Page 28 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • April 9, 2014 Another Medal of Honor candidate President Obama recently convened a ceremony to bestow the Medal of Honor upon 24 U.S. service personnel who should have been honored many years ago. These men apparently missed out because they were Jewish, African- American, or Hispanic. All but three of the winners just commemorated were long since deceased. This is the second round of rectifying the recognition of the valor of Americans who were ignored because of their ancestry. During the Clinton administration, examination of citations for the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest U.S. decoration for valor, belatedly conveyed the Medal of Honor on multiple Jewish, African-American, and Hispanic veterans -- and two dozen Japanese-Ameri- cans whose combat prowess in the Italian campaign was so noteworthy that even Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in American history, cited them for valor in his autobiography. Anybody who knows American history knows about the composition of the U.S. Congress in the 1940s and 1950s. Senator John Rankin summed up the arguments in favor of Japanese-American Relocation, later deemed a violation of the U.S. Constitution, with the memorable quote, “A Jap is a Jap.” Rankin believed that the African-American Civil Rights movement was a communist plot. With guys like that looking over the military citations for courage under fire, certain ethnic groups were sure to be under-represented. They were definitely under-represented in Congress, since most Southern blacks had been disenfranchised and could not vote until the late 1960s. The United States coped with the Great Depression by deporting Mexican families whose parents had been born in Texas and barring Filipinos from U.S. citizenship even though the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. Jewish refugees from Europe were often turned away from the United States. The lucky ones got into Mexico or the Dominican Republic. The men who finally got their Medals of Honor deserved them decades ago. Better late than never -- but late in this case was not a good thing. My nominee for a Medal of Honor is John C. Waldron. Lieutenant Commander Waldron was an inspiring leader, a superb pilot, and a very brave man. George Gay, who served with Waldron during the first six months of World War II, wrote a tribute to him called “The Skipper -- Torpedo Eight,” reprinted in the conclusion of his book “Sole Survivor,” which described Gay’s experiences at Midway and Guadalcanal. One of Gay’s memories of Waldron was that, when an inexperienced Navy pilot was killed trying to land a nose- heavy Brewster Buffalo on the “U.S.S. Hornet,” Waldron consoled the widow and then vanished for two days. When Waldron returned, the Brewster Buffaloes that had been temporarily grounded were replaced. “This all happened because the Skipper simply did not want his boys flying that sort of equipment,” George Gay wrote. “He was simply taking care of his own.” After Pearl Harbor, Waldron shifted his squadron’s training into high gear. He also built the morale of his young flyers. In San Diego, he came up with a big box of cow hides, Gay recalled. The men were all told how to make shoulder holsters for their .45s. From then on, the holsters were part of their flight gear. They also had to carry hunting knives as survival gear, and had to exercise to stay fit. Waldron ordered bullet-proof seats and double machine-gun mounts for the rear-seat men, who doubled as radio operators and machine gunners. The pre-war pilots from other squadrons, who saw the Navy as a salt-water country club, laughed at all this Explorer Scout stuff. However, after a couple of aircraft from other squad- rons disappeared at sea, they began to ask Waldron’s men for spare hunting knives. Waldron had another innovation. He said he taught himself to think as be believed the Japanese thought. His last words to Gay, his navigation officer, before the take- off were, “Follow me. Don’t think I’m lost because I think those two forces will swing together north of where the group is headed. By the time they locate (the Japanese), we should be there. I hope we aren’t late.” Before they left, Waldron wrote a memo to the young pilots in his squadron. “My greatest hope is that we will encounter a favorable tactical situation, but if we don’t, and the worse comes to the worst, I want each of you to do his utmost to destroy our enemies,” he wrote. “If there is only one plane left to make a final run in, I want that man to go in and get a hit. May God be with us all.” Waldron’s squadron, Torpedo Eight, found the Japanese, but they were all by themselves. Waldron sent a radio mes- sage and then, low on fuel, ordered a torpedo attack. The other squadrons got the message. Waldron and his men, flying obsolescent Douglas Devastator torpedo planes, went in for the kill. The Japanese Zero fighter planes shot them all down, most of them before they got into range to drop the unreliable torpedoes. One other American squad- ron followed them. The other squadron lost every plane but two and scored no hits. None of the other squadrons were to be seen. Abruptly, the separate Douglas Dauntless dive bombers appeared, high over the Japanese fleet, and in a brilliant and fearless attack they hit three of the four Japanese air- craft carriers and set them on fire. The course of the battle of Midway was changed in a moment, due to Waldron’s self-proclaimed ability to think like the Japanese and his decision to follow his instincts rather than his orders. He never lived to see the victory. The last Gay saw of Wal- dron, the skipper was standing in his cockpit as his aircraft started to burn and dive. Waldron died a genuine hero, and he received a post- humous Navy Cross and Purple Heart. A ship was later named after him, but Waldron never received the Medal of Honor. His instincts and