Valor Friday

LCDR “Butch” O’Hare

Today Mason brings us the saga of Edward “Butch” O’Hare, and his amazing valor in the skies of the Pacific during World War II. While he did not survive the conflict, his memory lives on in the name of one of the busiest airports in the United States.

Mason

The story Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit, the massive organized criminal enterprise in Chicago, is an article unto itself. The amazing tale of how Capone was eventually taken down by federal agent Elliot Ness and his “Untouchables” not for his myriad violent crimes but for income tax evasion is still used as an object lesson for cops. If you can’t get your man for what you want to get him for, at least get him for something.

There was one man on the inside of the Chicago Outfit, Edward “E.J.” O’Hare who helped take down Capone. Educated as a lawyer, E.J. eventually began a collaboration with Capone at the height of his power in the late 1920s. Eventually turning on the mob boss, E.J. became an informant for the government. An instrumental figure in decoding the Chicago Outfit’s operations, he directly helped the case that led to Capone’s conviction in 1931. E.J. even was able to alert the federal judge at the start of Capone’s trial that Capone had already compromised the jury, allowing the judge to swap in the alternate, untainted jury.

For his good deeds, E.J. O’Hare was assassinated in 1939 while driving his car from work. No arrests were ever made in the case.

Among E.J.’s pursuits during his life was an interest in aviation. Being from St. Louis, he had even made the acquaintance of Charles Lindbergh, hitching a ride on one of Lindbergh’s mail planes once. This passion was passed down to his oldest child, son Edward “Butch” O’Hare.

Born in 1914 and raised in St Louis, when the elder O’Hare divorced Butch’s mother in 1927, the boy and his siblings remained with their mother while E.J. moved to Chicago. Butch received his primary education at Illinois’ Western Military Academy, graduating in 1932. He graduated a year ahead of a man you’ve likely also heard of, Paul Tibbets, commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan.

Butch secured appointment to the US Naval Academy and graduated in June 1937. The newly commissioned ensign went to the fleet aboard the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) for two years before going to NAS Pensacola for flight training. Completing flight training, Butch landed (pun intended) aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3) and was assigned to VF-3 flying the F2A Buffalo in 1940. The Buffalo was one of the first fleet deployed low-wing monoplane fighters.

The executive officer of VF-3, John Thatch, emphasized aerial gunnery skills for his pilots. He even developed a technique known as the Thatch Weave, tested and refined with Butch’s help, in which flights of fighter aircraft weave in regular intervals with each other. As an enemy focuses on the one plane it becomes vulnerable to the other plane as they weave towards each other. This puts the enemy plane directly in front of a defending wing man’s guns in an advantageous side profile. It was found to be such an effective tactic it was employed in combat as recently as Vietnam and is still taught to fighter pilots. Even when outmatched by more powerful or faster enemy aircraft, the Thatch Weave provides a tactical advantage to the defending aircraft.

Thatch Weave

In the summer of 1941 the squadron was converted to fly the new F4F Wildcat, a vastly more capable fighter. Butch also met his wife, a nurse, while visiting a friend in hospital. He proposed the first day he met her. They married in September 1941 and took their honeymoon in Hawaii, sailing for the islands separately, he aboard Saratoga and she on a commercial liner.

Grumman F4F Wildcat

USS Saratoga was pulling into San Diego Harbor on the morning of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the air wing had been training ashore. Loading her air wing, Saratoga, including Butch, sailed immediately for Pearl Harbor. Arriving eight days after the “day which will live in infamy” she refueled and immediately set out for the beleaguered Wake Island.

Unable to make it to Wake before the island fell to Japanese hands, they headed back to Pearl Harbor. Along the way the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Surviving the encounter, Saratoga was put in for repairs, moving VF-3 to USS Lexington (CV-2).

Saratoga was an amazing ship. She would later participate in the Battle of Guadalcanal Canal, get torpedoed a second time, be repaired, participate in the Solomon Islands Campaign, and then serve as a dedicated night fighter platform for the Battle of Iwo Jima. At Iwo Jima, Saratoga was attacked by six enemy aircraft on 21 February, 1945. The flight of enemy aircraft scored five bomb hits in less than three minutes and in a kamikaze attack, three of the planes crashed into the carrier. Despite all this, “Sister Sara” survived and was again refit. After the war, she participated in Operation Crossroads, the nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. As you might expect, the warship wasn’t even phased by a nuclear attack. She shrugged off an airburst nuclear explosion with minimal damage. The second atomic bomb, detonated underwater and only 400 meters away, finally sank the valiant ship.

