This is a book about the 1942 Battle of Midway, the turning point of the Pacific war against Japan. It was seeded at a 1989 reunion of the author's WW II dive bombing squadron. It begins with an idle curiosity and ends with an appeal. It is a story that has fascinated me as it evolved from necessary wartime secrecy to unnecessary secrecy today... 74 years later. It is the story of a scandal without evil that brings profit to no one. It is a story of misguided men traveling a path paved with good intentions. It is a book that challenges official history, naval institutions and historians. It is an appeal for a posthumous Medal of Honor for an underappreciated hero of the Battle of Midway, Lt. Cmdr. Wade McClusky, who led the dive bombers in a fiery charge that resulted in the sinking of all four Japanese aircraft carriers. The decision of this 40-year-old Annapolis trained pilot to risk his entire squadron of dive bombers by taking them beyond the 'point of no return' saved the day for our Navy, as well as the British at Suez, the Russians at Stalingrad, the State of Israel and China. It is an important book historically by a decorated 94-year-old dive bomber combat veteran whose only purpose is to bring out the truth and preserve the reputations of other important officers who have been maligned by 21st century creative historians who have published fiction as fact.
This is a book about the 1942 Battle of Midway, the turning point of the Pacific war against Japan. It was seeded at a 1989 reunion of the author's WW II dive bombing squadron. It begins with an idle curiosity and ends with an appeal. It is a story that has fascinated me as it evolved from necessary wartime secrecy to unnecessary secrecy today... 74 years later. It is the story of a scandal without evil that brings profit to no one. It is a story of misguided men traveling a path paved with good intentions. It is a book that challenges official history, naval institutions and historians. It is an appeal for a posthumous Medal of Honor for an underappreciated hero of the Battle of Midway, Lt. Cmdr. Wade McClusky, who led the dive bombers in a fiery charge that resulted in the sinking of all four Japanese aircraft carriers. The decision of this 40-year-old Annapolis trained pilot to risk his entire squadron of dive bombers by taking them beyond the 'point of no return' saved the day for our Navy, as well as the British at Suez, the Russians at Stalingrad, the State of Israel and China. It is an important book historically by a decorated 94-year-old dive bomber combat veteran whose only purpose is to bring out the truth and preserve the reputations of other important officers who have been maligned by 21st century creative historians who have published fiction as fact.
