John C. Waldron
Naval Aviator, Squadron Commander · 1900–1942
Who is John C. Waldron?
John Charles Waldron was a United States Navy officer of Lakota Sioux descent from South Dakota who commanded Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet during the Battle of Midway in June 1942. Convinced that his squadron's slow, obsolete Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers would find the Japanese carrier fleet near Midway Atoll, Waldron broke from the rest of the American strike formation and led his fifteen aircraft directly toward the enemy. On the morning of 4 June 1942, Waldron's squadron attacked the Japanese carrier force without fighter escort and without any dive-bomber support arriving in time. All fifteen of the squadron's aircraft were shot down by Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft fire, and only one of the thirty aviators, Ensign George Gay, survived by hiding beneath a seat cushion in the water. Waldron himself was killed in the attack. Though tactically a disaster for VT-8, the squadron's attack drew Japanese fighter cover down to low altitude, helping clear the way for American dive bombers to arrive undetected and sink three Japanese carriers within minutes, a turning point historians credit as decisive in the American victory at Midway. Waldron was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Sources: Walter Lord, Incredible Victory (1967) · U.S. Navy Cross citation, John C. Waldron (1942) · Robert J. Mrazek, A Dawn Like Thunder: The Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight (2008)