The Roundtable
Forum
Official Newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable
19 November 2010
Issue Number: 2010-37
Our 14th Year
~
AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Altitude of Howard Ady’s PBY on 4 June 1942
2. Reflections on 13 Years
3. The Midway Library
4. Salute to Midway Vets
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1. ALTITUDE OF HOWARD ADY’S PBY
ON 4 JUNE 1942
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20 October 2010
From: Konley Kelley
Texas
What
altitude was Lt. Ady flying when he spotted the Japanese task force?
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Ed. note: Konley is the architect and artist of
some very detailed BOM dioramas and graphics that have been featured on the
Roundtable in prior years. Click
here for an example. If
you can address his question about Ady’s PBY, please contact him directly as
shown in your new issue announcement.
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2. REFLECTIONS ON 13 YEARS ( See issues #35, 36 )
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12 November 2010
From: Scott Kair
Illinois
I’d agree heartily on being grateful for your
stewardship of the Roundtable. It’s
hard to imagine a single more useful and useable resource for historians of the
Pacific War.
Among the accomplishments of the Roundtable
is that appreciation of the consequences of the BOM has increased far beyond
what was grasped 14 years ago. The
battle was then understood to be a turning point, but that understanding was
based more on the tactical destruction of the majority of Japan’s carrier
strike force—of the blunting of the tip of their spear. We are now well aware of what winning the
battle enabled; first and foremost it enabled changing America’s geo-strategic
priority from defending our west coast to beginning to execute the “Hitler
first” goal.
The final cancellation of the Montana
class battleships and the redirection of industrial resources towards expanding
and accelerating the production of the Essex-class fast carriers, as
well as the adaptation of planned cruiser hulls to escort carriers is another
consequence of the victory.
Such a list could go on, but the point is
that the exchange of ideas on the Roundtable inspires compiling such a list.
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3. THE MIDWAY LIBRARY ( See issue #36 )
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12 November 2010
From: Jeffrey O. Crosby
New Jersey
Wow, what a
beautiful picture of the Aylwin.
Also, I did not realize how many books concerning the BOM were on the
"list" [The Roundtable’s Midway Library page]. And to think that back in high school
(1971-1975) that I had only read Incredible Victory. That was my first introduction to naval
operations in the Pacific.
Thanks much
for your constant work on this site.
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4. SALUTE TO MIDWAY VETS
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12 November 2010
From: James F. Leffler, Jr.
Kentucky
I wanted to send a “thank you” to Midway vets and all World War II
veterans. I am always very pleased when
I spot one while I am out, usually thanks to the ball caps they wear. I try to stop them, shake their hand, and
thank them; usually telling them about programs like Honor Flight.
I am 41, but I have been an admirer of “The Greatest Generation” since
childhood, and have studied many of the battles as well as the home front
aspects since then. I have a deep
respect and admiration for all of the men and women who fought and suffered so
much during those times. I sincerely
hope they never feel like they have been forgotten by my or any other
generation.
I try my hardest to keep their memories alive. I wish I could thank them all, and I hope that they will accept my gratitude and my thanks for all that they did and continue to do. Thank you for including me in the BOMRT, which gives me another way to express my gratitude.
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~ NOW
HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Remembering Dick Epps
- Remembering Sam Laser
- Link of the Week
- Editor’s Notes
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REMEMBERING DICK EPPS
Roundtable member and
BOM veteran Richard C. Epps, CDR, USNR-Retired, passed away on November 4th at
the age of 88. Dick joined the Roundtable
in 2006 and brought us a new perspective as a veteran of one of the TF-16
screening destroyers in the BOM, USS Aylwin (DD-355). He was a radioman and radar operator on the
ship, and in later life wrote a very good book about his wartime service, Life
On a Tin Can.
