Acknowledgements
This site, while bearing my name, would not have been possible without the hard work and willingness of other to share all that they know, and without the support of friends and loved ones. It is through this web site that I have come to know many that I now call friends, and it is their hard work that shows itself time and time again through out.
When this project began, it was with the simple goal of having a presence on the Internet for what I feel is the greatest single battle in the history of warfare. Because of the hard work of many people, I have been able to revise the goals I have set for this project. I can say that I hope to someday have the finest web site on the finest battle in history.
My first contributor to this site was CDR Arthur T. Burke, Ret. Then an ENS, Art was supposed to graduate from the US Naval Academy in June of 1942, but instead found himself on the deck of USS
Enterprise at the battle of Midway, having been graduated early and sent to the Pacific. Art's son, Craig, found my web site and was kind enough to contribute a letter and an interview about V-mail. Suddenly my site went from a dry historical recount to one with life.
As time moved on, I made contact with William Price. Bill, along with Howard Ady, Jr., the PBY pilot who found
Kido Butai on 4 June 1942, founded the E-mail Circular that is found on this site. It is through this wonderful repository that I have come to meet the majority of the contributors to this site. Bill takes all of the e-mail messages that he receives and, often with insightful comments, forwards them to everyone in the group. If you enjoy this site, please say a thanks to Bill. His hard work and enthusiasm have made everything happen.
Thanks to Bill, I have met some wonderful people more than willing to share their expertise with me. These men have all at one time or another taken time out from their busy lives to send to me invaluable information.
Mark Horan e-mailed me one day and brought to my attention the most outstanding book written on Midway, which Mark co-authored:
A Glorious Page in Our History: The Battle of Midway 4-6 June 1942. In addition, without knowing much about me, he made me an offer that is still stunning to this day. My simple query on who the US carrier squadron commanders were lead to Mark's most generous reply:
If you want to put all the roster and strike info I have on your web site, I'll provide it as long as you identify where you got it. I also have photos of 85-95% of the aircrew.
To offer the results of over ten years of incredibly detailed, difficult and complete research was surprise. Little did I know it would become common place.
More researchers followed. Barrett Tillman, another of the authors of
A Glorious Page in Our History: The Battle of Midway 4-6 June 1942. Barrett had not only provided me with outstanding research, but encouragement and entertainment. Barrett has in many ways, along with Mark, Bill Price, and John Lundstrom, become a mentor to me.
John Lundstrom, widely acknowledged as the "fighter guru" of the early Pacific War, works in nearby Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to reading his outstanding
The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway and his numerous and generous e-mails, I have had the pleasure of spending a few hours with John. To be able to hear stories (some not published), see rare research tools, Japanese works, and just hearing his wonderful insight and grasp of what happened at Midway was a treat!
Two other people have made excellent contributions in a way I never expected when this project began. John Greaves is the "official" artist of this page. An excellent aviation artist, John has made beautiful contributions by creating un-photographed scenes of Midway in color. Even though a new father, this Vancouver resident has continued to provide the excellent works you see. Thank you John!
The second "unexpected" contributor is Ken Durling. An excellent model aircraft builder, Ken initially contributed the fine example of LCDR McClusky's SBD-3. With more Midway models in the work, Ken, like John, is making a valuable visual contribution to this site. In addition to the works you see here, both have been invaluable in the discussion of plane markings and camouflage, areas of the battle that I find particularly intriguing.
Bill Vickrey has written an excellent article for my site, and is a great resource having done extensive interviews with hundreds of participants over the years. Bill also has helped get my in touch with a few veterans of the battle, and has therefore helped provide me with some big thrills.
Wayne McMullan has done some remarkable work in getting pilot and aircrew biographies, as well as providing ship names for the Order of Battle. In addition, his insightful questions and answers have make an excellent contribution to our e-mail discussion group.
Rich Leonard, son of RADM William Leonard, Ret, the Executive Officer of Fighting 3 at Midway, has provided me with some excellent information about the squadron, including some charts. Rich was one of the first people to contact me after I put my page on the Net, and he has been an excellent contributor to my page and our discussions.
Fred Branyan has been a wonderful contributor. His father was on one of the five inch gun crews on
Hornet. Fred has provided me with some excellent video, people to contact, information and data. While at the present time I have not added any of Fred's contributions to this site, it is only a matter of time before I do so!
Owen Miller, a member of Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, has been an invaluable liaison between me and a few Midway veterans that I have contacted. It is because of Owen and Bill Vickrey that I was able to get in touch with Dick Best and Bud Kroeger, both of Bombing 6. In addition, he has kept me abreast of the latest news out of Pensacola.
I would be remised if I did not thank my family for their support. My parents, Tom and Linda, always fostered my love of history, and because of that, I am able to bring you this page. My brother, Luke, while not having a deep love of history, does appreciate it. In addition, the logo that you see at the beginning of this page was designed and created by Luke. While my brother no longer has access to a computer, I am hopeful that other projects he has started will make their way onto this site.
And, finally, I need to thank the most important person in my life. When most people discover my hobby, unless they are fellow enthusiasts or historians, the response is nearly always a polite "That's nice..." However, I have been fortunate enough to fall in love with a woman who, while not an enthusiast, has been more supportive of me than anyone I have ever know. It is often her words that get me going- it is her desire to learn about this hobby that I so dearly love- and her pride in the work so far completed, that makes me tick. For that, I thank you Heather.
Why Midway?
