Edward O'Hare
Lt. Commander Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare (March 13, 1914 – November 27, 1943) was a naval aviator of the United States Navy who on February 20, 1942 became the US Navy's first flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. Butch O'Hare's final action took place on the night of November 27, 1943 while he was leading the US Navy's first-ever nighttime fighter attack launched from an aircraft carrier. During this encounter with a group of Japanese torpedo bombers O'Hare was shot down; his aircraft was never found. In 1945 the US Navy destroyer USS O'Hare (DD-889) was named in his honor. A few years later O'Hare was honored, when Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, suggested a name change of Chicago's Orchard Depot Airport as tribute to Butch O'Hare. On September 19, 1949 the Chicago-area airport was renamed O'Hare International Airport. The airport displays a Grumman F4F-3[1] museum aircraft replicating the one flown by Butch O'Hare during his Medal of Honor winning flight. The Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat on display was recovered virtually intact from the bottom of Lake Michigan, where it sank after a training accident in 1943 when it went off the training aircraft carrier USS Wolverine (IX-64). The aircraft was restored by the Air Classic's Museum to look like the exact one that O'Hare flew and is exhibited in Terminal Two at the west end of the ticketing lobby to honor O'Hare International Airport's namesake.
Early life
Edward Henry Butch O'Hare was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Edward Joseph O'Hare and Selma O'Hare. Butch had two sisters, Patricia and Marilyn. When their parents divorced in 1927, Butch and his sisters stayed with their mother Selma in St. Louis while their father Edward moved to Chicago. Butch's father had been a lawyer who had been working closely with Al Capone before turning against him and helping convict Al Capone for tax evasion.
Butch O'Hare graduated from the Western Military Academy (WMA) in 1932, and the following year went on to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Graduated and appointed an Ensign from 3 June 1937, he served 2 years on board the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40), before reporting for flight training.[2] In 1939 he started flight training at NAS Pensacola in Florida, learning the basics on Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-1 "Yellow Peril" and Stearman NS-1 biplane trainers, later on the advanced trainer SNJ. On the nimble Boeing F4B-4A he trained in aerobatics as well as aerial gunnery. He also flew the SBU Corsair and the TBD Devastator.
In November 1939, his father was gunned down, most likely by Al Capone's gunmen. During Capone's tax evasion trial in 1931 and 1932, O'Hare's father provided incriminating evidence which helped finally put Capone away. There is speculation that this was done to ensure that Butch got into Annapolis, or to set a good example. Whatever the motivation, the elder O'Hare was shot down in his car, a week before Capone was released from Alcatraz.
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When Butch finished his naval aviation training on May 2, 1940 he was assigned to VF-3, USS Saratoga's fighter squadron. O'Hare now trained on the Grumman F3F and then graduated to the Brewster F2A Buffalo. Lt. John Thach, then Executive Officer of VF-3, discovered O'Hare's exceptional flying abilities and closely mentored the promising young fighter pilot.[3] Thach, who later developed the Thach Weave aerial combat tactic, emphasized gunnery in his training. In 1941 more than half of all VF-3 pilots, including Butch, earned the E for gunnery excellence.
In early 1941, Fighting Squadron Three transferred to the USS Enterprise (CV-6), while carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) underwent maintenance and overhaul work at Bremerton Navy Yard.
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In July 1941 O'Hare met his future wife, Rita Wooster (proposing to her the first time he met her) and also made his first flight in a Grumman F4F Wildcat. He and Rita married on Saturday, 6 September 1941. For their honeymoon, they sailed to Hawaii on separate ships, Butch on Saratoga, which had completed modifications at Bremerton, and Rita on the Matson liner Lurline. Butch was called to duty the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
On 11 January 1942, the carrier Saratoga was damaged by a Japanese torpedo hit while patrolling southwest of Hawaii, she spent five months in repair on the West Coast, so VF-3 squadron transferred to the USS Lexington (CV-2).
World War II service
Medal of Honor flight
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O'Hare's most famous flight occurred during the Pacific War on February 20, 1942. Lt. O'Hare was the only US Navy fighter pilot available in the air when Japanese bombers were attacking his aircraft carrier Lexington.
