The Battle of Midway Roundtable Opening Remarks
Welcome to the June issue of the Battle of Midway RoundTable. Little late this month getting the newsletter to you. Middle of summer. Lot going on. But lets get to it.
This month we have one report from the 81st Anniversary of the battle from Brock Howe who always gives a presentation on the date of the battle. We have some replies to the question on fellow pilots who flew with Jack Holder on the morning of the 4th and a letter written to President Franklin Roosevelt from a mother of one of t he pilots of VT-8 plus some other articles.
June always brings a bit of interest in the battle from a number of organizations, museums, acedemic institutions, or military bases. However as this year did not end on an even number we did not get more than a few requests for either interviews or possible veterans who would like to participate. Still there were a number out there. If anyone attended any events write up a few notes and send them my way. We are always glad to hear about any celebration.
I have been busy but not so busy that I didn't have time to add a few more pages to Chris Hawkinson's site I an reconstructing here. Plan on doing a few more as time permits later this month. If you want to check out the new pages here is the link again:
Hawkinson
I'm concentrating on the links on the menu on the sidebard as those seem to have the most information we can use here. Check them out and at some point I'll have the entire site recovered or at least as much as I can.
Until next month.
Another BOM presentation on the 81st anniversary
5 June 2023 From Brock Howe
June 4th I did my annual Battle of Midway presentation at the Lone Star Flight Museum. I like to try to do it on the anniversary if possible. Big thanks again to y’all as I continue to learn and refine my presentations to present a factual portrayal of the battle and the courageous and skillful warriors that participated in the battle. Yesterday went well and we had about 30 people listening and participating. Fortunately, everyone stayed awake and asked good questions.
Also looking for some feedback from y’all. It usually takes me a over an hour to get through my presentation. I was thinking about trying to shorten it a bit to help people stay engaged but I’m struggling to remove parts as there are some many good stories and nuances that its tough to shorten it. When y’all present the story, how long do you usually take? I could probably go even longer as the story is so good. Most of the people don’t appear to be bored and ask good questions and I get good feedback after I present but wanted to see what y’all think.
Regards,
Brock Howe
Jack Holder BOM PBY crewman
15 June 2023 From Jim Sawruk
Barrett sent me this issue and I saw Gerry Child's inquiry about his dad. Years ago, I did a lot of work with VP-23 to identify the MIA crew that was found on Espiritu Santo around 1990.
Gerry Child's pilot was Ens. Theodore "Ted" S. Thueson on 4 June 1942. It turns out the entire crew is listed in the USS MONAGHAN DD354 decklog as they ran out of fuel and were recovered by them on 5 June 1942. The aircraft was recovered later.
As for Joseph "Jack" R. Holder AMM3 he was part of Ltjg. James J. Murphy's crew on 4 June 1942.
Best to all, Jim Sawruk
June 15 2023 From Mark Horan
I am writing this note for Gery Child. Per his request on 16 May 2023 as to men who flew with his father on 4 June 1942. The plane was a PBY-5 Catalina coded 23-P-2 with four officer rated pilots that morning, to wit:
Ens. Theodore Stanley Theuson, USN (PPC) [promoted from ACMM (NAP) 4/30/42] Ens. Gerald F. Child, A-V(N), USNR, O-104108 Ens. Kenneth W. Hoagland, A-V(N), USNR, O-104084 Ens. Howard Dickerson, A-V(N), USNR, O-106178
I have never seen a list of the enlisted personnel that flew in the plane with them.
If he is looking for other information about that period, he is free to write me with what he hopes to get, or even to call me on my cell phone.
Mark E. Horan
20 June 2023 From Bill Vickrey
Please pass my name and email address on to Gerry Child’s son and ask him to contact me…
I made friends with many Midway veterans and none was any closer than the Childs family.
In my business career I traveled extensively to the Pacific Northwest and visited Gerry and his wife several times (stayed at their home and went to church with them)..and may have met the son.
We became pretty good friends. Later we visited at Pensacola.
Bill Vickrey
From Bill Evans' Mother
20 June 2023 From Mike Rogers
I was searching through my Evans archive for some photos (which I did not find….yet) and ran across a letter that Bill’s mother, Lois Hathaway Evans, wrote in June 1943. I thought it might be of interest to the Roundtable
Mr. Franklin Roosevelt
The White House
Washington DC
My Dear Mr. President,
From our evening paper I have just learned that the Navy Cross has been awarded posthumously to our son, Ensign William R. Evans Jr., a pilot from that gallant group Torpedo Squadron 8 lost at Midway just a year ago.
In his behalf and for all the other men who so bravely did their duty that day against such great odds, I wish to express my very sincere thanks for this honor. To take these supreme sacrifices for granted would indeed be cruel. But before this announcement was made I had promised myself to keep faith with his memory today by writing to you – just one more Mother pleading that nothing be allowed to interfere with finishing this cruel war in the shortest time possible so that other lives may not needlessly be sacrificied.
I know little of the inner working of politics and the devious methods of settling labor problems. However I can guess what would have happened on that June morning a year ago when all the Japanese Navy was bearing down on Midway, if our American boys, not raised to be soldiers but loving freedom more than their own lives, had refused to leave their ships and sail out into the blue in that suicide effort against the enemy.
