THE HISTORY OF THE BOMRT – A TRIBUTE TO BILL PRICE
(Editor’s note: the following is adapted from the April 2015 issue of
The Roundtable Forum.)
William H. Price was the founder and driving force behind the Battle of Midway Roundtable during its earliest years, and it’s for certain that without his energy and perseverance in those times, we would never have known this remarkable organization and all that it has accomplished.
Bill’s founding of the Roundtable is well documented in Chapter 1 of
No Right to Win, but here’s the short version. Having long had an abiding interest in the BOM, he was very surprised to receive a phone call at his office one day from someone identifying himself as “Howard Ady,” a name that Bill instantly recognized as the pilot of the PBY that first spotted the Japanese carriers on June 4th, 1942. The caller turned out to be the pilot’s son, who obligingly introduced Bill to his dad. Bill was delighted to make the acquaintance of an actual BOM veteran, and the two commenced an ongoing email exchange. In time, a few others learned of Bill’s find and asked to be included on the emails. Bill did so, and the Roundtable was born.
For the next several years, Bill served as a relay station by forwarding literally bunches of messages, literally every day to scores of followers. As the word spread, more BOM vets came aboard and the group began to take on a very unique character: one of the singular events in U.S. history was being dissected on a daily basis with the participation of the very men who had made the history itself. In effect, it became a nonstop dialogue among the battle’s veterans and others having the same interest.
By 2002, Bill was forwarding daily email to about 200 Roundtable followers, but late that year he suffered a major illness that ended his ability to handle the burden. I volunteered to take it on rather than just allow the Roundtable to fade away, and Bill was happy to continue as a subscriber. The BOMRT then grew exponentially as we transitioned to our own Internet site, ultimately attracting the participation of about 75 BOM veterans and 500 members in over 20 countries.
That’s a remarkable legacy for Bill Price, and he richly deserves all the credit that we can bestow upon him for this organization’s success. Without his zeal for the Midway story at a time when telling it by computer involved a laborious daily chore that few of us would tolerate, that story would be far less known than it is today—especially some of its history-changing revelations that first got their major exposure here.
—RR
25TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE COMMENTS FROM MEMBERS
It has been gratifying to receive so many anniversary comments from the Roundtable’s members. It is clear that this remarkable resource, started so long ago by Bill Price and boosted onto the worldwide stage of the Internet by Chris Hawkinson has had an impact on its principal area of interest that is far beyond the dreams of almost any other online organization. A sincere
thank you from the editors for your contributions to this special issue of our newsletter.
Let’s get started with a message from the person who may be more responsible than anyone else for the Roundtable’s existence, the son of PBY pilot Howard Ady. (If you don’t know that story, see page 4 in
No Right to Win.)
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20 July 2022
From: Howard Ady III
Nevada
I knew Bill Price, who ran the State Department Communications Department from meetings at Industry/Government Information Resource Management (IRM) Technology conferences in the mid-1980s. Bill had a well-earned reputation as a brilliant cryptographer, or code breaker. I was serving as the Comptroller & Director, Resource Management at the SECDEF’s Trade Security Policy Office. Bill retired & began working for federal IT contractors, including CSC. I soon followed him after retiring 12.30.1997, to join the OAO Corporation that is now a part of Lockheed Martin & later KPMG. We would meet 3 to 4 times a year.
My dad, the late CAPT Howard P. Ady, Jr., USN (Ret.), used to get $99 round trip tickets to BWI [airport serving Washington, DC] from Phoenix. Knowing of Bill’s keen interest in both the Civil War and the Battle of Midway, the three of us would meet at a local Thai Restaurant in Arlington. Bill had prepared a minute-by-minute recap of the entire BOM from both the US & Japanese perspectives that intrigued my dad. They both talked & emailed each other [and often spoke] together via phone to continue to “fill in the blanks” to further detail these accounts, in early 1987. Their collaboration and outreach to others began to attract many others interested in documenting their findings. They continued to collaborate until CAPT Ady passed on 23 April 1998. Early members of this informal community included Bill Vickrey in 1987 & CAPT Frank DeLorenzo, USN (Ret.) in the same year. Since that time the BOMRT publications & the Midway42.org website have grown the email group of 20 to 30 members
exponentially both domestically & internationally to link thousands of interested participants, scholars, students & WWII historians and others interested in this epic naval battle that changed the course of history in the Pacific & the world. KUDOS to all involved contributors!
