29 January 2010
Issue Number: 2010-04
Our 13th Year
~ AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Greetings from Stan Linzey
2. “Decision at Midway” by VF-6 C.O. James
Gray
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1. GREETINGS FROM STAN LINZEY ( see issue #03 )
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17 January 2010
From: CAPT Stanford E. Linzey,
CHC, USN-Ret
California
BOM vet, ship’s band, USS Yorktown (CV-5)
Dear Friends:
It is so good to hear from you and to hear of your prayers for me
in my present situation. Please understand I am not able to answer your
messages personally, but please continue to remember me in your prayers.
A few of my children have sent you updates and have compiled your
notes in a booklet for me, and I read them every single day and am blessed to
have friends and loved ones such as you. It means more to me than you
could know. I'm strong in spirit; weak in body.
Blessings on you from a grateful friend.
Sincerely,
Stan Linzey
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Ed. note: Roundtable members can send a reply to
Stan as shown in your “new issue” e-mail message. Also, in the same message, note his new address for U.S.
mail. He is no longer at the location
stated in the last issue.
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2. “DECISION AT MIDWAY” by VF-6 C.O. James Gray ( see issues # 2009-48, 2010-01, -02, -03 )
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22 January
2010
From: CDR Clayton E. Fisher, USN-Ret
California
BOM vet,
SBD pilot, VB-8, USS Hornet (CV-8)
I've followed the
comments about the performance of CDR Gray, the flight leader of
VF-6. At the time I heard about Gray's
fighters staying at about 20,000 feet when the torpedo pilots were being
slaughtered down below him, I was shocked.
All the Hornet and Enterprise torpedo pilots knew they did
not have enough fuel to ever return to their carriers, plus they all were very
much aware they were flying a very vulnerable aircraft and would need to break
their formations to fly individual tracks to drop their torpedoes and become
even more vulnerable. I don't know of
any torpedo pilots who refused to fly their mission.
All the dive bomber and torpedo
pilots knew we were probably on one-way trip tickets. I guess we thought the fighter pilots probably had the best chance
to survive the battle. I think we all
expected the fighters to fight until they ran out of ammo or got shot down.
even if they might not have enough fuel to make it back to their carrier.
At the time
I thought CDR Gray made a decision to save himself. His squadron had a great altitude advantage and could have taken
out some Zeros on their initial run. At
least a few more torpedo pilots might have survived.
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29 January
2010
From: Scott Kair
Illinois
The
continuing discussion of Jim Gray’s performance as VF-6 commander at Midway
raised a question after reviewing his accounts on the website and in A
Glorious Page in Our History. Is
the harsh regard for Gray due to his actions during the BOM, or is it due to
what can only be described as a confrontational performance during the 1988 BOM
forum at Pensacola?
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24 January
2010
From: Chris Hawkinson
Wisconsin
Two points have fascinated me concerning Gray’s “Decision at Midway,”
his alleged refusal to help defend TF-17 and his escort of the 4 June morning
attack. It‘s important to note that by
the time he fought at Midway, Gray had risked his life in combat on numerous
occasions. During Enterprise’s raid on Marcus Island in March
1942, while hopelessly lost in the clouds, he did not break radio silence
trying to find the ship. It was only
when Enterprise risked a short radio transmission with a bearing back to
the carrier that Gray landed with a mere nine gallons of gas left in his
tanks. I have never read anything about Gray not obeying orders during
his time with VF-6.
With regard to the issue of Gray withholding VF-6 from assisting Yorktown,
I reviewed John Lundstrom’s The First Team as well as VF-6’s
CAP data. While Gray himself was
never in a position to help personally, VF-6 was, and they did. [Ed. note: see the above link. After
returning from the morning flight, Gray was not airborne again until 1450.]
Enterprise sent four of their eight airborne F4Fs to intercept Hiryu’s
first strike and four of their seven to intercept the second strike.
They also contributed three of the six planes constituting Yorktown’s CAP
after she was disabled by Hiryu’s first strike. While their
results were not as spectacular as those achieved by VF-3, they nevertheless
contributed 11 planes to the defense of TF-17.
With regard to Gray’s decisions on the morning of 4 June, I agree with
Barrett that Gray probably had been watching his fuel gauge more closely than
he admits, but I still think his conservative decision to bring VF-6 back
intact has some merit. If one accepts
that his 10 F4F’s were not in position to help VT-8 (they lost them in the
clouds) and they didn’t even know where VT-6 or Enterprise’s SBDs were,
Gray really had few choices: risk his planes by staying in the area
beyond the limits of their fuel, move his planes closer to Kido Butai and lower
(either to find VT-6 or strafe the ships), or return home while he could.
While Gray’s decision might have been safest for himself and his
pilots, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad decision, nor one that reflects on
Gray’s desire to fight on 4 June.
