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Air Hero Lost in Night Battle to Save Carrier—Cited for Second Medal of Honor By Eugene Burns ABOARD A U. CARRIER 'OFF TARAWA, GILBERT IS LANDS, Nov. 27 (Delayed) (2)— “Butch, this is Phil....Butch, this is Phil....Butch, this is Phil. Again and again Lieut. Comman dee Jonn L. Phillips spoke into the radio transmitter of his to pedo bomber. He strained his ‘eyes for a glimpse of a familiar plane in the night. But “Butch”’—Lieut. Comman der Edward H. O’Hare, 29, hard flying, hard-fighting Congressional Medal of Honor ace of the Pacific war—never answered his pleading calls. Butch had gone down fighting. O'Hare was lost last night. It was the third successive night at tack—and the most sustained—by enemy planes on this task force. Exactly what happened no one knows. But Butch, with his boy ish smile and gay banter, hasn’t come back. Already planes are being readied against the dawn when a great search for the beloved shipmate will be launched. In a later dispatch Burns wrote that for two days car rier planes and aircraft from Taraway criss-crossed 2000 square miles of ocean, fruit lessly hunting for O'Hare. The navy has reported him miss ing. O'Hare, who won the congres sional Medal of Honor for Shoot ing down five Japanese planes which attempted to attack the carrier Lexington in the south seas in 1942, reaped new glory in the fight. Rear Admiral Arthur W. Brad ford, commander of the task force, said: “I’m sure that Butch and Phillips broke up the Jap to ped a attack plan and prob ably saved at least three of my ships from being hit.” Later the admiral said: “Butch, with accompanying planes, saved my formation from certain torpedo hits. I am recommending him for a second Congressional Medal of Honor.” Butch’s Hellcat fighter was last ‘seen in the early minutes of a blazing two-hour battle against 30 10 40 enemy torpedo planes, Cmér. Phillips, 33, whose home is in Linden, Va. and who wer e loft in a torpedo plane, said he saw something “drop straight of into the water.” He thought at first it was O’Hare’s parachute. Later, he decided it probably was “a Jap plane which Butch shot down.” Ensign Warren A. Skon, 24, of St. Paul, Minn. who was flying wing on O'Hare when they start ed to join Phillips, said he saw tracer bullets around O’Hare’s plane. “I saw it shear off and drop quickly below us,” he said. Aviation Ordnanceman Alving B. Kernan, 20, of Saratoga, Wayo., gunner of Phillips’ ship, said he saw O'Hare’s plane disappear in the darkness. Then it appeared and made an outside loop. “Then he was gone,” Kernan said. Lieut. (JG) Hazen B. Rand, 25, of Avon, Mass., heard Phillips tell O'Hare, “Butch, there’s a Jap plane coming into your tail.” “Then Butch’s lights went off,’ Rand said. “I looked again and he was gone.” But however Butch went, the safety of his comrades was among his last thoughts. He was the first to take off last night in the first naval action in which car riers had launched their planes at night. He flew on the right wing of Phillips’ torpedo bomber Skon was on the left wing. As they bore down on the tails of the enemy planes in the dark ness, it was hard to tell Phillips’ torpedo plane from the enemy’s. Butch called: “Hey, Phil, turn those run ning lights on. I want to be sure it's a yellow devil I'm drilling.” That was the last heard from Butch. O'Hare's wife and year-old daughter reside at Coronado, Calif., near San Diego. His mother lives in Phoenix, Ariz.
Newspaper Details
Lowell Sun
Lowell, Massachusetts, US
Sat, Dec 11, 1943
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Catherine M.
USA 10 Jul 2026
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