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Left: Frank DeLorenzo, 1942. Right: Captain Howard Ady, Jr., USN-Ret, with Bill Vickey and Howard Ady III, 1990s. |
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3 October 2022
From: Nancy Mahi
Oregon
Nancy Mahi from Oregon here. My uncle, Grant Teats, was a pilot in VT-8, and I've been a member since the Bill Price days. Grant is in the Hall of Honor at the Evergreen Aviation Museum here in McMinnville, where the Spruce Goose is located.
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Nancy is another of the Roundtable’s plankowners—a follower since its earliest days, even before I showed up in June 2000. It’s really great to be able to recognize our members who have stayed aboard over the long haul. A few more follow below. —RR
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4 September 2022
From: Robyn Adair
California
I have very fond memories of the earliest days of this group. Frank DeLorenzo wrote me a note and said my mom, his dear friend and widow of Lofton Russell "Joe" Henderson, would enjoy hearing all the chatter and re-connecting with people she knew or knew of. She was not very computer literate in 1998, so I logged on and would read or print things for her and she would respond with her own memories or comments. She thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this group.
It has been, of course, a veritable education for me over the years. Bill Price was a wonderful moderator who initially brought and kept a small group of interested people together. The topic, as well as all those involved over time, are a testament to its enduring nature. ____________________
16 July 2022
From: Barrett Tillman
Arizona
(author,
Enterprise, et al)
Anniversary comment:
The BOM Roundtable was among my early indicators that the Internet had serious historical use rather than occasional reference. Previously, so much of what I/we saw was the proverbial mile wide and a foot deep.
My BOM email file starts slowly with a few entries up to ‘06, then accelerates. In that period the potential became more obvious, as first-hand accounts and incisive analysis combined into what I called The Midway Big Rock Candy Mountain. The detailed assessments of The Flight to Nowhere were just one example of the many-many investigations and revelations. It's not hyperbole to say that the Roundtable represents the growing potential of online history that astonishes those of us who grew up corresponding by mail and the occasional phone call.
Heartfelt thanks and admiration to all who have made the Roundtable possible.
Barrett sends
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28 July 2022
From: Chris Bucholtz
California
When I was in sixth grade, the teacher assigned us to write a five-page report on an historical event. I wrote about the Battle of Midway, but my report was 40 pages long, and my parents were summoned because, of course, no sixth-grader could write a detailed 40-page report on the Battle of Midway.
But I had! I am sure I was the only student at Rachel Carson Elementary to have read Mitsuo Fuchida's account of the battle, and
Incredible Victory by Walter Lord, and a bunch of other books not written for sixth graders. I was already a keen scale modeler and I could tell a TBD from a TBF and an A6M2 from an B5N1, and when we did an airplane unit in my class I was in my element. But writing 40 pages on one topic? Please! (My parents put poor Mr. Holmes in his place.)
Thanks to the Roundtable, several things came full circle. I got to know several of the people who fought in the battle, and wrote about three of them - Tom Cheek, Clayton Fisher and Lloyd Childers - for magazines and on-line publications, and, of course, built some models (I still have to build Lloyd's TBD, but Tom's F4F-4 was present at his memorial). I corresponded with others, including Doug Davis and Ralph “Kaiser” Wilhelm, so my to-build list is well stocked with projects. James Muri's B-26-MA is patiently sitting on my desk awaiting installation of its tail gun windows as I type.
As a result of what I learned and who I met here, I was asked to head up the model display on the USS
Hornet [CV-12 museum ship] commemorating the battle - 12 modelers built 16 planes in three months, which is impressive considering how slow many of us build. The display was taken down to renovate the ready room some years ago, but you can see it on my blog:
[click here]
.
