Crossing the line: boundaries and transgression

Crossing the Line

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Alvin Kernan, the author, was an enlisted sailor during WWII. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway, the U.S.S. Hornet when it was attacked and sunk in the South Pacific, and as an aerial gunner on an Avenger aircraft. Kernan earned the Navy Cross, a Distinguished Flying Cross, and five air medals. He relates his memories of life aboard an aircraft carrier and, along with his other experiences, presents a partial historical account of the War in the Pacific.

The sole focus of this report will be to report on some of the acts of honor, courage, and commitment that Kernan participated in and witnessed during his years aboard the carriers and Avenger aircraft.

Courage at Midway

"In the late morning we waited for our planes on the deck of the Enterprise," says Kernan. "The fighters came back intact, and then only four torpedo planes -- the last so badly shot up it had to be pushed overboard immediately. Nine of fourteen aircrews were lost to Japanese zeroes protecting their fleet. The loss was unimagineable" (Kernan, 2007, pp. 61-62).

The Battle of Midway, according the Kernan, was won and the Japanese carriers sunk for only one reason -- "the aircrews of those old, decrepit, out-dated torpedo bombers, whose blazing courage and sense of duty drove them to fly their old planes with their defective torpedoes to a desperate end without flinching" (Kernan, 2007, p. 61). These torpedo bomber attacks, through miscommunication, bad coordination, and terrible navigation errors, though a miserable failure, kept the Japanese carriers from rearming their own bombers to attack the U.S. carriers. The Japanese were so occupied with the failed attacks by the U.S. torpedo bombers, they could not afford the 45 minutes it took to get their own bombers and torpedo planes up from their hangar decks to send them off. Eventually U.S. dive-bombers found, destroyed and sunk four of the five Japanese carriers -- carriers that had been involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Death of the U.S.S. Hornet

"Two great heavy thuds raised and then dropped the entire ship, all twenty thousand tons of it: torpedoes hitting home one after another on the starboard side -- the death wounds of the ship, though we didn't know it at the time...the rudder was now jammed, and the ship began to turn in circles. The lights went out, and the fire hoses stopped putting water on the fires that now were everywhere" (Kernan, 2007, p. 80).

And, during the sinking of the Hornet, Kernan recalls a story of his own "unexplained" and spontaneous courage, and commitment to a shipmate, Dan Vanderhoof. Vanderhoof, after a 50-year silence between the two, reminded Kernan of that horrible day, with fire around them, the ship listing and running in circles, while the Japanese continued to pound her with artillery.

Vanderhoof recalled Kernan and himself on the hangar deck of the sinking Hornet waiting to climb down the cargo net. For some reason, Kernan asked Vanderhoof if there was anything he wanted from his locker. He remembers saying to Kernan that he wouldn't go back to his locker for anything. But Kernan insisted on going back...and came back later with a pillow cover loaded with Vanderhoof's gear, including some personal memorabilia that Vanderhoof still cherishes today. And Kernan, to this day, does not remember why he thought it so important to rush back, below deck, on a sinking carrier to retrieve his friend's gear. An act of courage, honor, and commitment to a teammate that was pure instinct at the risk of his life, and yet he had forgotten about it.

The Heroism and Loss of Butch O'Hare

Kernan witnessed the death of Butch O'Hare, the Medal of Honor winner, after whom O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, is named. As a matter of fact, it was Kernan, flying as the rear gunner in the Avenger aircraft, who attempted to save O'Hare's life just before he was shot down.