Dick Lugar: “Mr. President today marks the 60th anniversary of the first day of a battle that is regarded as the turning point of the…”

“Mr. President today marks the 60th anniversary of the first day of a battle that is regarded as the turning point of the war in the Pacific and that many historians list as one of the two or three most significant naval battles in recorded history. I am speaking, of course, about June 4, 1942, the beginning of the 3-day naval engagement known as the Battle of Midway. At 10:25 a.m. a Japanese armada including four carriers was steaming east toward Midway Island, 1,150 miles west of Pearl Harbor in the Central Pacific. Its objectives: Invade the strategically situated atoll, seize the U.S. base and airstrip, and (if possible) destroy what remained of our Pacific fleet after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the preceding December. At 10:30 a.m. three of the four Japanese carriers and their aircraft were a flaming shambles. Moments before, Japanese fighter cover had swatted down torpedo bomber squadrons from the U.S. carriers Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown, the final, fatal mission for 35 of 41 American planes and 68 of 82 pilots and gunners. But their courageous attack had drawn the fighters down to deck level, leaving the skies nearly empty for the 37 U.S. dive bombers who then appeared and, in five fateful minutes, changed the course of history. By nightfall, the fourth Japanese carrier, too, was a blazing wreck, a fitting coda to a day that reversed forever the military fortunes of Imperial Japan.”