Battle of Midway remembered

[HeyJoe]

You don't have to be a historian to realize the significance of the epic Battle of Midway. Those of you in and around the DC area may want to attend one of theses events commemorating the 65th anniversary of clash of the carriers sponsored by the DC Chapter of the Tailhook Association and many other associations.

· Sunday, 3 June 2007 Battle of Midway Commemoration Dinner, Army Navy Country Club. Guest speaker for this Black Tie event is Dr Thomas Wildenberg, noted historian, author and lecturer. Sign-up at midwaycommemoration.org or simply check out the website.

· Monday, 4 June 2007 Official Navy Ceremony commemorating 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania Avenue. Ceremony begins at 1100. Vice Admiral Mark "Lobster" Fitzgerald will be guest speaker.

 

[A4sForever]

Or ... if you are in the Territory ... consider this:

PACIFC AVIATION MUSEUM PEARL HARBOR

"[FONT=&quot]To commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, the Military Historical Tour Company has planned a 7-day "Turning Point in the Pacific", 65th Anniversary Return to Honolulu and Midway Island tour. A special one-time offer of $100 off the regular price is being offered to Pacific Aviation Museum members.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]If you would like to be part of this once a year tour, you can view the details at http://miltours.com/ and click on the "May 30--June 6, 2007, 65th Commemoration of the Battle of Midway," link. Let the museum know you are booking the tour to receive your $100 discount." [/FONT]

 

[FastMover]

The Course to Midway

http://www.navy.mil/midway/ncb.html

Everyone should check this site out...great stuff here. It has some fascinating insight from the people who actually had a hand in the events that took place at Midway.

Be sure to watch the video with Adm. Showers on breaking the JN-25 code as well as the videos about VT-8.

 

[Schnugg]

I'll be attending the Navy's Memorial service on the USS Midway in San Diego on June 2nd.
Surviving members of the battle will be in attendance.

 

[Mumbles]

...thinkin about going to the Navy memorial on Monday..
(BTW....Rolling Thunder '07 was unbelievable!!)

 

[A4sForever]

 

[A4sForever]

 

[A4sForever]

 

[Mumbles]

I'll bet there is some great fishing down there A4s...

 

[Pugs]

I'll bet there is some great fishing down there A4s...

http://www.fishdive.com/fish/Records/records.html

Seventeen current world records and several applications. I think great is an understatement! The brave guys that defended it and flew TBF's, TBD, F4F's and F2A's from it years ago would have appreciated it!

 

[FlyinSpy]

If you're interested in the battle and your only knowledge is derived from watching Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, and Glenn Ford in the bitchin "in Sensurround" movie Midway (which I saw in the theater in 1976...), I highly recommend the book "Shattered Sword". Get it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1574889230/bookstorenow600-20, or review the book's website at http://www.shatteredswordbook.com/index.htm.

I read it at the beach last summer, and is a great example of a well researched effort using primary sources, especially Japanese, to lay out the complete story. It's a bit thick (600+ pages), but reads quickly. Unlike most books, it focuses heavily on the Japanese decisions and actions.

 

[A4sForever]

I'll bet there is some great fishing down there A4s...

[slight threadjack]
Great fishing, indeed. But look at the link Pugs provided re: the Midway Island fishing records --- the last one was recorded @ 6 years ago. The trick, nowdays, and ever since the Navy left ... is getting permission TO fish the lagoon.

Of course, the U.S. Navy "owned" Midway before and after June 1942 until about 1996-1997. That was when, by Presidential executive order that the jurisdiction was transferred to Fish & Wildlife (F&W) in the Dept of the Interior. Good deal, you say? Not hardly, as it was then determined that the field could NO LONGER BE USED FOR EMERGENCY BINGOS AS THE "MONEY" TO RUN IT WAS NO LONGER AVAILABLE". This was OUTRAGEOUS !!!

Gooney Birds and other migrating birds are possibly the greatest problem with using Midway today --- that is, Gooney Birds and the F&W bureaucrats who believe that the "protection", care and feeding of these "Laysan albatross" (Gooney's) is more important than maintaining an emergency divert field for humans strapped into airplanes. Oh, yes ... the PC bureaucrats don't like to call them Gooney Birds -- denigrates the birds or something like that ....

Wake is usually too far south of the track system to be a viable bingo, and as Johnston "glowed" too much in the dark it is now CLOSED ... permanently .... but it was too far south of the Pacific tracks in any case.

Midway was and is the name of the game, from 1942 to the present ...

The Dept of Interior has laid many onerous rules & regulations on any visitation to the Midway area (typical) that you cannot even sail the chain from Honolulu without "special permission" and a transponder on your boat -- to make sure you do not commit the unspeakable "crime" of stopping at any islands along the route.

I was one of our "technical experts" )) at the airline during the bureaucratic labyrinth-like process of getting Midway back "on-line" as an emergency divert bingo field after it was closed. It is still back "on" and "off", the excuse most always being money. But in reality, it is primarily due to a hard environmental agenda within F&W as well as their budgetary $$$$ and power -- just my opinion. The two-engine big-birds would have a real problem being "legal" without having Midway back on the trans-Pacific routes, so that figured heavily into the mix when the bean-counters became "enlightened" as to the Pacific over water requirements of aircraft and route certification.
[/slight threadjack]

 

[Mumbles]

By presidential order...Grand Escalante staircase in Utah also was tied up by DIT.... and Roger Clinton's drug dealer was pardoned as well.....

I digress....besides the usual pelagic species around the lagoon, ( tuna, mackeral, dorado, marlin etc..) what else would one hope to put on the stringer??

 

[A4sForever]

....I digress....besides the usual pelagic species around the lagoon, ( tuna, mackeral, dorado, marlin etc..) what else would one hope to put on the stringer??

Females.

Land sharks abounded on Midway. Two-legged Navy variety. Preying on any and all available and susceptible members of the female species ....

Every time we went by Midway on the route to Tokyo ... we'd check in with the Navy Tower and would chit-chat with them and then always came the obligatory inquiry prior to our passing out of radio range:

"How many women do you have aboard??? 200?? REALLY ..... Is there anything ... anything at all ... anything ... at .... all .... wrong with your airplane"???

"... If so ... the runway's open and it's YOURS".

 

[HercDriver]

...what else would one hope to put on the stringer??

And regular sharks, too. On the cutter I was on during the early '90s we would stop and service the aids to navigation around Midway each year (and Kwaj, Johnston Atoll, Pohnpei, Tarawa, etc). The BM1 would always take out some folks to fish for sharks (and mahi)...caught some huge ones. I was part of the ship's dive team; everytime we would dive on a buoy sinker to disconnect it we would attract quite a few sharks with our banging on the pin on the shackle.

And the gooney birds were amazing...they would not scatter if you walked up to them...you could pick one up if you desired. They were not the best fliers and many would get sea-sick in the waves and die, where they would float around and be eaten by the fish. Always made for an interesting surfacing from a dive, as you would not like a face full of dead bird.

Quite a few C-130s have ingested them into their engines as well.