Remember that his planes were important to the defense of TF-16, and
given what he knew at 1000, it looked like they would be needed. How would
history remember Gray if he had remained over Kido Butai and splashed all 10 of
his planes like VF-8?
There were never enough fighters on board carriers in 1942. USN
fighter squadrons went from a pre-war strength of 18 planes, to 27 in April to
a post-Midway strength of 36. One needs only look at past battles (Lexington
off Bougainville in February, Coral Sea in May) to see how a lack of
fighters can affect the outcome of a battle. If not for the success of
the 1020 attack on 4 June, Enterprise may have needed VF-6 a lot more
than it did.
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~ NOW HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- 68th Anniversary Events
- Link of the Week
- Editor’s Notes
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68th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
As I’ve said a number of times in various ways, the victors
of Midway will never be truly gone until they are forgotten, and annual
observances of their triumph help to ensure that we don’t forget them. To that end, we do all that we can in this
format to promote anniversaries of the battle, from small gatherings of veteran
and historical organizations, to commemorations by individual Navy and Marine
Corps commands, and to major celebrations produced or endorsed by the Navy
Department. Our involvement includes
not just announcing such events, but actively supporting them by providing
information on the Battle of Midway and by placing their organizers in contact
with BOM vets. Other Roundtable members
who have had a direct hand in preserving the battle’s history will often
participate in such events.
Consequently, it is to the advantage of BOM commemoration
organizers to have their events publicized here, and this is my invitation to
all such groups to get their announcements into us as soon as your dates and
locations have been determined. A
running list of related events will appear in each weekly issue, assuring
maximum exposure to interested parties across the U.S. as well as in 17 other
countries.
In the past, I have personally, sometimes aggressively,
sought out BOM commemoration sponsors in order to list their events on the
Roundtable. Because of the significant
advantage the Roundtable offers to such groups, I would like to turn that
process around by encouraging event organizers to initiate the contact—if you
want your activity to be supported by BOM veterans and by other motivated
participants in your area and around the world, the Roundtable stands ready to
aid your efforts as I’ve explained here.
Our e-mail address is midway.rt@gmail.net,
and you’ll find a link for that purpose in the list below and at the end of
each issue.
The same thing applies to other activities, like unit
reunions that may occur at various times of the year, and to any special symposium
or seminar that may be planned by a military museum, historical society,
etc. If you want information concerning
the Battle of Midway, or if you’d like publicity for your event among the
world’s largest gathering of people strongly focused on the battle, this is
where you should start.
Roundtable members who are associated with or have contact
with the sponsoring organization of any such event can help the cause by
passing this information to a responsible representative of the organization.
Our first listing this year is for a grand tour of the
historical military sites and museums in Hawaii, including a chartered
excursion to Midway atoll for the official 68th anniversary observance hosted
there by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The dates are May 31 – June 5.
For full details, see the Military
Historical Tours website. You may
also contact Roundtable member Jim Adams for additional info. His e-mail address appears in your “new
issue” announcement. —RR
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LINK OF THE WEEK
Here’s a great photo of VT-8 TBF vet Harry Ferrier, taken at the Museum
of Flight in Seattle during a symposium on December 12th. Harry was part of a panel including three
WW2 fighter pilots. As you can see in
the picture, he is showing the famous hat he was wearing on 4 June 1942. (Thanks to Wilson O’Neal.)
Click
here for the link of the week.
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EDITOR’S NOTES
~ I was pleased to hear from Chris Hawkinson
again; it’s been a while. Chris gets
credit for being one of the founders of the Roundtable in the 1990s, by being
the first to promote Bill Price’s e-mail circular on his Midway web site. The site also brought me to the Roundtable
in 2000 while I was researching BOM info for a magazine article.
~ Here is our list of 68th BOM anniversary
commemorations and related activities that have been reported to us. To add or update an event or for more info, click
here.
1. May 31-June 5: “Return to
Midway” BOM symposium and Midway atoll tour:
click here
(.pdf file)
For a glossary of abbreviations, acronyms, and terms used in The
Roundtable Forum, click here
or go to our home page and click "The Roundtable Glossary" link.
Unless otherwise noted, all
original content in this issue of The Roundtable Forum, the Official
Newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable is copyright 2009 by Ronald
W. Russell (see the “About
the BOMRT” page). Permission to
forward, copy, or quote from this web edition is granted if the following
citation is included: “The
Roundtable Forum, official newsletter of the Battle of Midway Roundtable,
www.midway42.org.”
Webmasters: we'll appreciate a
link on related web sites. Please link
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For
the text of recent back issues of The Roundtable Forum, click here.
For
a complete index of all issues of The Roundtable Forum, click here.
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