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.

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.

Both were patrolling along with another Hellcat to protect the U.S. carriers at sea when low-flying Japanese torpedo bombers, called Betty's, attacked at night. The Hellcats chased them off, but as they turned back toward the carriers, Kernan, in the Avenger, noticed an unknown aircraft slip in behind O'Hare's Hellcat.

Kernan fired. But the Japanese aircraft fired first, right down into the cockpit of O'Hare's aircraft. His Hellcat descended "gently" as it was later described and Kernan saw a grayish splash in the ocean below.

At first it was thought that perhaps Kernan had mistakenly shot this war hero down by accident. But it was later determined that he had not, and Kernan, for his efforts to save O'Hare, was awarded the Navy Cross.

"It greatly relieved the guilt that I carried about the possibility that I had hit the group commander (O'Hare) while firing at the Japanese intruder" (Kernan, 2007, p. xvi).