The Roundtable also introduced me to other writers with a passion for the subject. Getting to know them has been a real thrill. I've only written five books and I still consider myself an amateur compared to some of you.
We are in a truly unique position, those of us who have been part of the Roundtable for a while. We've had a chance to meet the men who lived the event we're trying to learn about - what a privilege! Thanks go to the people who have run the Roundtable for giving us that honor.
—Chris Bucholtz
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Chris is one of many scale modelers on the Roundtable whom we have mutually helped to better understand BOM aircraft on both sides. The meticulous attention to detail of the modelers’ work is amazing. Here are Chris’ versions of Tom Cheek’s F4F and Clay Fisher’s SBD:
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4 October 2022
From: Michael Allen
Virginia
I stumbled upon the BOM Roundtable in 2007 when I started reading more books about the Battle of Midway and was interested to learn more. Finding the BOM Roundtable for me was like hitting the PowerBall for all things BOM. I especially look forward to each new newsletter to see the questions and answers, book reviews, movie reviews and hear perspectives from the leading authors. The Roundtable for me is my not-so-guilty pleasure.
Because of the Roundtable I was fortunate to purchase a copy of the Weisheit book which helped me better understand the heading the HAG took on that fateful day. The firsthand accounts and experts with their rich details provided a look at the battle from new perspectives.
In 2012 I had the honor of hosting a panel discussion on the Battle of Midway for the American Veterans Center Conference in Washington DC. The panel included Ed Fox, USMC (ret), John “Jack Crawford USN (ret), Hank Kudzik USN (ret) and hearing their recollections and experiences from the battle. This was clearly a tremendous personal highlight for me and would not have been possible if I had not found the BOM Roundtable and learned so much. Here is a
Link
to the CSPAN video of the panel discussion.
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3 October 2022
From: Terry Gower
Virginia
Thom and Ron, I want to thank you for providing all this wonderful information over many years. I am a retired USAF aviator and WWII buff, mostly interested in the Pacific war, having served in the Vietnam war in 1973. I have thankfully been privileged to be included in the newsletter mailings since early 2010s. I especially like the firsthand accounts and analysis of the events by survivors of the BOM and others who could shed interesting points of views. This type of forum brings the BOM and related events to life. I am also amazed and appreciative of the many and various related topics that continue to be presented and keep this forum alive.
Thanks for your service.
Terry Gower, LtCol, USAF-Ret
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31 July 2022
From: Andres Visser
Republic of South Africa
This is to wish you and the Round Table everything of the best for the future; may it still be going strong for the next 25 years!
Although not a U.S. citizen, my interest in the war against Japan goes back to when I was still a child and reading about the war in the World Book Encyclopedia. My long-standing interest in the history of naval aviation just strengthened my enthusiasm to learn about the carrier war in the Pacific.
You have been doing an outstanding job of maintaining this fascinating web site and have, I think, materially added to the fund of knowledge of the battle. Especially important was that you involved Midway vets while some were still around.
Kind regards,
Andries Visser
Pretoria
South Africa
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16 August 2022
From: Scott Kair
Illinois
Having subscribed to and participated in the Roundtable for the majority of its lifetime, it proved impossible to condense what it means to me.
Like Thom, my curiosity about the battle was awakened in grade school, listening to my dad and his buddies re-live their days at sea during the war. At the time, the only account available was Morison's. We have learned much more about it, from Lord to Prange and on to Parshall & Tully and Symonds. I doubt that I'd have known about the latter two works were it not for the Roundtable.
The greatest lessons from BOMRT, though, were about the historiography, a term with which I was unfamiliar prior to joining. It's the evolution of how we come to understand past events, and I suspect that what we have learned through the Roundtable would make a standard textbook on that subject.
Of course, such a historiography text would not be complete without the classic and indispensable epigram of Ron Russell's—we revise our understanding of past events only when the evidence merits doing so.
Here's to the next decades of the Roundtable.