courage may have saved Hawaii from invasion after a possible Japanese victory at Midway, where the U.S., which did not have a single battleship in fighting trim after the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor, was heavily outnumbered and had been losing until Torpedo Eight drew the dive bombers down on the Japanese car- riers. The first problem may have been that Waldron, brave and intelligent as he was, was technically insubordinate. Waldron found the Japanese fleet everybody else had miss- ing simply by following his instincts. He won the battle and saved Hawaii by disobeying orders. The second problem was that Waldron was a self-pro- claimed Sioux Indian. His father, an Anglo-Saxon from New Hampshire who may have been part Indian, walked away from a troubled marriage and left John to be raised by his mother, a full-blooded Oglala Lakota, and her brothers. People on the reservation still keep track of his genealogy. Waldron gloried in his Lakota ancestry and called himself “The Old Sioux.” Gay, who came from Texas in a less enlightened era, described Waldron -- whom he venerated -- as “about one- eighth Sioux Indian on his mother’s side...When we learned this, were figured, ‘So that’s it. OK. What the hell! We’ll go along.” Indian blood was still held in dread in some parts of the West in those days, and Gay may have been trying to be kind, but Waldron’s mother was a full-blood. Anyone who looks at Waldron’s photographs can spot his Indian ances- try instantly. An Annapolis graduate and a licensed, but non-practicing, attorney who studied law in his spare time, Waldron was married to a white woman when intermar- riage was still illegal in at least a dozen U.S. states. The most serious problem was the final radio call. Pro- fessor Alvin Kernan, an 18-year-old sailor at Midway, later a professor at Princeton, wrote a book that noted an odd fact: The dive bombers and the other torpedo squadron found the Japanese after Waldron called his final message, but two other squadrons -- including the fighter squadron that was supposed to be flying top cover -- “got lost.” Kernan posits that they chickened out. The squadron commanders never saw another promotion, he said, and were gradually eased out of the Navy, but they were never formally charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy, or subjected to psycho- logical evaluation and medical discharge. Deliberately or accidentally, they fouled up and may have gotten a lot of brave men got killed and wasted a chance to shorten the war because Torpedo Eight and the other squadron had to attack the Japanese fleet seriously outnumbered and with- out a fighter escort. Perhaps while these senior officers were still alive, compassion or professional pride prevented the Navy or Congress from publicizing what Kernan calls “The Unknown Battle of Midway.” Kernan’s case looks eminently plausible. Perhaps Wal- dron missed his Medal of Honor due to miscegenation laws long since discarded. Perhaps it was a cover-up for the cow- ardice of senior officers. But Waldron deserves that Medal of Honor. We should insist that “The Old Sioux” gets the honor he deserves for saving Hawaii. Letters to the Editor Grateful for generosity Dear Editor: I am writing to share expressed gratitude to the town of Midland Park for providing funds and clothing to the Jan. 1 victims of the house fire on the corner of Godwin and Pat- erson. Though what happened was very unfortunate, the community’s response was quite encouraging. Donated and distributed were $1,290 in checks, $225 in gift cards, large amounts of clothing, plus greatly needed prayers and moral support. Thank you to everyone involved. Your help was truly appreciated. Lloyd Vorderstrasse, Pastor Midland Park Church of God Local towns & schools to receive increased funding Dear Editor: On Tuesday, Feb. 25, Governor Christie presented his fiscal year 2015 budget to the New Jersey Legislature for consideration. This is the fifth budget that Governor Chris- tie has presented, and I am proud to say that this the fifth consecutive budget he has presented that does not raise taxes while continuing to fund critical services. The gov- ernor’s string of fiscally responsible budgets with no tax increases represents a historic milestone for our state. This FY 2015 budget proposal features $2.2 billion less in discretionary spending than the budget for FY 2008 under then-Governor Jon Corzine. With Governor Chris- tie’s proposed budget, the state will make the single larg- est payment in our state’s history to the public employee pension and health benefit fund, continuing to fulfill the government’s obligations to the state’s employees. For the fourth year in a row, the governor has increased aid to edu- cation, providing the most funding for education in New Jersey history. As part of the administration’s commitment to grow New Jersey’s economy and create jobs, the proposed budget will provide business tax relief for the fourth year in a row. Since FY 2011, the state has provided businesses with over $2 billion in tax relief to attract employers and jobs to our state. In just five years, this administration and the fiscally conservative leaders in the legislature have virtually ended our state’s reliance on one-shot gimmicks to fund our state budget. Below are some of the highlights of Governor Christie’s proposed FY2015 budget: • $1.505 billion in aid to municipalities to help them reduce the overall property tax burden on homeowners; • $12.891 billion in school funding; a 3 percent increase from last year’s budget; • $2.316 billion in higher education funding; a 7.4 per- cent increase over last year’s budget; • $2.25 billion in pension payments; a 42 percent increase from last year’s budget; • $616.5 million in business tax incentives and relief for job creators, a 14 percent increase over last year’s budget; and • $985.1 million in hospital funding to ensure everyone (continued on page 29)