MCCLUSKY-CLARENCE

Excerpts from article published in San Diego Union-Tribune on 6/4/2017:

HONORED  FOR  ROLE  IN  BATTLE  OF  MIDWAY

Clarence Wade McClusky Jr. faced a tough decision on June 4, 1942: turn his low-on-fuel air squadron around or keep searching for the Japanese fleet headed for Midway.  He decided to go on and wound up changing history.  The dive bombers McClusky led that day helped to gut the Imperial Japanese Navy and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific. 

McClusky, born in Buffalo in 1902, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1926 and earned his pilot’s wings a few years later.  When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drew America into the war, he was a lieutenant commander in charge of the air squadron aboard USS ENTERPRISE which escaped harm because it was at sea.  In late May 1942, a large Japanese fleet was steaming toward Midway located about 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu.  The U.S. 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.  McClusky’s squadron was tasked with finding the Japanese warships and sinking them.  Despite the inside information, the planes initially were sent in the wrong direction on the morning of June 4.

More time and fuel was wasted as McClusky’s group circled while waiting for other carrier based planes that didn’t show up.  About two hours into the search and running low on gas, McClusky was faced with a choice: return to the ENTERPRISE or keep searching, with the realization that most of his planes would have to ditch in the ocean.  He kept going.

According to official account of the battle, McClusky soon spotted a Japanese destroyer and correctly surmised it was headed toward the main Japanese fleet.  Around 10:20 a.m., he led 30 other Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers into the attack against the Japanese aircraft carriers.  When the day was over the fliers from ENTERPRISE and YORKTOWN had sunk three carriers and mortally damaged a fourth.  McClusky, wounded in the initial attack, made it back to his carrier with less than five gallons of fuel in his tank.  Some of the other surviving two-man planes had even less.  Ten planes in his squadron had to ditch in the sea and their crews were never found.

NAVY  CROSS  CITATION

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander Clarence Wade McClusky, Jr., United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Combat Plane and Air Group Commander of Enterprise Air Group, attached to the USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6), during the Battle of Midway on 6 June 1942.  On receipt of a report of an enemy Japanese invasion fleet in the area, Lieutenant Commander McClusky led his squadron of planes in a dogged and thorough search, continued until the objective was located, and attacked with boldness and determination four enemy carriers in complete disregard of heavy anti-aircraft fire and strong fighter opposition.  Such severe damage was inflicted on the flight decks of the Japanese carriers that they were effectively put out of action.  In this engagement, in which Lieutenant Commander McClusky suffered a shoulder wound from enemy shrapnel, his courage and inspiring leadership in the face of overwhelming opposition and great danger were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

NOTE:  RADM McClusky died on June 27, 1976, and is buried at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)