Scott Kair
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1 August 2022
From: Warren Heller
North Carolina
Dear Thom and Ron, In response to your request for feedback about the Roundtable, I offer the following personal view, along with my thanks to both of you for all of your work keeping it going. My dad, a pharmacist’s mate on the
Yorktown during the Coral Sea battle and BOM, fortunately survived. But he refused to tell any of his stories until he was well into his eighties. While my mother kept a scrapbook festooned with Pacific-related war news, articles and headlines such as “JAPS CLAIM TO HAVE SUNK YORKTOWN,” and many of my uncles’ and friends’ dads had great tales to tell of their wartime experiences, my father’s only comment for years was “that is a time I want to forget.”
So, I paid little attention to that aspect of history until the late 1990s when my dad, now deceased, started to open up, both with stories and taking the initiative to join the
Yorktown commemorative group, a club of CV-5 veterans and families. His activity rekindled my interest and I followed him to the annual club meetings and have attended most of them since year 2000.
At those events I became aware of, and have since read, many of the authoritative books on BOM—
No Right to Win, Shattered Sword, Miracle at Midway, etc. I also learned of the Midway Roundtable and have followed it closely. The ongoing discussions and presentations, as well as the site’s archives, are really useful in encouraging me to think through more of the details that I learned superficially from the books, as well as to develop insights that come from reflective thought that gets bypassed during the excitement of an interesting read. So, the Roundtable has contributed significantly to me and my family’s quality of life as we celebrate my dad‘s memory and that of all of the WWII veterans who served our country so admirably. It also has allowed me to understand and appreciate one of the most interesting and pivotal military events in our nation’s history.
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16 July 2022
From: Martin Bunch
California
Growing up in San Diego one of my best friends was the grandson of Roy Gee, an SBD
Hornet pilot, and he would always tell me stories from the battle and I was taking flying lessons at the time and saw him frequently.
I became fascinated with the battle and how so many things happened at the right time in the right place for the U.S. to win a big victory and a turning point for the U.S. I still stay in touch with Roy’s grandson and daughter Ann Nunes.
I also became very interested in the sinking of the
Hammann and how so many things went wrong in the protection of the
Hammann and
Yorktown from the I-168. I built a 1/96 scale replica of the
Hammann and made it radio controlled. I started a
Hammann Facebook site and have some family members of the
Hammann who share stories. I did have the pleasure to interview Joseph Sannes prior to his death and wrote down his story of getting picked for the
Hammann when the U.S. went in to WWII and his memories of the sinking.
Thanks to the Roundtable I have been able to hear many accounts from other members and appreciate this group for honoring the heroes of the Battle of Midway.
Martin Bunch
San Diego, CA
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USS Hammann, DD-412. Life Magazine photo, 1941
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16 July 2022
From: Bill Aicklen
Georgia
Thank you for this opportunity to share what the BOMRT has meant to me. I developed my initial interest at around age 13 when I had the incredible opportunity of being a next door neighbor to a naval aviator who flew a Dauntless at Coral Sea off the Yorktown and was shot down and rescued by a destroyer. His name was John H. (“Jorgy”) Jorgenson (Navy Cross, Purple Heart) and one night he regaled me with the story of his combat at Coral Sea. I never forgot that, and over time I somehow assumed he was at Midway as well.
I played the Avalon Hill Midway board game with my brother and in my 30s returned to my current hobby of model building with a special interest in naval aviation, i.e. SBDs, TBDs, F4Fs, etc. I had also developed an interest in history with a special interest in the war in the Pacific.
I don’t remember how I found the BOMRT or when I joined but it has been important to me ever since. To expand my knowledge of the battle; to learn more from the actual veterans; to learn more how to build accurate models of the aircraft involved – these are why the BOMRT has meant so much to me. Starting with Lt. Jorgenson I feel I’ve been blessed to touch a part of history so important to our country.
My only question is whether “Jorgy” fought at Midway. I haven’t found him mentioned until recently in one of the recent articles. He was wounded at Coral Sea, so I assumed he was recuperating at Pearl and missed Midway. Is there a way to check the squadron crew lists?
