Heroes of the United States Naval Academy

June 3, 2018

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"Let Us Never Forget" On the anniversary of the Battle of Midway, Aviator Killed in Action, USNA 1924, LCDR John Charles Waldron, USN

LCDR Waldron was Commanding Officer of USS Hornet's ill-fated Torpedo Squadron 8. On June 4, 1942, LCDR Waldron's Squadron was decimated. While not scoring a hit on the Japanese carriers, their daring attack caused the 32 Zeros guarding Admiral Nagumo's fleet to drop down to sea level allowing for a successful bomber attack by LCDR Maxwell Franklin Leslie's (USNA 1926) Bomber Squadron 3 a turning point the Pacific War. For his leadership he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

John Charles Waldron was born at Fort Pierre, South Dakota, on August 21, 1900 son of Charles W. and Jane E (Van Metre) Waldron. Charles W. Waldron was of colonial New Hampshire families , and Jane E. (Van Metre) Waldron was of the Oglala Lakota Indian tribe. He was raised Catholic and attend grade school at Fort Pierre and Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; high school at Rapid City, South Dakota; the Agricultural School at Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Ferris Institute in Big Rapids, Michigan. He attended United States Naval Academy Preparatory School prior to entering the Naval Academy. He entered the Naval Academy on June 16, 1920. While at Annapolis he participated in class boxing, wrestling, and fencing. Midshipman Waldron graduated 479 of 525 from the United States Naval Academy on June 4, 1924.

In the 1924 Lucky Bag, Midshipman Waldron’s roommate wrote:

“STRANGER, pause! Look at this strange specimen. Reading from the outboard balliard, we make out the ambitious student, the aspiring athoolete, the snake par excellence and, last but not least, the sea-going cowpuncher. Here is a man who is lord of fluttering hearts, scattered from hither to yon, wherever he has travelled. And yet, he wouldn’t let Helen herself in his room after study call has busted. The ‘Busy Day’ sign is always in evidence on ‘Jawn’s’ door during boning hours. Lady Luck has given him a cold shoulder as far as athletics are concerned. ‘Jawn’ comes across with the desire and the ability, but the aforementioned damsel steps in with the sand and rocks. Having taken a shot at everything, he has at last decided to choose the sport which will keep him in the hospital the shortest time, sort of a cross between boxing and wrestling. His ambition is laudable, since the doctors need a rest.”

On June 29, 1924 to July 1926, Ensign Waldron’s first assignment was on armored cruiser, USS Seattle (ACR-11).

On August 10, 1926, Ensign Waldron was ordered to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida for flight training.

On May 21, 1927, Ensign Waldron married Mary Adelaide Wentworth in Milton, Florida. Together they had two daughters Nancy and Ann.

In 1927, LTJG Waldron became a naval aviator.

On August 18, 1927 to August 1929, LTJG Waldron was assigned to VT-1S and then VT-9S, aircraft squadrons Scouting Fleet on board seaplane tender, USS Wright (AV-1).

On October 10, 1929 to 1931, LTJG Waldron was assigned to Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida.

On July 1, 1931 LTJG Waldron joined Scouting Squadron VS 3-B, aboard aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2).

In July 1932, LTJG Waldron was transferred to Observation Squadron VO-4B, attached to USS Colorado (BB-45).

In 1934 to May 1934, LTJG Waldron was assigned as a pilot to Observation Squadron VO-4B on board battleship USS Colorado (BB-45).

On June 23, 1934 to June 1936, Lieutenant Waldron was assigned to Patrol Squadron VP-6F fleet air base Pearl Harbor, attached to Bombing Squadron ONE, Battle Force.

On July 1, 1936, Lieutenant Waldron had orders to aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5).

By July 1, 1937 to June 1939, Lieutenant Waldron was assigned Scouting Squadron VS-3 aboard aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3).

From July 1, 1939 to November 1939, LCDR Waldron had short tours of duty at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia, and the Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, Washington D.C.

On November 24, 1939 LCDR Waldron was assigned to the Third Naval District, New York as Naval Inspector of Ordinance at the plant of Carl L. Norden Incorporated, New York.

In August1941, LCDR Waldron became Commanding Officer of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8), on the new aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8).

Early in 1942 the United States had broken the Japanese naval code and military leaders knew that the Japanese were planning to invade Midway. Following the Battle of Coral Sea, the Japanese naval strategy was to capture Midway and force Admiral Nimitz to commit his carriers into a counter attack with the hope of destroying them. Due to confirmed naval intelligence, Admiral Chester Nimitz (USNA 1905) went on the offensive and sent his three remaining aircraft carriers north of Midway to surprise the Japanese. Knowing the Japanese were on their way was one thing but finding them was the challenge.

In the lead up to the Battle of Midway, LCDR Waldron, skipper of Torpedo Squadron 8, was laying siege to the Aircraft Material Office at Pearl Harbor. He heard they had a supply of newly designed twin machine-gun mounts; now he was determined to get some for his slow, highly vulnerable torpedo planes. The guns really meant for dive bombers, but there was something about this impassioned, almost mystical man – others noticed it too – and in the end Captain Lyon relented and gave him the guns. LCDR Waldron rushed off, so excited he forgot his flight gloves.