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the Pacific Campaign of the Second World War. I had other interests while growing up, and still do in adulthood, but I would have to label my studying of the conflict between Japan and the United States as my favorite. I am not totally sure, but I think my interest stemmed from watching "The Battle of Midway," with my father when I was young. If I was not already, I was hooked when I finished reading Gordon Prange's
Miracle at Midway.
Other hobbies and interests have come and gone, but this has stuck with me through the years. Therefore, when I went on-line in 1996 and found a lack of information on my favorite past time, I felt compelled to fill the void. While I know that others have far more knowledge and insight on the Battle of Midway, my objective has been from day one to publish the most accurate and complete web site possible. With the help of several people, I am slowly beginning to accomplish this admittedly lofty goal.
Accuracy, Sources, and Other Such Subjects
Accuracy
First and foremost, I hope to create an historically accurate site. Inaccuracies or mistakes, however, will inevitably creep into these pages. Therefore, I need your help. If you see any historical inaccuracies on this page, please let me know. This page will be of no value to anyone if it is not accurate.
Sources
With the battle now fifty-five years old and many of the players no longer with us, it is very difficult to paint a truly original picture of Midway. Therefore I must rely heavily on previously written work. Those who read any part of this web site will quickly come to the realization that I have been greatly influenced by Gordon Prange's Miracle at Midway, Robert Cressman's, Steve Ewing's, Barrett Tillman's, Mark Horan's, Clark Reynolds' and Stan Cohen's A Glorious Page in Our History: The Battle of Midway 4-6 June 1942 and John Lundstom's The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway.
While I have read other accounts of this historic battle, I have yet to come across as complete or well written a source as Prange's in its discussion of the pre-battle planning and post-battle analysis.
For those who wish to get the most accurate and detailed account of the actual battle, I recommend you read A Glorious Page in Our History. This includes in splendid detail the fate of every carrier pilot that flew for the US Navy during the battle.
The First Team, while not about Midway, is the best book on fighter combat that I have written. The descriptions of the Fighting 3's escort of Torpedo 3 is the one of the best written works I have ever seen.
That being said, these are the three primary sources of my knowledge on Midway; and it will show. I have tried to limit this so as not to simply re-write their works, but they will dominate this page from a source standpoint.
Another large contributor to my page is Mark E. Horan, who co-authored A Glorious Page in Our History on the Battle of Midway, as well as several articles. Mark was a featured speaker at the 50th Anniversary Battle of Midway Symposium in 1992. Most of the pilot, plane, air group and strike information has been provided by Mark. He has become an invaluable resource on which I lean on heavily when questions arise regarding the air battle. I believe Mark's thorough research has lead him to become the most comprehensive information repository on the air battles at Midway.
In addition, over the many years I have studied this battle, I have absorbed many facts and stories from various works. It is my sincere hope to list all of the sources used to create this page as completely as possible in my bibliography, not only to give credit where credit is due, but to allow you, the reader, have access to the same material I have used. However, due to my limited ability to remember where all of my knowledge originated, it is possible that some sources may be omitted. If you find any such examples, please let me know as soon as possible. It is very important that all those who deserve credit receive it.
I am always looking for new bastions of information to increase my knowledge base. If you have any suggested reading, I would like to hear about them, including where I can get a copy. I have heard on many great books, but I have no idea where to buy them.
Reader Contributions
In addition to relating the historical works already published, another goal of mine was to create a page to which you, the reader, could make a contribution (SEE Reader Contributions). No great work has every been finished with out a great team. Besides that, I am very much interested in the stories of John Q. Sailor. The stories and perspectives of those lesser know individuals that participated in this and other battles in the Pacific war can not be over told. One of my favorite books is Walter Lords Day of Infamy, not only because it was one of the first complete accounts of Pearl Harbor that I read, but it told a very human story. History so often overlooks all but the "most important" participants, but without the average infantry man or pilot, there would be no event.
If you, or someone you know, was at Midway, I would very much like to hear from you!! While I would love to hear your story, I do understand that you might have a million reasons to not tell me. However, I would at least like the opportunity to express my thanks for all that you have done for me. And while I am an American, and glad that we one the Battle, I do not wish to in any way exclude Japanese participation from this site. I would love to hear your stories, too! And, to all those who simply stopped by to see what this is all about, enjoy!
E-mail
While, at this time, this page is very much under construction, I have been stunned and surprised at the amount of requests for information I have received from people all over the world. I never would have guessed that so many people would share this interest. Therefore, I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to write. Each letter means a lot to me, and many times they serve as my inspiration to get back to work. That being said, at the time of the writing of this introduction, I am going to school full time and working six hours a day. Not only does that severely limit the amount of free time I have to complete this page, but it also limits the amount of time I can spend answering the e-mail it generates. I will, to the best of my human abilities, answer any question that you might have on the Battle of Midway. If I don't know the answer, or you specifically request I do so, I
will post your question on my More Information Page.
A Note to Students...
You are living in a great time. The Internet is a source of information that I could have only dreamed of when I was a high school student. Now that I am in college, it is that dream come true. So take advantage of this tool. In addition to my site, there are many others that will act as an excellent source of information for any papers you are writing. However, I am disappointed that I have been asked on more than one occasion to write papers for others. I simply do not have time, nor do I feel that I should, morally, answer request's that I get to write reports or term papers from students. While I would be more than happy to give you my thoughts and answer your specific questions as they may relate to your paper, I simply will not write it for you. I regret that my page is not sufficiently complete (at the time this page was written) to act as a good source of information, but others (sources) do exist, and they should be used.