Out in Front at Midway

Q: Why were you and your squadron on Midway and what were conditions there!

Carey: We started out on the USS Saratoga [CV-3] to go to Wake [Island], part of the Wake relief force. The task force got about 200 miles from Wake, and Wake fell. The relief force turned around and went back, and they decided to put us off on Midway. We flew on up to Midway on Christmas Day of 1941. We had two Christmases, one on board ship and another one on Wake because we crossed the International Date Line. Things were quiet at the time.

A civilian force was building up the island. We were pretty perturbed because they didn’t want to unload ships on overtime. Anyway, we ended up on Eastern Island, which had the airfield. Construction work went on, revetments were built for the aircraft, dugouts were built in which we would sleep, and routine training went on.

Q: Was VMF-221 the only squadron on the island?

Carey: No, VMSB-241 [Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241] had the SB2U-3s [Vindicator aircraft]. They had flown out from Hawaii previously, escorted by a PBY [Catalina aircraft].

Q: What type of flying did you do, and what were the living conditions at the time? Carey: At that time no one knew an attack was imminent. We were just an outpost. It was really a communications and refueling station. Submarines would come in and go out on patrol. We took our hats off to those guys. They were the ones fighting the war at the moment.

Life in these dugouts was not the greatest. You did the best you could to make them comfortable. The mess hall provided good food. There was no alcohol on the island, no clubs or anything like that. We amused ourselves watching the gooney birds.

During this time we ran routine patrols around the island. We were flying two- plane sections and six-plane divisions. On normal training flights, we would patrol around the island and then we would run tactics and dogfights to try to keep everyone in shape.

Periodically a Japanese submarine would surface and lob a few shells onto the island. About the second time this happened we put up an evening patrol. We alternated with the other squadrons. We had two 100-pound bombs on the fighters, which were F2A Brewster Buffaloes. One night, in about February 1942, [Captain] Phil White and I were on patrol and a little sub popped up. There was a ceiling of about 1,200 feet that evening. We saw the sub and went after it, dropped our bombs, and missed. We didn’t have enough altitude. But we came around and strafed the sub and it immediately submerged. If we had had depth charges on instead of bombs it would have been duck soup; we would have had a sub.

Q: The Buffaloes weren’t real good planes, were they?

Carey: No, but they were a lot of fun to fly. A bunch were lost at Midway. They just didn't compare to the Japanese Zero.

Q: When did you first get any idea that the Japanese might attack?

Carey: Things went on pretty normally until May 1942, and then we began to get progressive reports that something was about to happen. At the time we didn't know that the Japanese communications code had been broken. We thought the intelligence people were really good. They were talking about the Japanese coming up, and reporting, “Midway is about to be attacked.” We began to train more intensely and reinforcements began to come in— [Army Air Forces] B-26s, Martins, and B-17s. We objected to the B-17s being out there because we had to pump gas for them by hand from barrels. It was a heck of a job. The Marines were helping the Army Air Forces; mostly they just came out with an aircrew, and we provided support for them. The Navy sent in I think it was six TBFs [Avenger aircraft], the first TBFs that got into action.

At that time VMF-221 was augmented by seven F4Fs [Wildcat aircraft]. Interestingly, we threw away our life vests to lighten the plane; but we did have parachutes. At that time I had in my division more pilots qualified in the F4F than any other division in the squadron, so I got the Grummans [F4Fs] instead of the F2A. [Captain] Marion Carl was my second section commander, [Captain Francis P.] McCarthy was my third section leader, and I led the division.

Q: What do you recall of that fateful day?

Carey: As we got closer to 4 June, everybody was getting more and more nervous. Intelligence was saying a big Japanese force was due on 3 June. They didn’t know where it was going to hit, just that it was coming. Then we were told it was delayed, that it wasn’t due in until 4 June. We said, “Geez, we must have some damn good intelligence out there. There must be submarines or something watching this force.” We were just amazed they knew the size of the force and when they were going to hit us.

Sure enough, that morning we were on the alert on the predawn patrol. For some reason, McCarthy and the last section did not join up with us. I never did find out what happened to him. The call came in to land and refuel. McCarthy didn’t get the word on that either—four of us landed and he was still flying around with two planes. We landed, refueled, and were ready. Just before we were about to take off again, McCarthy’s section came in, for low fuel.