Returning to our subject at hand, aboard USS Lexington VF-3 was in the South Pacific, steaming towards New Ireland. On 20 February, 1942 Lexington’s radar picked up a flight of enemy aircraft approaching the ship and her escorts. At 16:25 hours, and 47 miles to the west, the flight of nine Japanese bombers was headed towards Lexington. Lexington launched her fighter aircraft.

At 16:49, with the majority of the fighters headed west to engage (and eventually down all of the enemy aircraft), another flight of enemy bombers was discovered on radar. Only 12 miles distant, the flight of aircraft were approaching from the disengaged side. Only Butch and his wingman were available to protect the ship.

As the Americans approached the enemy they tested their guns. Butch’s wingman’s guns jammed, leaving only Lieutenant O’Hare to protect the fleet from nine bombers only minutes away. His F4F Wildcat was equipped with four .50-cal machine guns. With 450 rounds per gun, he had about ten 3-second bursts of fire available to take out the nine aircraft.

Coming in at the enemy’s V-on-V formation (in which the aircraft fly close together with overlapping fields of fire) from 1,500 feet above the enemy, Butch dove into the combers.

On his first attack run Butch’s fire hit two bombers, causing them to drop out of formation (at least momentarily). He came around and on his second attack run struck another aircraft, forcing the pilot to drop his bombs and abandon his attack, and then targeted a fourth aircraft, striking it and sending it into the sea.

The enemy bombers were now reaching the release point for their attack on Lexington. Butch made his third attack pass on the formation. Shooting into the enemy flight, he downed one plane, exposing the lead aircraft. Attacking the lead airplane his fire concentrated on the enemy’s left engine, which exploded and fell from the aircraft.

Out of ammunition, Butch pulled away from the enemy to allow the ship’s anti-aircraft artillery to open fire. Of the flight of nine enemy aircraft, only four Japanese bombers made it to the release point, but all of their bombs missed. One of the planes hit by Butch attempted to strike Lexington as they crashed but missed crashing into the sea.

As Butch came in for a landing he was accidently fired upon by Lexington’s anti-aircraft guns. O’Hare’s aircraft took a single bullet during the battle, and it came from his own gunnery. He is said to have approached the gun crew after his landing and calmly saying, “Son, if you don’t stop shooting at me when I’ve got my wheels down, I’m going to have to report you to the gunnery officer.”

O’Hare thought he had downed six and damaged a seventh aircraft. The captain of Lexington downgraded that to five, since four aircraft had launched bombs against the ship. Butch became an “ace in a day” and was the American military’s first ace of the war.

After the war it was determined he had in fact only downed three. I write “only” as if taking down three enemy bombers, by himself, in the span of about five minutes isn’t a Herculean feat. He damaged another three, with only two of those able to return to base.

Butch was credited with single-handedly saving the ship, both by the captain of USS Lexington and the commanding admiral. He returned with Lexington to Pearl Harbor. Arriving on 26 March he was met by hordes of news and radio reporters. Weeks later he gave 1,150 cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes to the manufacturing staff at Grumman telling them, “You build them, we’ll fly them and between us, we can’t be beaten.”

For his heroics that day in February, O’Hare was promoted by President Roosevelt to lieutenant commander and became the first naval aviator to receive the Medal of Honor. Butch’s wife hung the medal around his neck with the president looking on in an Oval Office ceremony.

US Navy Medal of Honor

O’Hare received a ticker tape parade in his hometown of St Louis. A young, handsome, and charming man, Butch’s heroics led him to be a face for the military during early war bond drives. As with many gallant heroes early in the war, he was removed from combat duty for more than a year to participate in this public relations role and then to train new pilots.

Butch returned to duty in Hawaii where he took command of his old squadron, VF-3. They were charged with training for the remainder of 1942 and the bulk of ‘43. In July 1943 VF-3 swapped designations with VF-6 and shortly thereafter was equipped with the new F6F Hellcat, a vastly improved version of the Wildcat. VF-6 embarked on USS Independence (CVL-22) in August 1943 for the Wake Island area.

Grumman F6F Hellcat

For action at Marcus Island 31 August, 1943 O’Hare received the Distinguished Flying Cross for leading his squadron in successful strafing attacks against well defended enemy positions on the island. The aerial bombardment destroyed all aircraft on the ground and 80% of the island’s infrastructure.