Regards,
Bill Aicklen
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Shot down and wounded in the Coral Sea battle, Jorgenson most likely was under medical care when CV-5 and its squadrons dashed off to Midway just a few weeks later. Also, since he was with VS-5 (the actual one, not the renamed VB-5), that also suggests he didn't go to Midway since VS-5 didn't either. —RR
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20 July 2022
From: Brock Howe
Texas
Silver anniversary message, what the Roundtable has meant to me:
I was introduced to the group several years ago as I was trying to get more information about the SBD, as I had just been honored to be named the SBD Plane Captain at the Lone Star Flight Museum. I knew some top level things about the SBD and BOM but boy, did I quickly realize there was a lot more to learn! I appreciate everyone on the forum for helping me along the way and answering numerous questions.
One of the most memorable things about the Roundtable is somebody introducing me to [Roundtable member] Tom Doll. He was fabulous at answering my questions and sending me pictures and comments about the battle and the SBD. We quickly became like pen pals and would correspond usually monthly for a couple years until his passing. And one of the most unique things about Tom was he had worked on our SBD (yes, same tail number) in the 1960s when it was with Tallmantz Aviation. What a crazy small world it can be sometimes. In honor of Tom and his friendship and devotion to keeping the history alive, I did my best to recreate a picture he sent me when he was working on our SBD. That's Tom in the lower right hand corner and me in the cockpit of the same plane some 50 years later.
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Two views of the Lone Star Flight Museum’s SBD, with its current plane captain Brock Howe at the top. The insert shows the plane’s original 1965 restoration led by Tom Doll.
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8 August 2022
From: Al DeLachica
South Carolina
Greetings!
I wanted to send in my thoughts about the BOM Roundtable and what it means to me. My journey into this battle began way back in the early 1990s when I bought
A Glorious Page in our History. I was fascinated about the battle and the knife-edge circumstances in which the battle was fought and won.
However, there are two things that I really appreciate about the Roundtable since I joined around 15 years ago. Those two things are:
1. Access to veterans who were actually there. There will never be a substitute for this!
2. Access to authors and historians who continue the story every day by their own research and publications.
One of my favorite things is finding out about new books on the battle that allow me to expand my knowledge of this all-important event in world history. This is no small thing.
So, thank you to all members of the Roundtable who continue the story of one of the greatest battles ever fought! I look forward to more in the future.
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31 July 2022
From: Michael Maule
California
Thom and Ron,
I’ve only been a member of the Roundtable since November 2007, but in that time I’ve come to the realization and conclusion that the Roundtable is a valuable and unique forum for the exchange of ideas, information, facts and opinions. I use those categories because facts are facts that do not change, opinions are beliefs that are subject to revision, information may or may not be true, and ideas are beliefs that can be confirmed or denied…and all of these will eventually lead to the overarching bottom line…the truth.
I applaud you and all the subscribers, contributors, and members of the Roundtable as seekers of the truth. We may never know all of the facts concerning the Battle of Midway…but the pursuit of the truth is a noble undertaking.
Thank you all for your interest and continuing pursuit of the truth of the Battle of Midway.
Very respectfully,
Michael Maule
STGC (AW/NAC) USN (Ret.)
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31 July 2022
From: Sam Silberstein
Florida
Dear Thom and Ron,
Happy Anniversary, guys!...What a milestone!
When you write, “here were the actual men who were in the battle, giving their own personal experiences…it just doesn't get any better than that.” —those are my thoughts exactly! We are so lucky to have this amazing resource including writers, historians and veterans!
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8 September 2022
From: Tom Rychlik
Virginia
I found the Roundtable in the early 2010s. Since then, I keenly waited every month for each issue. Midway has been a passion of mine since 1968 when I first read
Incredible Victory. Recently the Roundtable supported my research and I greatly appreciated Ron and Thom’s efforts to educate folks on this most pivotal battle.
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And finally, some thoughts from the guys on the bridge….
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14 October 2022
From: Ron Russell
California
I originally got my Midway focus as a teenager in the 1950s, without realizing it at the time. My primary mentor in radio electronics back then was BMC Allen BeMent, USN-Ret, who’d become a radio hobbyist after the war. He was also a CV-5 vet, and would occasionally throw in a tale from his Navy days during our technical sessions, including a lot about the BOM. His influence gave me an early awareness of the “incredible victory” at Midway, plus he was largely responsible for steering me toward my own USN career.