Due possibly to the labor situation at home, those boys had never received the planes ordered when the Hornet was built and went to their great task in planes several years old – a mere bundle of spare parts they jokingly called them.
If the new planes had come in time, would the loss of life been so complete? That is the question Mothers and wives will always ask. Don’t let it happen again. Our sons at the front face the hardship of war. If war we must have; how can we at home do less? Hours and wages seem petty questions beside the vital questions of safety and life itself.
Forgive me for taking your time when so may problems are crashing in on you, but for the sake of my son and all those other sons time was, oh so short. I had to speak. These boys are giving so much for a heritage that they have held precious. We can’t be true to them and allow our freedom at home brought low by class tyrants. May I enclose a poem written by Bill while in training at Jacksonville and returned to us with his effects last summer? It is startling prophetic! A letter written to us Dec. 7th has been entered into the “Congressional Record” by Mr. Louis Ludlow.
Very sincerely,
Lois Evans
I am pretty sure that the poem Lois refers to is titled ‘Consummation’. I have attached my scan of Bill’s typewritten version.
As always, thanks for the great work you do on the Roundtable website. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Mike Rogers
Thank you for the letter and the scan of the poem. By any chance do you have a scan of the letter as well? I don't mind posting the email of the letter but it always adds a lot to the history of the Battle of Midway to see the actual letter.
I'll post this in the next newsletter.
TW
21 June 2023 From Mike Rogers
Thanks for the quick response. I do not have the actual letter as it was sent to FDR. I have a copy of Lois' handwritten version but it is three pages and while Lois' handwriting is generally pretty clear, I think using that would make it harder for folks to read the content. I can certainly send it along if you'd like. Thanks, in advance, for including this in the newsletter.
Mike Rogers
22 June 2023 From Mike Rogers
An addendum. I found Lois' original handwritten letter from one of her journals. I have scanned as a PDF and attached to this email. Feel free to include this in your update.
Thanks
Mike Rogers
The link below is a PDF of the jounal entry of the letter she sent.
Lois Evans to FDR_20230622_0001.pdf
TBD weapons at Midway
28 June 2023 From Frederick Seitz III
Hello Everyone!
I need help with answering a question. I recently bought a 1:32 scale model of the Douglass TBD-1, “Devastator”. The kit is very nice, BUT…it only comes with the single mounted .30 MG for the rear seat gunner.
I was planning on doing a VT-8 bird, but this development puts a stop to that.
Of the other two torpedo squadrons, VT-3 or VT-6, did either of them also convert their TBD’s to the duel mount, or did they fly into battle sporting the single .30? If this is the case, I can still do a Midway bird. Either Lindsay or Massey, or maybe one of the lesser known pilots who gave their lives that morning.
Thank you for your assistance with this project.
Regards
Frederick J Seitz III
IPMS/USA. 35450
VT-3 was only armed with a single .30 MG rear seat gun. Saratoga left VT-3 at Hawaii when she returned to San Diego for repairs after begin torpedoed early in the war. I believe all VT-6 TBD's were armed with twin 30's as Waldron went to Enterprise to get the twin mounts for his squadron.
Ring in Officers Club after Midway
10 July 2023
From Tom Rychlik
I hope everything is well with the Roundtable and with you. I was wondering if either of you recall ever hearing a story about Cdr Ring appearing at the bar at the Officers Club in Honolulu soon after the BOM. I have been through all my Midway books but haven’t found any mention of this incident. I did a search on the website but it didn’t return anything. Basically Ring was treated with disdain by the other pilots. I have been through all my books on Midway and have not found anything to confirm or expound on this tale.
Movie review: Devotion
15 July 2023 From Ron Russell
This is off-topic for the Roundtable, but I know our vintage aircraft fans would be interested. I just saw a movie with terrific flying scenes of a whole lot of Korean War-era F8F Bearcats, F4U Corsairs, AD Skyraiders, and a Mig-15 for good measure; all the real-deal flying warbirds with no CGI. (CGI was employed to make one Corsair, for example, look like many. The producers also CGI'd a lot of 1950-vintage Seventh Fleet ships very nicely.)
The film is Devotion, a 2022 production that tells the mostly true story of two Corsair pilots, downed while supporting Marines around Chosin Reservoir. The script has a lot of backstory about the pilots and their personal lives, which I mostly fast-forwarded to get past (like the soap opera content of Midway 1976), but the flying scenes were amazing. There were also a few dialogue errors (non-1950 terminology) and minor glitches in aircraft marking and equipment, but nothing to make you cringe like we've seen all too often in the past.
I caught ,Devotion, on Showtime cable, but I see it's available from various streaming services and Blu-ray. Highly recommended for just about anyone on the Roundtable, but keep the remote handy.
--Ron Russell
How Wade McClusky Jr. Redirected the Course of History at the Battle of Midway
14 July 2023 From Howard Ady III
Great read. Fellow PBY aviators of the day, including my dad, noted that his skills in that plane were suspect. But the best pilot for sure. In any case the article is otherwise on point.
Howard, I thought of you when I read this article on Wade McCluskey at Midway, I think you'll enjoy it.
Hope all is well.
Mike
Wade McClusky and The Battle of Midway
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