Butch O'Hare was on board the aircraft carrier Lexington, which had been assigned the task of penetrating enemy-held waters north of New Ireland. While still 450 miles from the harbor at Rabaul, at 1015, the Lexington picked up an unknown aircraft on radar 35 miles from the ship. A six-plane combat patrol was launched, two fighters being directed to investigate the contact. These two planes, under command of Lieutenant Commander Thach shot down a four-engined Kawanishi H6K4 Type 97 ("Mavis") flying boat about 43 miles out at 1112. Later two other planes of the combat patrol were sent to another radar contact 35 miles ahead, shooting down a second Mavis at 1202. A third contact was made 80 miles out, but reversed course and disappeared. At 1542 a jagged vee signal drew the attention of the Lex's radar operator. The contact then was lost, but reappeared at 1625 forty-seven miles west and closing fast. Butch O'Hare, flying F4F Wildcat BuNo 4031 "white F-15", was one of several pilots launched to intercept. Of the incoming nine Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers, at this time five had already been shot down.
At 1700, the Lexington's radar picked up a second formation of Bettys only 12 miles out, on the disengaged side of the task force, completely unopposed. The carrier had only two Wildcats left to confront the intruders: Butch and his wingman "Duff" Dufilho. As the Lexington’s only protection, they raced eastward and arrived 1,500 feet above eight attacking Bettys 9 miles out. Dufilho’s guns were jammed and wouldn’t fire, leaving only O'Hare to protect the carrier. The enemy formation was a V of V's flying very close together and using their rear facing guns for mutual protection. O'Hare's Wildcat, armed with four 50-caliber guns, with 450 rounds per gun, had enough ammunition for about 34 seconds of firing.
O'Hare's initial maneuver was a high-side diving attack employing accurate deflection shooting. He accurately placed bursts of gunfire into a Betty's wing fuel tanks; when the stricken craft on the right side of the formation abruptly lurched to starboard, he ducked to the other side of the V formation and aimed at the enemy bomber on the extreme left. When he made his third and fourth firing passes, the Japanese planes were close enough to the American ships for them to fire their anti-aircraft guns. O'Hare's hits were so concentrated, the nacelle of a Betty literally jumped out of its mountings, after O'Hare blew up the Betty's port engine. O'Hare managed to shoot down five bombers, and damage a sixth. The three survivors managed to drop their ordnance, but all three bombs missed. Lieutenant Commander Thach arrived at the scene with other pilots of the flight, later reporting that at one point he saw three of the enemy bombers falling in flames at the same time.
With his ammunition expended, O'Hare returned to his carrier, and was fired on accidentally but with no effect by a .50-caliber machine gun from the Lexington. O'Hares plane had, in fact, been hit by only one bullet during his flight, the single bullet hole in F-15's port wing disabling the airspeed indicator. According to Thach, Butch then approached the gun platform to calmly say to the embarrassed anti-aircraft gunner who had fired at him, "Son, if you don't stop shooting at me when I've got my wheels down, I'm going to have to report you to the gunnery officer."
Thach calculated that O'Hare had used only sixty rounds of ammunition for each bomber he destroyed; an impressive feat of marksmanship. In the opinion of Admiral Brown and of Captain Frederick C. Sherman, commanding the Lexington, Lieutenant O'Hare's actions may have saved the carrier from serious damage or even loss. By 1900 all Lexington planes had been recovered except for two F4F-3 Wildcats shot down while attacking enemy bombers; both were lost while making steady, no-deflection runs from astern of their targets. The pilot of one fighter was rescued, the other went down with his plane.
The Lexington returned after the New Guinea raid to Pearl Harbor for repairs and to have her obsolete 8-inch guns removed, transferring some of her F4F-3 fighter planes to the USS Yorktown (CV-5) including BuNo 4031 "white F-15" that O'Hare had flown during his famous mission. The pilot assigned to fly this plane to Yorktown was admonished by O'Hare just before take off to take good care of his plane. Moments later, the plane unsuccessfully took off, rolling down the deck and into the water; the pilot was recovered, but "white F-15" was lost.