Dick’s experiences
before and during the BOM are highlighted in detail on our website’s Veterans Stories
pages, which you are encouraged to read now: click here. It’s particularly fascinating that, through
some administrative failings, he was still a Seaman 3/c (recruit level) just
before the BOM, although by then he was a trained radio and radar operator and
a somewhat seasoned sailor. But Dick
was immediately promoted three levels to RM3/c by the ship’s C.O. when he fixed
the Aylwin’s fathometer just as it was trying to enter Pearl Harbor upon
returning from the Coral Sea.
He stayed in the
reserve after the war, was activated again for Korea, and continued as a
participating reservist until his retirement as a commander. His resourcefulness led to a distinguished
career in electrical and nuclear engineering with the national radiation
laboratory at Livermore, California. In
his later years, he was an enthusiastic participant in the annual BOM
commemorations in San Francisco. He was
a personal friend of mine and will be sorely missed. For more about this exceptional Midway veteran, please see his
published obituary here. —RR
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Roundtable member and
BOM veteran LT Sam Laser, USNR-Retired, passed away on October 20th at the age
of 90. Sam had been a member of the
Roundtable since its earliest days. He
was a USS Yorktown veteran, to which he had the rare distinction of
being assigned in 1941 with no training whatsoever, not even boot camp. That odd circumstance was due to the Navy’s
“special rating program,” which took in new sailors with advanced rank if they
came aboard with certain previously learned skills. Sam’s qualification for the program: he could type! Thus Sam boarded the Yorktown as a
Yeoman 2/c without knowing hardly anything about Navy protocols, procedures, or
how to basically get along in the service.
It was a rough go at first, but Sam ultimately came to believe that
“learning on the job” was the best way to do it.
On the Yorktown, Sam
was assigned to the 6th Division, Gunnery Department. That got him a unique battle station on CV-5, in “Sky Control”
high atop the superstructure, where he had a terrifying ringside view of the
battles in the Coral Sea and at Midway.
After the BOM he was assigned to CASU 6 at Alameda where he made Yeoman
1/c. Shortly thereafter the Navy
promoted him to ensign directly from enlisted service, again with no officer
indoctrination of any kind. He left the
Navy after the war, but returned to the reserve as a JAG officer after
completing law school.
Our website’s Veteran
Stories pages have a much more detailed account of Sam’s wartime experience on
the Yorktown, and I urge you to read it now.
Sam became a highly
successful attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, and worked with great distinction
in his own firm until virtually his final day.
He was an enthusiastic member of the Yorktown CV-5 veterans
association, and hosted their most recent annual reunion in Little Rock. His firm’s web site has a more detailed
professional biography, which you can review here.
A fond farewell and
following seas to two fine BOM vets and friends of the Roundtable. I’ve added their names to the Remembrance
section of our Midway
Roundtable Veterans roster. —RR
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LINK OF THE WEEK
Here are good photos of Dick Epps and Sam Laser, from our
website archives:
Click
here for the link of the week.
(Dick Epps)
Click
here for the link of the week.
(Sam Laser)
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EDITOR’S NOTES
~ Scott Sabol in New Jersey advises that
Dallas W. Isom passed away on October 3rd.
As mentioned in the last issue, he was the author of a particularly
important BOM book, Midway
Inquest, that brought new insight to a couple of the battle’s key
elements, including an entirely new, revisionist analysis of the vital flight
of the Tone number 4 search plane.
The book is reviewed in depth in issue 2007-40, 26 October 2007 (copies
upon request, or see the Amazon review).
~ For those who knew Sam Laser well, there may
be some question at my note above that he retired from the Naval Reserve as a
JAG lieutenant, while he’s shown elsewhere as a lieutenant commander. As Sam explained it to me a few years ago,
“some records show it one way and some show it another, and at this point I
don’t particularly care.” In any case,
lieutenant seems to be more accurate from the various records that Sam has sent
me. We’ve seen a number of instances
where WW2 veterans, upon retirement, received brevet promotions that were never
formalized.