My path to succeeding Bill Price as host of the Roundtable has already been well covered, so suffice to say here that doing so unexpectedly led me to some of my life’s most profoundly rewarding experiences. Chief among them were the close friendships I developed with several of the battle’s veterans, whom I hesitate to name for fear of omitting someone. If you’ve read
No Right to Win as well as a couple decades of Roundtable posts, then you know who they are.
Possibly the crowning moment for it all is represented by this photo from the 2004 BOM anniversary in San Francisco, with VT-3 gunner Lloyd Childers to my left and VMSB-241 mechanic Walt Grist next to him.
For anyone with a strong focus on the BOM, there can hardly be a finer experience than to share good times in person with the guys who made the history that attracts so much of your interest and admiration.
On the occasion of the Roundtable’s silver anniversary, then, I can only say
thank you to all those Midway veterans, past and present, who honored me with their friendship over the years, and to the many hundreds of others around the world who contributed to the Roundtable’s success and therefore to my own.
—Ron Russell
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31 October 2022
From: Thom Walla
Nebraska
My interest in the Battle of Midway started one day at my grandmothers house when a TV show came on about the Battle of Midway. Prior to that I had listened to my father and a couple of his shipmates tell stories about their time in the Pacific.
Since I grew up on a farm and went to a small one room country school house there was not much in the way of finding any more information on history. But a couple times a year my mother would take my brother and me to the library in town. There I found a number of books including a few very early histories of the Battle of Midway as well as Morrison's 15 volumes.
Some time later I found a copy of the Avalon Hill Midway game. My brother and I played it constantly. And from there found more books on Midway and have studied it every since.
I discovered the Midway RoundTable sometime in the very early 2000's. And it was very humbling to say the least. Here were men that I had only read about in books discussing topics on the battle and sharing their views on what really happened. I don't remember how often a new email would apear in my inbox but every one was read and then read again.
A decade or so later Ron Russell stepped down and asked if anyone was interested in taking over the RoundTable. I volunteered. He didn't really know much about me but somehow I convinced him to let me take over the duties. Since then I've traded emails with many veterans of the battle that were gracious in answering my many questions.
The RoundTable also took me in a direction I never expected and that was to work on a movie about Midway. I have to say the experience was both rewarding and frustrating. Maybe more about that later. But one very important side benefit of that was saving the full size TBD they built for the movie and getting that to the museum on the USS
Midway. Credit member Russ Matthews for coming up with the idea to ask if we could get it donated.
It has been my honor to continue the tradition of The Battle of Midway Roundtable.
--Thom Walla
Beginning next month, the BOMRT will undergo a change that might be described as “back to the future.” For eight years prior to 2021, Thom Walla was our webmaster and sole editor, continuing the legacy handed down from his two predecessors, Bill Price and Ron Russell.
Then, at the start of 2021 the Roundtable was hit by a double-whammy: First, our Internet provider made a policy change that forced Thom to seek a replacement; no small task for a website with our depth. Then, the pandemic got into high gear at the same time, bringing Thom a fresh set of challenges—none of which he needed as the CEO of an expansive multi-state business.
The result was that the Roundtable unavoidably came to a full stop while Thom worked to find a replacement web host and simultaneously struggle with the challenges of running his company during the worst of times. Finally, the new web host was secured, and the Roundtable got a fresh restart in June 2021 with help from Ron Russell, who came out of retirement to assist Thom with member correspondence and writing most of the newsletter articles.
That has continued for the past 17 months, but now comes the “back to the future” part—beginning in November, with Thom’s business concerns largely restored to normal and the Internet host no longer a problem, all content in our newsletters and on the website will once again come from Thom, while Ron returns to the retired ranks.
That may drive a slight change in the look of our newsletters but it should be familiar from the pre-2021 period. In any case, we’ll simply be moving on with keen anticipation toward another year (or possibly 25) of your comments, inquiries, and contributions regarding all things Battle of Midway.