Accolades
On 26 March Butch was greeted at Pearl Harbor by a horde of reporters and radio announcers. During a radio broadcast in Honolulu, he enjoyed the opportunity to say hello to Rita ("Here's a great big radio hug, the best i can do under the circumstances") and to his mother ("Love from me to you"). On 8 April he thanked the Grumman Aircraft Corporation plant at Bethpage (where the F4F Wildcat was made) for 1,150 cartons of Lucky Strike cigarettes, a grand total of 230,000 smokes. Ecstatic Grumman workers had passed the hat to buy the cigarettes in appreciation of O'Hare's combat victories in one of their F4F Wildcats. A loyal Camel smoker, Butch opened a carton, deciding, that it was the least he could do for the good people back in Bethpage. In his letter to the Grumman employees he wrote, "You build them, we'll fly them and between us, we can't be beaten." It was a sentiment he would voice often in the following two months.
By shooting down five bombers O'Hare became a flying ace, was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and became the first naval aviator to be awarded the Medal of Honor. With President Franklin D. Roosevelt looking on, O'Hare's wife Rita placed the Medal around his neck. After receiving the Medal of Honor from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lt. O'Hare was described as "modest, inarticulate, humorous, terribly nice and more than a little embarrassed by the whole thing".[4]
Official Citation
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in aerial combat, at grave risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, as section leader and pilot of Fighting Squadron 3 on 20 February 1942. Having lost the assistance of his teammates, Lt. O'Hare interposed his plane between his ship and an advancing enemy formation of 9 attacking twin-engine heavy bombers. Without hesitation, alone and unaided, he repeatedly attacked this enemy formation, at close range in the face of intense combined machinegun and cannon fire. Despite this concentrated opposition, Lt. O'Hare, by his gallant and courageous action, his extremely skillful marksmanship in making the most of every shot of his limited amount of ammunition, shot down 5 enemy bombers and severely damaged a sixth before they reached the bomb release point. As a result of his gallant action--one of the most daring, if not the most daring, single action in the history of combat aviation--he undoubtedly saved his carrier from serious damage." [5]
O'Hare received further decorations later in 1943.[6]
Non-combat duty
O'Hare was not employed on combat duty from early 1942 until late 1943; activities in this period included flying a F4F-3A Wildcat (BuNo 3986 "white F-13") as Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Thach's wingman for publicity footage on 11 April 1942, the Medal of Honor presentation on 21 April 1942, a parade in his hometown of St. Louis on 25 April 1942, and speaking on war bond tours.
On 19 June 1942 O'Hare assumed command of VF-3, relieving Lieutenant Commander Thach.[7] He was relocated to Maui, Hawaii, to instruct other pilots in combat tactics. US Navy policy was to use its best combat pilots to train newer pilots, in contrast to the Japanese practice of keeping their best pilots flying combat missions. Ensign Edward L. "Whitey" Feightner, who served with O'Hare in July 1942, later said that one of the best pieces of information O'Hare passed on to him, was "If you ever jump one of these Zeros and you surprise him, remember, the first thing he's going to do is a loop. Don't follow him into it! By the time you go into it a second time, he'll be behind you. The first thing you should do when he starts up the loop is make a hard right turn and keep turning. You'll come right around, and when he bottoms out of the loop, you'll be right on his tail!" O'Hare also related "First of all, remember, in today's world, whenever you take off and engage the enemy, you're going to be outnumbered. If you want to survive this War, you have to look behind you every chance you get. Even when you pull the trigger, be sure to look behind because there's gonna be someone back there."
An anecdote about O'Hare, serving as an instructor on hawaii mid-1942:
- "(O'Hare) was a great swimmer and spear fisherman, and he insisted that the squadron swim with him. Swimming with Butch O'Hare meant that at eight o'clock in the morning, you swam out into the ocean off Maui; he would still be out there at three in the afternoon! If he got hungry, Butch would roll over and dive, and the next thing you knew, he would come up with a fish of some sort. Then he'd just roll over and lie on his back like an otter and eat the thing raw! He really impressed us with that! One day, he came back to the surface with an octopus draped over his arm. He said, 'Now, you have to learn how to kill these things, boys: you bite 'em right behind the eye.' And with that, he chomped down! The octopus has some sort of spinal cord there, and biting it there does kill it! Then we had to go back to the beach where Butch would put these things in a frying pan with a little oil and some salt and stir them around. He enjoyed them, but they tasted like old rubber tires to me!"[8]
At the end of March 1943 O'Hare made Ensign Alexander Vraciu, a young Naval Reservist just out of flight school, his wingman. On July 15, 1943, VF-3 swapped designations with VF-6 squadron.
