Despite the inside information, the planes initially were sent in the wrong direction after they took off on the morning of June 4.

McClusky’s air squadron was tasked with finding the Japanese warships and sinking them. Navy, tipped off to the Japanese plans thanks to its breaking of the enemy’s naval codes, ordered its only three aircraft carriers in the Pacific - Yorktown, Hornet and Enterprise - to head off the attack. Midway could provide the Japanese with a jumping-off point for more assaults on Hawaii, and possibly the West Coast. sea and air bases on Midway atoll, located about 1,300 miles (2,092 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu. In late May 1942, a large Japanese fleet was steaming toward the U.S.

7, 1941, because it was at sea with the other U.S. When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew America into the war, he was a lieutenant commander in charge of the air squadron aboard the USS Enterprise, which escaped harm on Dec. Naval Academy in 1926 and earned his pilot’s wings a few years later. McClusky, born in Buffalo in 1902, graduated from the U.S. “He’s one of the greatest heroes in American history.” “Wade McClusky finally will be getting his due recognition,” said Lee Simonson, one of the organizers behind the event and the fundraising effort for the new memorial. McClusky, who died in 1976, is depicted as he looked after returning from the June 4, 1942, attack, still wearing his flight suit, flying helmet and goggles. On Sunday, 75 years to the day of his heroics, a clay model of a planned bronze statue of McClusky is being unveiled in his hometown of Buffalo, New York, as part of a new public memorial dedicated to local war heroes. The dive bombers McClusky led that day in the Battle of Midway helped to gut the Imperial Japanese Navy and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in the Allies’ favor after a string of defeats following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

He decided to go on and wound up changing history. Navy air squadron around or keep searching for the Japanese fleet headed for Midway. faced a tough decision on June 4, 1942: turn his low-on-fuel U.S.

To go with my navy suit for war