed to return to flight school, stating that he believed he had “gone stale, temporarily.” He was given another opportunity, and earned his wings.
The substance of Lieutenant Stephen Jurika’s briefing to the senior commanders of the Hornet air group on May 31, 1942, and his subsequent briefings to all its pilots prior to the battle, are included in the oral history he provided to the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, during twenty-seven taped interviews (pp. 495–498). George Gay offered an independent account of the briefing to the pilots in his private diary.
Details of the May 31, 1942, meeting in which Captain “Pete” Mitscher, Stanhope Ring, and the Hornet’s four air squadron commanders planned the attack on the Japanese striking force were drawn from John Lundstrom’s The First Team (pp. 407–408), and Gay’s private diary, in which he cites Lieutenant Commander Waldron’s concerns about the plan.
The sources for the internal debate that took place aboard the Hornet over how fighter protection was to be divided between Waldron’s torpedo squadron and the carrier’s two dive-bomber squadrons include Lundstrom’s The First Team (p. 407); Walter Lord’s 1966 lengthy interview with Stan Ruehlow; Bowen Weisheit’s 1981 interview with Pat Mitchell; and Sole Survivor, in which Gay recounted Waldron’s increasingly desperate attempts to secure fighter protection, if even only one plane, for his squadron (p. 115).
Swede
The domineering leadership style of Harold H. “Swede” Larsen after he was placed in command of the receiving detachment by John Waldron was well documented within Torpedo Eight. Of the thirteen surviving members of the squadron whom the author interviewed at length, or who wrote about their experiences with Swede, all but two commented on his dictatorial nature. Three went so far as to say they still hated him sixty-five years later. One enlisted man told me that he seriously fantasized about shooting Larsen while the squadron was training in Norfolk.
At the same time, no one questioned Larsen’s personal courage and almost reckless bravery. At least one officer, Smiley Morgan, heard Swede say that he would come back from the Pacific with the Medal of Honor.
The account in which Swede accused Tunstall of attempting to kill him came from the author’s 2006 interview with Tunstall at his home in Portland, Oregon.
At least two of the pilots who volunteered for the dangerous mission to Midway, Bert Earnest and Gene Hanson, stated in author interviews that one of the reasons they volunteered was to get away from Swede.
The account of Swede’s being denied the opportunity to lead the mission to Midway by Admiral Noyes is documented in Ira Wolfert’s Torpedo 8: The Story of Swede Larsen’s Bomber Squadron (pp. 9–11, 14), and in author interviews with Earnest, Hanson, and Morgan.
Preparing the six planes and flight crews for the more than 1,200-mile flight to Midway was an experience that left an indelible memory on every man who was there at Luke Field. William Magee and Smiley Morgan had particularly vivid recollections, which in Morgan’s case were supplemented with an account he wrote shortly afterward.
The Squire
The content of Lieutenant Stephen Jurika’s second briefing to all of the pilots in the Hornet air group was chronicled by George Gay in his unpublished diary posting on that date. The briefing was remarkably detailed, and included the names of many of the ships in the Japanese striking force. It was also the first time that the pilots of Torpedo Eight learned that Avengers in Swede Larsen’s receiving detachment would be joining the air garrison at Midway Atoll.
The information about Bill Evans’s life before the war was drawn from interviews with Tom Evans, Bill’s younger brother; a three-hour author interview with Charles Gillispie, Bill’s roommate at Wesleyan University; several remembrances written by his classmates from Shortridge High School and Wesleyan; an article written for the Aircraft Journal by Wesleyan classmate Douglas Holmes; and Evans’s own evocative writings and letters. The remembrances and article were shared with the author by Tom Evans.
For the accounts of Bill’s involvement in the life of the squadron, both during its months of training in Norfolk, and then aboard the Hornet, the author drew from Bill Evans’s own writings, as well as those of squadron members Fred Mears, George Gay, and Grant Teats. The author also received insightful reflections about Evans’s personality from squadron member Gene Hanson.