On June 4, 1942, Lieutenant Commander Waldron was the Commanding Officer of Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8) on the USS Hornet (CV-8). VT-8's first and best known combat mission came during the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942.

LCDR Waldron was a hard-driving taskmaster with a fierce passion for getting the enemy. Whenever the big day came, he was determined to be ready. He drilled his men mercilessly, ran their legs off, and fought for extra equipment – anything to win. “If we run out of gas,” he once remarked, “we’ll piss in our tanks.”

LCDR Waldron also knew how to blow off steam. The squadron parties that he and his wife Adelaide gave in Norfolk were famous. Then he put aside his toughness, royally entertained the young ensigns, and sometimes allowed a deep streak of tenderness to shine through. There was the night when he took Ensign Jim Cook and Corwin Morgan to a darkened room where his children were sleeping: “Cookie, you and Morgan look in this room. Did you ever see such pretty little girls?

The following morning he’d be all business again pounding away at his tactical theories. They were often unorthodox. Ensign George Gay considered him “foxy”; LCDR Waldron himself lightly referred to his extra intuition, thanks to a streak of Sioux blood. In any case, he hammered home his ideas till, as Gay put it, “We could almost look at the back of LCDR Waldron’s head and know what he was thinking.” His men griped a lot – no one else had to work that hard – but they believed in him completely. Soon they were as compact, closely knit team as fiery and determined as their skipper. They ran laps around the flight deck and did group calisthenics, while the other fliers hooted and loafed. They tucked knives in their belts, wore shoulder holsters, and didn’t give a damn about the taunts of “Circus” and “Mexican Panchos.”

And all the time they worked. There wasn’t much chance to fly, but no squadron ever spent more hours in the ready room. LCDR Waldron was a fanatic on detail, and he’d go over the smallest point again and again. Like a schoolteacher, he’d toss sharp, unexpected questions at any pilot who seemed to be daydreaming.

Finally, on the eve of battle, as the senior officers planned the up coming battle the pilots were getting ready. VT-8 was in Ready Room Four when LCDR Waldron gave all of his men a mimeographed attack plan. As the men in the squadron were reading their copy LCDR Waldron stood up and read it out loud. He concluded by saying that if worst came to worst, he wanted each man to do his utmost to destroy the enemy. "If there is only one plane left to make a final run-in," he told his men, "I want that man to go in and get a hit. May God be with us all. Good luck, happy landings, and give 'em hell."

On the morning of the battle, LCDR Waldron slipped down to the Hornet’s wardroom for morning coffee with Commander Ed Creehan (USNA 1924), the ship’s engineering officer. They were old Annapolis classmates, and this was a daily custom. Today LCDR Waldron was in an exalted mood – Torpedo 8 would at last have a crack at the enemy. He said he was going to “get a Jap carrier” or he wouldn’t be back.

Commander Akers (USNA 1922) was the Navigator on the carrier USS Hornet. He was a good friend of LCDR Waldron of Torpedo 8. LCDR Waldron told his pilots that he thought the Japanese ships would swing around once they discovered United States carriers present; they would not go on to Midway as everyone seemed to think. So don’t worry about navigation; he knew where he was going. “Just follow me. I’ll take you to ‘em”. LCDR Waldron stopped by the chart house long enough to assure his friend Commander Akers that he’d take the squadron all the way in.

LCDR Waldron put his planes into a long scouting line. It was nearly time they sighted something, and this might make it easier. Soon, over his right wing, he saw two columns of smoke rising from beyond the horizon. He swung to the right, waggling his wings for the others to join up again. By 0920 they were there, skimming the waves, going full throttle toward Admiral Nagumo’s outer screen of cruisers and destroyers. “He went just as straight to the Jap fleet as if he’d had a string tied to them.” Ensign George Gay later recalled. If the enemy forces weren’t exactly where LCDR Waldron expected to find them, they were close enough. But there’s a limit to Sioux intuition, and the Commander’s reasoning was somewhat off. Admiral Nagumo had indeed turned north, but only a minute or so before LCDR Waldron got there. There was a different reason why the Japanese were far short of the position estimated by Admiral Spruance’s staff. Admiral Nagumo was short because he had spent so much of the past two hours dodging the planes from Midway.

In any case, Waldron had found them, and as Torpedo 8 roared closer he could soon make out three carriers already turning in evasive moves. Picking out the one to his left – southernmost of the three – he dove on in. The carrier threw out a curtain of antiaircraft fire. Waldron then shifted to the central carrier instead – it was smaller but looked easier to reach. The carrier was still nine miles out.

Without warning Zeroes came raging down at them from somewhere high above. These fighters knew their business – they concentrated on the leading planes of Torpedo 8.

Flying the vulnerable and old Douglas TBD Devastators, LCDR John C. Waldron's 15 planes were all shot down during their unescorted torpedo attack on four Japanese aircraft carriers. The squadron did not destroy any enemy aircraft with their rear .30-caliber machine guns, nor did they damage any of the Japanese carriers. What LCDR Waldron’s squadron did do was occupy an entire squadron of about 32 Japanese Zeros (fighter planes) allowing for the successful attack of higher flying dive bombers a short time later.

