Military history and mythology

Tonight, as I was attempting to cue to a particular episode of Pinky and the Brain, I was tuning for something in the background. It was a tossup between snippets of the Iditarod on OLN, or the film Midway on AMC.

When I was 9 years old, one of my childhood friends' had a fairly large VHS tape collection at his disposal. Note that this is 1981, so we're talking old rotary dial, non-varactor, non digital tuned VHS with dew lights and a skew dial and a mechanical counter and the (at the time of its release) advanced feature of LP versus SP so you could squeeze 4 hours on a T-120 (or, in this case, an RCA VK250 tape).

One of the films I used to watch often was Midway. My friend and I used to build ship models and play out ship battles between those ships. He also had a fairly large collection of Time/Life quarto-size World War II history books. As a kid, I had read about Midway, and could speak at length to the events in the battle, as well as key figures on both sides.

The name John Waldron rings few bells for most outside the naval aviation community. But CDR John Waldron took Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) off USS Hornet and drove them to an attack that he realized he probably would not survive. That being said, his commander's intent was clear, mimeographed on paper the night prior. If there was one plane left, he expected that last plane to drive his attack home. Not one pilot in Torpedo 8 cut and run. Accomplishing Waldron's intent, at the cost of the ultimate sacrifice (only one of sixteen men that flew survived the battle), bought enough time and space to enable Bomber Squadron 3, commanded by LCDR Max Leslie, and Bomber Squadron 6, commanded by LCDR Wade McClusky, to destroy three Japanese main fleet carriers.

Tthe hardcore naval history buffs would remember that Leslie pressed home his bombing run with no bombs on the racks. Turns out that Midway was the first time that the SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers in Bombing 3 were outfitted with electrical switches to arm the bombs, rather than flying with armed bombs from launch. A short-circuit in the safety resulted in Leslie (and a number of his pilots as well) inadvertently jettisoning their only ordnance enroute to target. Leslie had nothing more than two .50 caliber machine guns to strafe his targets.

I'm reminded of running into a guy who was an F-14 jock a few years ago. I think this was at Kingston, RI, for an air show there. The Tomcat driver was assigned to a squadron (VF-41) routinely embarked on USS Enterprise, but more significantly, his aircraft had the name "McClusky" painted on the tailplanes of his aircraft. LCDR McClusky had commanded Bombing 6, which during Midway, was embarked on, as you may guess, Enterprise (albeit the one that came before the current one). I asked him the signficance of the McClusky title, and I was not surprised that it was named for RADM Clarence Wade McClusky. The McClusky award goes to the best attack squadron in the fleet. This guy apparently didn't realize the coincidence of the McClusky award going to a squadron embarked on a ship named Enterprise, but maybe I was just being more geekish than usual.

As a career soldier, I think it's important that we nurture our organizational history for our Soldiers (or for that matter, Sailors, Marines, or Airmen). It gives them some perspective on the traditions and names they perpetuate. Having spent a few years in organizations that jealously guarded their heritage and history (e.g., the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and the 82d Airborne Division, among others), it's a shame when those traditions and knowledge don't get passed on to those who ultimately carry the flame.