Old Langdon
The most important source of information for this chapter was DeWitt “Pete” Peterkin, Langdon Fieberling’s closest friend in the squadron. Peterkin maintained a lively and insightful diary that was edited after the war into an eighty-two-page memoir for his family and fellow VT-8 veterans entitled Carrier Squadron Torpedo 8. In this personal account of his experiences with Torpedo Eight, Peterkin wrote at length about Fieberling and his star-crossed romantic relationship with his fiancée, whose name has been altered by the author due to family considerations.
Additional material about Langdon Fieberling’s early life was sent to the author by his first cousin Lois Fieberling Castor and his nephew Eric Fieberling. Information about his college career at the University of California, Berkeley, was provided by the university’s alumni association.
Reflections on Fieberling’s leadership style, his personal characteristics, and his interaction with other squadron members, both officers and enlisted men, were related to the author in interviews with William Tunstall, Ervin Wendt, Gene Hanson, and Bert Earnest.
The substance of the meeting in which Lieutenant Fieberling met with the pilots who were about to undertake the mission to Midway was provided in an author interview with Corwin Morgan, the squadron’s navigation officer at the time.
The departure of the six crews of Torpedo Eight who flew to Midway on the morning of June 1, 1942, was witnessed by nearly every pilot and enlisted man in the squadron, many of whom had vivid memories of this last leave-taking. The account here was drawn from author interviews with William Magee and Carroll “Jack” Stark. Bert Earnest is the source for the last anecdote in the chapter, in which he and Charlie Brannon exchanged their own version of Swede Larsen’s “Attack” hand salute.
Tex
Most of the material in this chapter was drawn from George Gay’s writings, both from his private diary and his book, Sole Survivor. Gay wrote candidly about his fears of how he would perform in combat, and whether he would live up to his own expectations.
His recollections about the specific talks to the squadron made by Lieutenant Commander Waldron in this time period are supported by the recollections of Fred Mears in his book, Carrier Combat.
The description of the incident in which squadron pilot Eddie Fayle received a serious leg wound on the day before the Hornet left for Midway is drawn from Gay’s unpublished diary and the Torpedo Squadron Eight war diary.
The material about Gay’s life prior to the war was drawn from the book Sole Survivor and from author interviews with Gay’s grandson, Eric Staalesen. Descriptions of his personality as the squadron underwent training in Norfolk, Virginia, came from author interviews with Bert Earnest, Gene Hanson, and Rete Gaynier Janiec.
Bert and Harry
The account of Bert Earnest’s flight from Pearl Harbor to Midway Atoll on June 1, 1942, and his subsequent mission on June 4, was drawn from the more than fourteen hours of taped personal interviews conducted with Captain Earnest by the author, the first series during a three-day visit to Earnest’s home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, February 9–12, 2006, and in nineteen telephone interviews over the course of the following year.
The details of his early life in Richmond, his college days at the Virginia Military Institute, his
relationship with Jerry Jenkins, and his experiences training with Torpedo Squadron Eight were also the product of author interviews, supplemented by copies of letters and academic records provided to the author by Earnest.
Harry Ferrier shared his recollections of the flight to Midway with the author in a 2006 visit to his home in Oak Harbor, Washington, and in subsequent telephone interviews. These interviews are also the source for the details about his early life, the unusual circumstances surrounding his enlistment in the Navy, and his training experiences.
The six Avengers’ arrival at Midway on the afternoon of June 1, 1942, was chronicled in author interviews with Earnest and Ferrier. Specific material about the B-26 Marauders and their flight crews came from notes compiled by Walter Lord based on questionnaires completed by James P. Muri and Pren Leonard Moore.
Grant and Whitey
A copy of the Hornet Plan of the Day, including the typed message from Commander G. R. Henderson about the expected arrival of the Japanese striking force, was reproduced in its entirety in George Gay’s Sole Survivor.
