From the June 3, 2012, Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News by Wilbur D. Jones, Jr..
Five weeks after the Battle of Midway in 1942, Lt. Clarence Earle Dickinson, Jr., a pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, spoke at his hometown of Wilmington's Rotary Club after he had won his third Navy Cross in six months.
At the battle, in just ten minutes, at about 10:20 a.m. on June 4, 1942, U.S, planes destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers of a Japanese attack force, turning the tide in the war with Japan in the Pacific. The remarkable success came from a combination by fusing intelligence, analysis, leadership, initiative, daring, bravery, enemy miscalculation, timing and good fortune. That pretty well sums it up.
Besides Dickinson, Wilmington's Ensign Carl David Peiffer flew a Dauntless Dive Bomber with the Enterprise's Scouting Squadron Six.
Also flying that day was Army Air Force Lt.Col. Brooke Empie Allen, commanding the 42nd Bombardment Squadron of Flying Fortresses based on the island of Midway.
However, only the carrier-based aircraft succeeded in their mission.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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