Return to combat
Equipped with the highly successful follow-on to the Wildcat, the new Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, two-thirds of VF-6 (twenty-four F6F-3s) under Butch O'Hare's command embarked on August 22, 1943 on the light carrier USS Independence (CVL-22).[9] The arrival of the F6Fs with their powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engines in late 1943 combined with the deployment of the new Essex class carriers and the Independence class carriers immediately gave the US Pacific Fleet air supremacy wherever the Fast Carrier Force operated. The Hellcat's first combat mission occurred on August 31, 1943, in a strike against Marcus Island. The new F6F did well against Japanese fighters, and proved that with the right tactics and teamwork the Japanese Zero need not be considered a superior enemy. VF-6's combat debut on the Independence also went reasonably well. For his actions in battles near Marcus Island on August 31, 1943, O'Hare was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.[10] For his actions in subsequent missions near Wake Island on October 5, 1943, O'Hare was awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross.[11]
On October 10, 1943, O'Hare flew with VF-6 again in the air strikes against Wake Island. On this mission Lt.(jg) Alex Vraciu, the future ace, was his wingman - both Butch and Vraciu scored that day. When they came across an enemy formation Butch took the outside airplane and Vraciu took the inside plane. Butch went below the clouds to get a Japanese Mitsubishi Zero and Vraciu lost him, so Vraciu kept an eye on a second Zero that went to Wake Island and landed. Vraciu strafed the Zero on the ground, then saw a Betty bomber and shot it down. Upon returning to the carrier, O'Hare asked Vraciu where he went and Vraciu knew then that he should have definitely stayed with his leader. Alex Vraciu later told after the war, "O'Hare taught many of the squadron members little things that would later save their lives. One example was to swivel your neck before starting a strafing run to make sure enemy fighters were not on your tail." Vraciu also learned from O'Hare the "highside pass" used for attacking the Japanese Mitsubishi Betty bombers. The highside technique was used to avoid the fatal 20-mm fire of the Betty's tail gunner. The Wake Island raid would be the last occasion Butch would lead VF-6 in battle. According to orders dated 17 September 1943, October found Butch O'Hare as Commander Air Group (CAG) commanding Air Group Six, embarked on USS Enterprise (CV-6). Functioning as CAG O'Hare was given command of the entire Enterprise air group: F6F fighters, SBD Dauntless dive bombers, TBF Avenger torpedo planes and a hundred pilots. Butch's VF-6 squadron would "still stay broken up" among three light aircraft carriers, the squadron had made itself just too useful filling out the light carrier air groups, and AirPac had no well-trained replacements on hand. As a result, Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2) boarded the USS Enterprise from November 1943 and became now Butch's new Fighting Squadron. While he readied his new air group, he suffered what he intended as only a temporary separation from his beloved VF-6 "Felix the Cat" Squadron. The news, that the CO had to leave them, hit also the men of VF-6 hard. O'Hare first flew a TBM-1 Avenger as CAG-6 command aircraft with bombardier Del Delchamps, AOM1/c and radioman Hal Coleman as crew members. With its good radio facilities, docile handling, and long range, the Grumman Avenger made an ideal command aircraft for Air Group Commanders (CAGs), but Butch considered the Grumman torpedo bomber as a 'lame turkey' compared to the Grumman F6F fighter. Later Rear Admiral Radford honored a request from O'Hare to take a fighter as command aircraft instead of the Avenger, so O'Hare happily drew Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat Bureau Number 66168 from the fleet pool to become his principal CAG plane, numbered "00". From November 20-23, 1943, the US forces landed in the Gilberts (Tarawa and Makin), and the Enterprise joined in providing close air support to the Marines landing on Makin Island. Equipped with the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the US Navy fighter pilots owned the skies and could protect the fleet from attacking Japanese aircraft.