Grant Teats’s niece, Nancy Mahi, provided the author with copies of Diana’s letters, which were returned to the Teats family after the Battle of Midway along with Grant’s own letters and personal effects. The author chose not to use Diana’s real name out of family considerations. Nancy Mahi also provided important information about Grant’s early life, family history, and his accomplishments in high school and college. The author also received useful insights from two of Grant’s high school classmates.
Sherry Moore Cullaty provided the author with several dozen of Whitey Moore’s 1942 letters, as well as a cross-section of correspondence from Betty Watkins, Diana’s best friend at Norfolk Naval Hospital. Whitey wrote his parents that he expected at some point to ask Betty to marry him. The two different sets of letters helped to illuminate the background to both romantic relationships.
Pertinent information about Grant’s interaction with his fellow fliers, as well as other aspects of his life in Torpedo Eight, can be found in the more than one hundred letters he wrote home to his parents and his sister, Charlotte, Nancy Mahi’s mother.
Sketches of Grant’s physical prowess and gentle personality can be found in commentaries by Fred Mears in Carrier Combat, by George Gay in Sole Survivor, and in an author interview with Hornet pilot Roy Gee, Grant’s roommate during training in Norfolk, who was sitting with him at a Washington Redskins football game in Washington, D.C., when they learned that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The unique personality of Ulvert Matthew “Whitey” Moore was characterized in detail in Sole Survivor and Carrier Combat, as well as in Lloyd Wendt’s multipart series “The True Story of Heroic Squadron 8.” Whitey’s sleep proclivities were described by Gay, Mears, and Bill Evans. Evans spent most of a leave with Grant Teats and Whitey Moore in Florida.
Details about Whitey Moore’s early life in Bluefield, West Virginia, are drawn from several lengthy author interviews with Whitey’s high school classmate, Heber Stafford, as well as separate author interviews with Howard Hale and Marcella Whitlock.
The account of Moore’s romantic relationship with Catherine Dunn was drawn from multiple author interviews with Catherine Dunn Hall, who recently gave his Kappa Alpha fraternity pin to the Mercer County World War II Museum.
Ozzie and Rete
According to fellow pilots Smiley Morgan and Gene Hanson, Ozzie Gaynier was one of the most naturally gifted leaders they had met during the early months of the war. Smart and unflappable, he approached problems with a combination of logic and thorough planning that set him apart from other junior officers.
In one of his last letters home, Ozzie summed up the challenges the nation faced in defeating a fiercely dedicated opponent like Japan, and the need to confront the enemy with the resources available to them until the nation built up an effective arsenal.
A full copy of Colonel H. D. Shannon’s general orders for the defense of Midway, dated May 23, 1942, can be found on the Battle of Midway Round-table Web site: www.midway42.org.
The sources for the squadron’s official activity, including the briefings of Langdon Fieberling by Colonel Ira Kimes, the Marine air group commander, and Fieberling’s subsequent briefings of his squadron pilots and crews include Walter Lord’s Incredible Victory (pp. 55–56), Gordon Prange’s Miracle at Midway (pp. 207–209), and the personal recollections of Bert Earnest and Harry Ferrier in multiple author interviews.
The most valuable resource for recounting Gaynier’s early life was his sister, Elizabeth “Dudie” Gaynier Wallin, who provided the author with many details of his childhood in Monroe, Michigan, and recounted family Christmas memories and Ozzie’s adventures riding freight trains across the Far West. The author also had an opportunity to review much of Ozzie’s correspondence to his family while he was undergoing training with Torpedo Eight, including letters to his younger brother Jim, who was committed to following in his footsteps as a Navy flier.
Details of Ozzie’s athletic ability in high school and college were provided by the Eastern Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame, which enshrined him in 1993 for his track and field and boxing accomplishments.
The story of how Ozzie and Rete met was provided by Rete Gaynier Janiec in an interview with the author at her home in Oregon. Further details were drawn from letters he wrote during his first months at flight school, and from Reynolds’s The Saga of Smokey Stover, in which Stover wrote about his friendship with Ozzie and Rete while he was renting a room in their apartment in Norfolk. The Saga of Smokey Stover also includes a number of photographs of both Ozzie and Rete during the early days of their marriage.
