The Roundtable
Forum
Official
Newsletter of the Battle of Midway
Roundtable
27 May 2011
Issue
Number: 2011-13
Our 14th Year
~
AROUND THE TABLE ~
MEMBERS’
TOPICS IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Why So Few Photos From Midway Atoll?
2. Hypo Photos in Naval Aviation News
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1. WHY SO FEW PHOTOS FROM MIDWAY ATOLL? ( See issue #12 )
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20 May 2011
From: SFC Edgar R. Fox, USA-Ret
Missouri
BOM vet, Pvt., 6th
MarDefBn, Midway
Regarding the subject of why there are so
few photographs from Midway before or after the BOM, one must realize that the
most affordable and popular camera of the period was the box Brownie. Not many of us carried such a
cumbersome item around in our 782 gear.
In fact, I never did see a camera of any
type until some [ranking officer] came on the island after the BOM with
his own public information officer carrying a Leica 35 MM.
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2. HYPO PHOTOS IN NAVAL AVIATION NEWS ( see Featured Link, issue #12 )
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20 May 2011
From: James M. Hanford
Michigan
After
looking at the .pdf file from the latest newsletter link, I concluded that
better versions (for downloading) of the photos of the crypto and
intelligence analysts are posted in the album "Codebreakers" in the
Shattered Sword Yahoo group. It is our
goal to make this Yahoo group the premier source for BOM photos—a worthy
companion site to the BOMRT.
We
also have many of the LIFE photos taken on board the Enterprise in
various albums, as well as numerous sidebars to the BOM, such as "The
Aleutians Feint" and photos that I plan to post tomorrow of French
Frigate Shoals (“Operation K”).
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Ed. note: to see the Hypo photos Jim mentions, go to
our Links page and
click “Shattered Sword Yahoo Group” at the bottom. If you’re not registered in the group, click “Join This Group” at
the right. Once you’re registered,
click “Photos” in the menu at the left, then click the “Codebreakers”
album. (The log-in name and password
you select will be usable in all other Yahoo groups.)
~ NOW
HEAR THIS! ~
NEWS
& INFO IN THIS ISSUE:
- BOM Veteran Statistics
- Memorial Day Message for BOM Vets
- Featured Link
- Editor’s Notes
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BOM VETERAN STATISTICS
This past week, I was
asked by a Navy Medical Corps official in Washington for the number of BOM
veterans who are alive today. I
responded that, so far as I know, there is no organization that maintains such
data. But I made an attempt at an
approximate answer, based on the following.
Be aware that I did this without referring to any references, so these
numbers are generously described as educated guesses:
Personnel engaged in the BOM, including non-combatants with direct
involvement:
Comm Intel, Pearl Harbor & Melbourne: 100
CINCPAC (ADM Nimitz + staff): 30
Midway Atoll (Marines, Navy, AAF): 4000
TF 17 (Yorktown plus screening vessels): 8000
TF 16 (Enterprise, Hornet, plus screening vessels): 12,000
Other TFs (submarines, aux vessels, etc): 4000
Patrol/search flights from other islands: 200
TOTAL ENGAGED: 28,330
Some number of those did not survive the war and it's impossible to
know how many. Based on attrition in
the air groups and the ultimate sinking of ships like Hornet and Astoria,
maybe there were 25,000 alive at the end of the war. According to an estimate that I saw
somewhere about surviving WW2 veterans, the overall figure is something like
one-third. If that’s applicable to
25,000 BOM vets who survived the war, then something like 8000 or so are still
with us today.
I’d be interested in all comments on this subject, especially if you have better data than my estimates above. —RR
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MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE
FOR BOM VETS
As an appropriate
followup to the above topic, here’s my annual message to our BOM veterans in
connection with the observance of Memorial Day. General MacArthur said, “old
soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
I say balderdash! Old soldiers
(and sailors, airmen, Marines, etc.) do die and they don’t have to fade
away. Every year around Memorial Day I
run a plea for each of our BOM vets to ensure that someone in his family or circle of friends and
associates will notify the Roundtable in the event of his passing, so that he
can be properly memorialized on what is surely the world’s best-subscribed
gathering of individuals from all walks of life who honor our Midway veterans.
So here is that important reminder for all of you who are the heart of
this entire organization: please take a moment now to be certain that someone
in your family or among your acquaintances knows how to contact me, and that
he/she will actually do so when the time comes. No one needs to follow General MacArthur into a faded oblivion—with
a little help from you and someone you know, we’ll ensure that it doesn’t
happen here.
My full contact info is found at the end of each “new message”
announcement that you receive in your e-mail.
—RR
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FEATURED LINK
Here’s an interesting Yorktown photo that’s also
featured on the Shattered Sword Yahoo Group mentioned above. This is a close-up from a very
familiar BOM photo, and it shows 3 items of interest. One is the ship’s CXAM “bedspring” radar
antenna. Two, note the two black signal
balls flying on both the port and starboard side of the foremast, indicating
that the ship is dead in the water. And
three, note the flag, and remember those legends about “battle flags” and “all
flags flying” on the Yorktown as it sank. Now you know what flag was really there.
Click
here for the featured link.
For the details of the “flag” legends, see pages 208-210 in
No Right to Win.
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EDITOR’S NOTES
~ VS-6 vet Dusty Kleiss was interviewed this
week by KSAT-TV in San Antonio, in connection with Memorial Day
observances. Click here for Dusty’s
comments.
~ The USN-USAF Joint Base Charleston will host
a BOM 69th anniversary commemoration aboard the USS Yorktown (CV-10)
museum ship at Charleston, SC, at 11:00 AM on Friday, June 3rd. Click here
for more information.
~ The Navy Information Operations Command at
Ft. Gordon, Georgia (near Augusta) will conduct a BOM anniversary celebration
at noon on Friday, June 3rd. The event
is open to everyone. For more
information, call Gary Struble on 706-791-0170.
~ Here’s another article on the Navy’s
commemoration at the Naval Memorial in Washington, DC, to be held on June
3rd. The article includes a brief
write-up on the five veterans slated to participate, one of whom is the Marine
Corps navigator discussed in the past two issues. Click
here.
~ Roundtable member Alan Zimm has a new book
out on the Pearl Harbor attack, and no, it doesn’t simply retell that much-told
story. Instead, the focus on this one
is an analytical examination of Japanese planning and execution of the
operation—what went right, what went wrong, and what easily could have happened
differently. I’ll have a full review in
a subsequent issue, but meanwhile you can read Roundtable member Will O’Neil’s
comments on Amazon—click
here.
~ Also, Roundtable member and Annapolis
historian Craig Symonds has a new BOM book coming out later this year, and that
one will also get a full review in an upcoming issue of our newsletter. Here’s the Amazon
announcement.