And then the siren went off and the scramble came in. My wingman’s airplane fell off the planks in the dugout and got stuck in his revetment. It ended up that, out of the six planes I should have had with me, I was alone as the leader of the division, with Marion Carl and his wingman behind me.

You can imagine the confusion that morning. Boy, we had all the fighters taking off; the B-26s were getting off and the B-17s. The people running the radar, even though it was an early version, vectored us to the enemy formation and even had the altitude right. They had no altitude readout, but however they figured it, they vectored us right to them. By the time they all got squared away and ready to go, the squadron was pretty well split up into divisions.

We circled for altitude. I think we were typical young aviators, ready to go into battle; we’d been waiting for it, trained for it. We cleared our guns and, boy, here we go! Marion sent his wingman up to fly on my wing. We were the first ones to contact the enemy, to see them. I saw this flight coming in and it was below us. We were at 14,000 feet.

Q: Was the sun behind you?

Carey: Yes, we went out to the northwest. I gave the tally-ho to the rest of the squadron. There were 17 or 19 planes in the formation. I rolled into an overhead attack on the first of this group of Japanese dive bombers that was coming in. I went down through the formation and got the leader. It just exploded into a fireball—I had to push over even more to avoid flying through all the debris. [Second Lieutenant Clayton M.] Canfield was on my wing at the time and he stayed with me, and I think he picked off one of them. The Zeros were at 14,000 feet and the attacking bomber force was at 12,000 feet. Marion went through the fighter protection, which was behind the bombers. We never could understand why they were that far behind the aircraft they were supposed to be protecting. Marion pulled a bunch of them back with him, and that gave us a chance to come back and make a second pass at this formation.

On that initial attack, once you started getting shot at it awakened you to reality in a hurry. I no sooner rolled over into that first attack than I got one in my windshield, which was a thick, bulletproof windshield, and I thought, “Geez, these boys are serious.” But Canfield and I came back up to make a second pass at them, and I got hit in both legs coming down through. With neither leg operable, I thought the best thing to do was to go home. I got back to the island as best I could.

Q: Could you feel the rudders?

Carey: No, not at all. This black cloud would come in and get about to the instrument panel, and I’d shake it off and go on. I couldn’t use either leg, but I didn’t know how badly I was hurt. I was headed back to the island, and this wave [of blacking out] again would come in, and I’d push it off. Evidently, it was a strong human instinct to survive.

Q: What was your altitude?

Carey: I came all the way down to about 1,000 feet and my windshield was glazed over, spidered up. But it was always in the back of my mind that I was passing out, and I fought that thing back enough that I could control the plane with the stick. I flew the routine to get back to the field, circling, letting them know I was a friendly and so on. I got in there, and my wingman was still with me. Besides my legs, one of the tires had been shot out, so when I landed and it was rolling out, I started to ground loop [a sharp, out-of-control pivot around one of the main landing gear, quickly reversing direction] and I couldn’t control it because I couldn’t use either leg. One of the last things I remember is the two guys walking along beside the runway. I reached out and yelled and waved to them, “Get away, get away!” because I was starting to ground-loop into them. The last I saw they disappeared under the wing—I didn’t know if I hit them or not. Apparently, the wing went over them. I ended up ground-looping into one of the revetments. I know when I hit the revetment my head went forward and hit the gun sight. I waved and yelled at some of the ground Marines there in the defense battalion. They came and pulled me out of the plane and into one of the machine-gun revetments.

Just about then the Japanese wave hit. Bombs were falling, then Zeros were strafing the field at low altitude. This was the first engagement many of these antiaircraft gunners had ever been in, and you could see the tracers and they just weren’t leading enough. Boy, I wanted to get ahold of those guns and move it out in front. They got some, but they just weren’t giving enough lead.

When it settled down, they took me into the hospital. Our flight surgeon came in and looked at me and shook his head and said, “He’ll never walk again.” I’m happy to have proved him wrong. This was early in the morning, and they evacuated me and Herby [Captain Herbert M.] Merrill. He was burned and his fighter had been shot up, but he landed just off the lagoon and was picked up by a PT boat. Herby and I were flown back that night to the hospital on Pearl. I remained there until the end of the month and then was evacuated back to the States. I ended up in San Diego. When I landed at North Island, some of the Marines from the other side of the field came over and said, “Hi, how are you doing? I heard about you.” Then I went into the San Diego naval hospital.

Q: What is your final assessment of that day?

Carey: We took a tremendous licking of course, but obviously it was worth it. We took it less than they did—but was a turning point.