Ensign Gay at the rear of the American formation was able to watch the attack develop before him. The Japanese first attacked LCDR Waldron in an attempt to take out the squadron leader. His Devastator was hit right away. Smoke and flames streamed out of the engine cowling. Ensign Gay watched LCDR Waldron's aircraft catch on fire. He painfully watched his leader try to fly on. Flames and smoke erupted in the cockpit with flesh pealing heat shooting up his Commanders legs. LCDR Waldron was forced to unbuckled himself and leave the cockpit as the fire from the engine flared into the cabin driving him from his seat.

Ensign Gay saw LCDR Waldron grab the top of the windshield pulling himself up from his seat and throw one leg out and a foot on the wing of his TBD in an attempt to escape. It appeared that LCDR Waldron’s rear gunner Horace Dobbs was at his station with his guns firing apparently unaware of what was going on with his commander. Maybe the electronics in LCDR Waldron’s plane were damaged and he couldn’t talk to Dobbs.

Ensign Gay knew that LCDR Waldron would never survive jumping from the aircraft from only twenty feet or so above the water going 120 mph. The aircraft’s control stick was unattended and the smoking and burning bomber started to wobble. Ensign Gay watched the wing tip of LCDR Waldron's plane hit the water sending his commander and the aircraft into a cartwheel with the sea swallowing up his leader. Ensign Gay and the rest of the squadron flew over his aircraft as it settled into the water.

All members of Torpedo Squadron 8 who flew from Hornet on that day perished in the action, with the exception of Ensign George Gay. Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8) was afterwards awarded the American Presidential Unit Citation.

Navy Cross

Awarded for actions during the World War II

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Commander John Charles Waldron (NSN: 0-58825), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane and Commanding Officer of Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8), attached to the U.S.S. HORNET (CV-8), during the "Air Battle of Midway," against enemy Japanese forces on 4 June 1942. Grimly aware of the hazardous consequences of flying without fighter protection, and with insufficient fuel to return to his carrier, Lieutenant Commander Waldron resolutely, and with no thought of his own life, led his squadron in an effective torpedo attack against violent assaults of enemy Japanese aircraft fire. His courageous action, carried out with a gallant spirit of self-sacrifice and a conscientious devotion to the fulfillment of his mission, was a determining factor in the defeat of the enemy forces and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 317 (August 1943)

Action Date: 4-Jun-42

Service: Navy

Rank: Lieutenant Commander

Company: Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8)

Division: U.S.S. Hornet (CV-8)

Presidential Unit Citation

“For extremely heroic and courageous performance in combat during the ‘Air Battle of Midway’ June 4, 1942. Flying low without fighter support, TORPEDO SQUADRON EIGHT began the perilous mission, ‘Intercept and Attack!’ First to sight the enemy, the SQUADRON attacked with full striking power against crushing enemy opposition, scoring torpedo hits on Japanese forces. Realizing to a man that insufficient fuel would prevent a return to the carrier, the pilots held doggedly to the target, dropping torpedoes at pointblank range in the face of blasting anti-aircraft fire that sent the planes one by one, hurtling aflame into the sea. The loss of twenty-nine lives typifying valor, loyalty and determination, was the price paid for TORPEDO SQUADRON EIGHT’s vital contribution to the eventual success of our forces in this epic battle of the air.”

VT-8's losses have been attributed to several causes. Hornet's Commander Air Group, Commander Stanhope C. Ring (USNA 1923, later Vice Admiral), elected to keep the group's fighter escort at high altitude in order to cover the dive bombers and to give the Wildcats an altitude advantage. This decision was supported by Captain Marc Mitscher (USNA 1910, later Admiral), commanding officer of the Hornet at the time of the battle.

Before takeoff, LCDR Waldron had a dispute with Commander Ring and Rear Admiral Mitscher about where the Japanese carriers would be found. Despite having a contact report showing the Japanese southwest of Hornet, Rear Admiral Mitscher and Commander Ring ordered the flight to take a course due west, in the hopes of spotting a possible trailing group of carriers. LCDR Waldron argued for a course based on the contact report, but was overruled. Ring subsequently led the group on an incorrect heading which resulted in the failure of the dive bombers to make contact with the Japanese fleet. LCDR Waldron made repeated attempts to take over the formation by radio before leading VT-8 off on his own. LCDR Waldron's initiative coupled with Ring's faulty tactics led to VT-8 attacking the Japanese force without fighter or dive bomber support. It is important to note, however, that all of the carrier-based torpedo squadrons suffered heavily in the battle, including VT-3, which attacked with fighter escort.

LCDR Waldron’s body was not recovered.

A memorial stone for LCDR Waldron is located in Black Hills National Cemetery, Sturgis, South Dakota.

USS Waldron (DD-699) was named in honor of John Charles Waldron with his widow sponsoring the ship.

LCDR Waldron is remembered in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy where his name is engraved under the “DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP” flag honoring those alumni killed in action.

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John C Waldron