Freddy
Details of Fred Mears’s early life were found in the wonderful book Get Mears! by Katharine Carson Crittenden. It is the story of how Fred’s father built the Alaska Railroad across hundreds of miles of wilderness and subsequently created the railroad town that became Anchorage, Alaska. Other family memories, news articles, and photographs were generously provided to the author by Fred Mears’s nieces Marilyn Richards and Jane Eagle. The author was also given important details about the Mears family life by Jack Tobien, a family friend.
Information about Fred’s military service, including all of his unit postings and subsequent military awards, was found in his service record, as well as in the biographical material he submitted to the Bureau of Navigation in 1941, a copy of which is on file at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. The author also reviewed a copy of the official accident report of his death near El Centro, California, on June 26, 1943.
The principal source for describing Fred’s life at Yale College, his subsequent romantic pursuits, and his approach to flying was his book, Carrier Combat. He maintained an intimate diary for several years prior to the war, and continued this practice after joining the Navy. In 1943, Fred used this diary as the basis for his book.
The author is indebted to Smiley Morgan for sharing copies of his correspondence with Fred Mears’s sister Betty, which began after Morgan was stationed in Seattle in early 1943. Her letters provided an interesting and provocative assessment of Fred’s weaknesses and strengths.
Eventide
Chronicling the last period of activity for the men of Torpedo Squadron Eight aboard the Hornet on the night of June 3–4, 1942, required synthesizing a number of accounts. The principal sources were the private diary of George Gay and his book, Sole Survivor (pp. 108–115); Mears’s Carrier Combat (pp. 39–54); Wendt’s “The True Story of Heroic Squadron 8”; the letters of John Waldron, Rusty Kenyon, and Grant Teats; and the writings of Bill Evans.
The continuing campaign by Lieutenant Commander Waldron to secure fighter protection for his torpedo squadron was highlighted in both George Gay’s diary and his subsequent book. His account is supported by the taped interviews conducted by Bowen Weisheit with Pat Mitchell, as well as in the notes compiled by Walter Lord from his interview with Pat Mitchell
’s flight officer, Stan Ruehlow.
The final night on Midway Atoll was primarily reconstructed from author interviews with Bert Earnest and Harry Ferrier, who was at the final briefing given by Langdon Fieberling on the night before the battle.
Due to security concerns, no one on Midway Atoll was aware that three American carriers were steaming northeast of Midway in a planned attempt to ambush the Japanese striking force. As far as Langdon Fieberling knew, the air garrison on Midway was the sole means to defend the islands by air against the enemy forces. His subsequent decisions were made accordingly.
The life of Vic Lewis was reconstructed largely from author interviews with his younger sister Nancy and her husband, Al Willis, from Lewis’s service record, and from his last letters home, which were shared with the author by his family. Bill Tunstall provided the author with the account of the near-fatal flight accident at Norfolk that changed Vic’s attitude about risk-taking.
In author interviews, Bert Earnest shared his memories of purchasing “chits” for beer from the young Marine, and of his subsequent discovery of the two-dollar bill next to the runway on his way to bed.
He That Shall Live This Day and See Old Age
The primary sources for the important decisions and events that took place aboard the Hornet on June 4, 1942, as well as what occurred on its air group’s mission that morning, include War Diary, Commander, Carriers, Pacific Fleet (Task Force 16, official source); USS Hornet Deck Log (official source); The Battle of Midway, Strategical and Tactical Analysis (official source); John Lundstrom’s The First Team; Robert E. Barde’s The Battle of Midway: A Study in Command; Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully’s Shattered Sword; Frederick Mears’s Carrier Combat; Walter Lord’s Incredible Victory; Gordon Prange’s Miracle at Midway; Ron Russell’s No Right to Win; Bowen P. Weisheit’s The Last Flight of Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Junior; and George Gay’s Sole Survivor.
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