Mission into Darkness
Faced with US daylight air superiority, the Japanese quickly developed tactics to send torpedo-armed Mitsubishi G4M Betty bombers on night missions from their bases in the Marianas against the US aircraft carriers. In late November they launched these low-altitude strikes almost nightly to get at Enterprise and other American ships, so Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford, O'Hare and Commander Tom Hamilton, CV-6 Air Officer, were deeply involved in developing ad hoc counter-tactics, the first carrier-based night fighter operations of the US Navy. O'Hare's plan required the Carrier's Fighter Director Officer (FDO) to spot incoming enemy formations at a distance and send a 'Bat Team' section consisting of a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and two F6F Hellcat fighters toward the Japanese intruders. Although improvements in new types of aviation radar were soon forthcoming from the engineers at MIT and the electronic industry, the available primitive radars in 1943 were very bulky, attributed to the fact, they contained vacuum tube technology. Radars were carried only on the roomy TBF Avengers, but not on the smaller and faster Hellcats, so the radar-equipped TBF Avenger would lead the Hellcats into position behind the incoming bombers, close enough for the F6F pilots to spot visually the blue exhaust flames of the Japanese bombers. Finally, the Hellcats would close in and shoot down the torpedo-carrying bombers.
One of the four 'Bat Team' fighter pilots to conduct this experimental night fighter operations to intercept and destroy enemy bombers attacking Allied landing forces was Lt. Roy Marlin Voris, who later founded the Navy's flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels.
On the night of 27 November 1943, the Enterprise introduced the experiment in the co-operative control of Avengers and Hellcats for night fighting, when the three-plane team from the ship broke up a large group of land-based bombers attacking Task Group TG 50.2. O'Hare volunteered to lead this mission to conduct the first-ever Navy nighttime fighter attack from an aircraft carrier to intercept a large force of enemy torpedo bombers. When the call came to man the planes, Butch O'Hare was eating. He grabbed up part of his supper in his fist and started running for the ready room. He was dressed in loose marine coveralls. The night fighter unit consisting of 1 VT and 2 VF was catapulted between 1758 and 1801. The pilots for this flight were Butch O'Hare and Ensign Warren Andrew "Andy" Skon of VF-2 in F6F's and the Squadron Commander of VT-6, LCMDR. John L. Phillips in a TBF1-C. The crew of the TBF torpedo plane consisted on Lt.(jg) H. B. Rand, a radar specialist and Alvin Kernan, A. B., AOM1/c. The 'Black Panthers', as the night fighters were dubbed, took off before dusk and flew out into the incoming mass of Japanese planes.
Confusion and complications endangered the success of the mission. The Hellcats first had trouble finding the Avenger, the FDO had difficulty guiding any of them on the targets. O'Hare and Ensign W. Skon in their F6F Hellcats finally got into position behind the Avenger. Butch O'Hare had been well aware of the deadly danger of friendly fire in this situation - he radioed to the Avenger Pilot of his section, "Hey, Phil, turn those running lights on. I want to be sure it's a yellow devil I'm drilling."
O'Hare was last seen at the 5 o'clock position of the TBF. About that time, the turret gunner of the TBF, Alvin Kernan (AOM1/c) noticed a Japanese G4M Betty bomber above and almost directly behind O'Hare's 6 o'clock position.[12] Kernan opened fire with the TBF's .50-cal. machine gun in the dorsal turret and a Japanese gunner fired back. Butch O'Hare's F6F Hellcat apparently was caught in a crossfire. Seconds later Butch's F6F slid out of formation to port, pushing slightly ahead at about 160 knots and then vanished in the dark. The Avenger pilot, Lieutenant Commander Phillips, called repeatedly to O'Hare but received no reply. Ensign Skon responded: "Mr. Phillips, this is Skon. I saw Mr. O'Hare's lights go out and, at the same instant, he seemed to veer off and slant down into darkness." Phillips later asserted, as the Hellcat dropped out of view, it seemed to release something drop almost vertically at a speed too slow for anything but a parachute. Then something "whitish-gray" appeared below, perhaps the splash of the plane plunging into the sea.