Distinguished Flying Cross

At Wake Island on 5 October, 1943, Butch earned a second DFC. Flying just south of Wake Island three enemy fighters were sighted. O’Hare overtook one of the enemy and shot him down while his wingmen pursued and eliminated the other two. O’Hare joined his comrades as they pursued one of the damaged planes to an airfield on Wake. Taking the grounded and disabled plane under their targeting reticles, O’Hare and his three fellow pilots destroyed that fighter. Strafing the airfield, despite heavy anti-aircraft fire from below, they destroyed another fighter and two twin-engine bombers on the ground. As if not enough for the day, he flew south of Wake Island again and found a twin-engine bomber flying. He attacked it, disabling it. As the enemy aircraft started to go down, O’Hare’s wingmen came in and gave the crippled (but possibly still airworthy) bomber a final, fatal blow.

In September, 1943, O’Hare had been made Commander Air Group (CAG) embarked on USS Enterprise (CV-6). Now overseeing several squadrons, O’Hare took a Hellcat as his primary command plane.

With large numbers of American aircraft aboard dozens of aircraft carriers in the Pacific, Allied forces had total daytime air superiority anywhere they went. Consequently, the Japanese modified their tactics to nighttime attacks. American radar advancements meant that smaller aircraft, like the TBF Avenger, could be outfitted with radar for night operations, but the Avenger was a dive bomber not a fighter. The Army Air Forces used heavy fighters, such as the P-61 and P-38, fitted with radar as night fighters. The Navy was much more space and weight constrained.

A tactic was devised, and first deployed by Enterprise, to use a radar equipped TBF Avenger to lead a flight of Hellcats to the Japanese bomber formations at which point the Avenger would pull off and the Hellcats could attack the aircraft.

It is no surprise that O’Hare took the lead on the US Navy’s first operational use of the tactic against an enemy bomber formation. On the night of 26 November, 1943, when the call came to man the fighters, he was eating. Grabbing a handful of food, Butch ran to the ready room.

Launching, the Hellcats had trouble locating the Avenger. Once they were in formation, Butch, aware of the potential for friendly fire, told his Avenger to turn on his running lights. Butch was flying directly behind the Avenger. Suddenly, the Avenger’s turret gunner noticed a Japanese bomber above and behind Butch’s Hellcat at his 6 o’clock position. The turret gunner opened fire, as did the Japanese bomber.

Moments into the engagement, O’Hare’s wingman reported Butch’s lights went out, and he veered to port (left) and went down. Just before the plane reached the water, the wingman reported seeing something come out of the plane consistent with a parachute.

The location marked by the other aircraft in the flight, at daylight a search was conducted for O’Hare. A PBY Catalina flying boat was also brought in, but there was no sign of Butch or his aircraft. He was listed as missing in action and later declared dead.

The flight had successfully downed two of the enemy aircraft. For his “courage, daring airmanship, and devotion to duty” Butch was recommended for a second award of the Medal of Honor, but this was downgraded to a posthumous Navy Cross. He was 29 when he was killed in action and left behind a wife and infant daughter. O’Hare is officially credited with downing seven enemy planes.

US Navy Cross

It’s unknown if O’Hare was taken out by fire from the Avenger or from the Japanese “Betty” bomber. Two authorized biographers, in a 1997 book, contend that Butch was most assuredly downed by enemy fire and that after actions reports (and previous writings on the topic based on those reports) unfairly suggest that the Avenger’s gunner might have hit him in a case of friendly fire. They based their findings on interviews with survivors of the battle. Barring the wreck of his aircraft being located we will never know for sure.

In St. Louis, after the war, there was talk of naming a new airport after the hometown hero. Chicago beat them to the punch though, exploiting their tenuous connection to Butch through his father. If you’ve ever flown into Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, now you know where the name came from. There’s a good chance you’ve been through there as it’s Chicago’s busiest airport, the sixth busiest airport in the world, and serves around 83 million passengers a year.

Chicago, a city long known for its political machinations, has one other airport, Chicago Midway. I always assumed “Midway” was in reference to a neighborhood, since looking at it on a map, it is about the middle of the city. That’s not the case, Chicago Midway was named to honor those who fought in the Battle of Midway, the first decisive victory for American forces against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater, in June 1942, just a few months after O’Hare’s first act of valor. So a city so well known for its blowhard politicians, has named its two airports after World War II heroes and events and not after politicians themselves (looking at you New York City, with John F Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport).

Hand Salute. Ready, Two!
Thanks again, Mason.

Category: Guest Post, The Warrior Code, Valor