Month: January 2008

Bill Evans and Torpedo Squadron 8

William R. Evans was a torpedo-bomber pilot in Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8). That squadron operated from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in World War II. Evans and all but one of his squadron mates were killed in action in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942.

Bill Evans and Charles Gillispie were roommates in the Wesleyan University Class of 1940. On December 2, 2007, Charles discussed his friendship with Dan Sachs and the creation of the Sachs Scholarship. Charles also remembered Bill Evans.

Acclaimed film director John Ford made a special short memorial film, Torpedo Squadron 8, for the families of members of Torpedo Squadron 8. Only thirty copies of the film,which was never shown publicly, were developed. The film has been available in the U.S. National Archives. Now it is also accessible on YouTube and the Internet Archive. Ford made this film in conjunction with making his widely viewed film, The Battle of Midway (1942).

Torpedo Squadron 8 received the Presidential Unit Citation on April 5, 1943. Its members were also awarded the Navy Cross. The citation for Bill Evans’ award states:

The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to William Robinson Evans, Jr. (0-098626), Ensign, U.S. Navy (Reserve), for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Torpedo Plane of Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8), embarked from 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, Ensign Evans resolutely, and with no thought of his own life, delivered 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.

Born: August 11, 1918 at Indianapolis, Indiana
Home Town: Indianapolis, Indiana

The Presidential Unit Citation similarly described the action.

The August 31, 1942 issue of Life Magazine featured as its cover story Ensign George Gay’s account of Torpedo Squadron 8. Gay was the only pilot who survived the squadron’s mission at Midway. This article includes an excerpt from a letter that Bill Evans wrote on December 7, 1941, the evening of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Habour.

A letter that Bill Evans wrote in April, 1942 appears in the Fetridge, William Harrison, ed., The Navy Reader (Indianapolis, New York, The Bobbs-Merrill company, 1943) pp. 36-38, under the title, “Letter from a Navy Pilot.”

Alvin B. Kernan’s recent book, The unknown Battle of Midway: the destruction of the American torpedo squadrons (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) considers Torpedo Squadron 8. This book generated many reviews, some detailed and some highly critical.

The Douglas TBD-1A ‘Devastator’ that Bill Evans flew has recently been identified.

Robert J. Mrazek, a distinguished writer of military fiction, has a book on Torpedo Squadron 8 forthcoming this spring.

Dan Sachs’ words included in the video above are from a letter excerpted in Matt Nimetz’s memorial, “Sachs Legacy Endures, Inspires,” a part of the booklet Celebrating 35 Years of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship (May 30, 2004).

in focus

A tourist couple asked me to take a picture of them in front of one of D.C.’s sites. Their camera was a Sony Cyber-Shot with face-detection technology. This technology ensures that their faces, which are surely quite familiar to each other, are in focus. The site, which they traveled across the ocean to see, is of less importance for photographs.

Think about that the next time you are pondering the features or capabilities of a communication service.

arresting politicians, Soviet-style: the case of Yekaterina Ivanovna

A friend who worked at the State Department moved out of the area to take up an academic post teaching history at a state university. He and his wife came back a week ago for the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA). They’re a swell, smart couple.

At their party in their hotel room at the site of the AHA meeting, my friend’s wife wore a black t-shirt that said on the front “arrest Bush.” My friend’s t-shirt said on the front “arrest Cheney first.” I think I get that. But on the back of their shirts was printed Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. That section doesn’t say anything about arresting political leaders.

Stroking my small head trying to figure out this conundrum, I remembered Lev Razgon’s story. Razgon was a Communist Party member in the Soviet Union. After graduating from a provincial teachers’ training institute and a short career writing children’s stories, he was imprisoned in the Gulag for 17 years.  Once by chance he shared a jeep ride in the Gulag with the deputy Chief Medical Officer.  The officer reminisced about having personally dined with Soviet President Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin.  The officer collapsed hysterically when Razgon inadvertently revealed that Kalinin’s wife was imprisoned nearby.

Razgon explained that this situation should not have been considered surprising: “If members of the Politburo were themselves liable to be arrested and shot without more ado, why should their wives enjoy special immunity?”[1] Stalin in fact arrested close relatives of many members of his inner circle.

President Kalinin’s wife, Yekaterina Ivanovna, was imprisoned in the Gulag from 1937 to 1945.  She spent years working at hard labor. Because of poor health, her job was then switched to working in the washhouse, picking nits out prisoners’ underwear. She was released after World War II ended. Razgon explained:

Kalinin was already terminally ill when he was permitted to see his wife again. He died only a year later, in the summer of 1946. … We reacted with very mixed feelings to the rhetoric gushing from the radio and the press about how deeply the deceased had been loved by the Party, the Soviet people and Comrade Stalin himself. Even more bizarre was to read in the papers a telegram of condolence from the Queen of England to a woman who only a year earlier had been picking nits out of underwear in a prison camp. But most terrible of all was to see the newspaper and magazine photographs of Kalinin’s funeral, with Yekaterina Ivanovna following the coffin, and Stalin and his entire retinue walking beside her.[2]

The human way is a hilly, wet foot-path.

*  *  *  *  *

Read more:

Notes:

[1] Lev Razgon, “The President’s Wife,” in True Stories (Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis, 1997) p. 14.

[2] Id. p. 18.