Lieutenant Commander Phillips reported the position (1°26' north latitude, 171°56' east longitude) to the ship. After dawn a three plane search was made, but no trace of O'Hare or his plane was found. On November 29 a PBY Catalina flying boat also conducted a search with no positive result, and O'Hare was reported missing in action.[13] There is no definitive answer as to whether he had been brought down by friendly fire or the Japanese bomber's nose gunner.
The hardest thing O'Hare's former wingman Lt. Alex Vraciu had to do was to talk to O'Hare's wife Rita after returning stateside.[14]
As O'Hare went missing on November 27, 1943, and was declared dead a year later, his widow Rita received her husband's posthumous decorations, a Purple Heart and the Navy Cross on November 27, 1944.
In September 1949, O'Hare's name was engraved on the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific "Wall of the Missing" in Honolulu. President John F. Kennedy at wreath-laying ceremony to honor Butch O'Hare (Chicago O'Hare Airport, March 1963). The Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum is honoring O'Hare with a F4F-3A on display and a plaque dedicated by the USS Yorktown CV-10 association, "May Butch O'Hare rest in peace..."
See also
Notes
- ^ "Wildcat"
- ^ Annapolis
- ^ S. Ewing, J.B. Lundstrom: "Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare", pg 93-94
- ^ Aviation History magazine, November 1995
- ^ In 1942 O'Hare and the US Navy thought that nine planes constituted the second wave, but actually there were only eight, as Japanese war records are showing. In addition to this, the Japanese Mitsubishi G4M Betty bomber was only a medium bomber, not a heavy bomber, as stated wrong in the MOH citation.
- ^ homeofheroes.com article on decorations
- ^ copy of original document
- ^ April 1999 "Flight Journal" article "8 A.M., JULY 1942, MAUI. Swimming and serving with Butch O'Hare", personal memoirs of RADM (USN Ret.) Edward L. Feightner.
- ^ command
- ^ [1]
- ^ DFC Citation. See also Gold Star citation
- ^ Photo of TBF turret gun.
- ^ cv6.org article.
- ^ Alex Vraciu as a guest speaker at the "Golden Gate Wing monthly dinner meeting" of the Commemorative Air Force on February 22, 2001.
References
- "Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare" (cover) by Steve Ewing, John B. Lundstrom, 1997, ISBN 1557502471
- "The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway" (cover) by John B. Lundstrom, 1984, ISBN 0870211897
- "Legends of Airpower", DVD, Episode #309: "Edward Butch O'Hare" by 3 Roads Communications, Inc.
- "Air Classics", May 2003 (cover) Restored F4F-3 painted in the markings of "F-3" used in April 1942 for shooting publicity footage.
- "TIME Magazine", December 20, 1943 (Vol. XLII No. 25), "World Battlefronts: Butch O’Hare"
External links
- "Edward "Butch" O'Hare - WWII Ace". Acepilots.com. 2003. Retrieved 2006-02-21.
- "Edward H. "Butch" O'Hare". Findagrave.com. November 3, 2000. Retrieved 2006-05-06.
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- "LCDR Edward Henry 'Butch' O'Hare". Homeofheros.com. 2000. Retrieved 2006-03-06.
- "World War II Medal of Honor Recipient Lt. Commander Edward Henry 'Butch' O'Hare". Medalofhonor.com. Retrieved 2006-03-06.
- "Butch O'Hare Quiz". Ohare.com. Retrieved 2006-03-06.
- ""Foxhole Remembers Lt. Cdr. Edward O'Hare"". Freerepublic.com. Retrieved 2006-03-26.
- ""Empire of the Son"". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2004-11-29.
- 1914 births
- 1943 deaths
- American aviators
- American World War II flying aces
- St. Louisans
- Chicagoans
- Irish-Americans
- Naval aviators
- Navy Cross recipients
- Navy Medal of Honor recipients
- Recipients of US Distinguished Flying Cross
- Recipients of the Purple Heart medal
- United States Naval Academy graduates
- United States Navy officers