The Smithsonian And Me

You have undoubtedly noticed that Donald Trump has complained that the Smithsonian Institution pays too much attention to “how bad slavery was.” Because, of course, we should also note all the good things about slavery. Now, it’s been a very long time since I visited Washington as a tourist. When I have had time, however, there are two sites I always try to visit. One is the Lincoln Memorial, the temple of democracy. The other is the Air and Space Museum, on the Mall. (The Mall is apparently a popular place for occupying National Guardsmen to hang out.) In the museum I would always visit one spot on the second floor, where there was an exhibit about aircraft and air power in World War II. (Incredibly—in the true sense of that word—that exhibit seems to have been removed during Trump I.) In particular, I would stop and gaze at one small photograph:

(The photo was from the US Navy; the LIFE watermark must be a later addition, and was nor on the one in the Museum.)

Those men were the pilots of Torpedo 8, a squadron of torpedo bombers assigned to the aircraft carrier Hornet at the Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942. On the eve of the battle, the commander, Lt. Cmdr. John L. Waldron (standing, 3rd from left), handed his men a mimeographed sheet describing his plan for what would be the squadron’s first combat. It concluded that "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. Good luck, happy landings, and give 'em hell."

Torpedo bombing was a particularly dangerous form of combat flying. Aside from being necessarily over water, the attack required staying at low altitude, with a one-ton torpedo slung below the plane’s belly. On the run in, the pilot had to steer a steady course, which left the aircraft vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire from the ships of the enemy fleet, and to enemy fighters. That was made worse for American torpedo planes at Midway, because they were obsolete: slow, under-powered and under-armed. Indeed, an element of Torpedo 8 had been detached to receive new and much-improved aircraft. They got to Pearl Harbor the day after Hornet departed for the battle.

The squadron’s experience is ably summarized by the Wikipedia entry about Commander Waldron: “Without fighter escort, underpowered, with limited defensive armament, and forced by the unreliability of their own torpedoes to fly low and slow directly at their targets, the Hornet torpedo planes received the undivided attention of the enemy's combat air patrol of Mitsubishi Zero fighters. All 15 planes were shot down. Of the 30 men who set out that morning, only one—Ensign George H. Gay, Jr., USNR—survived.” (Ens. Gay was fifth from the left in the front row.)

The sacrifice of Torpedo 8 was the opening salvo in a day that would end by changing the course of the Pacific war. Adm. Chester Nimitz was quoted as saying that before Midway, he did not know whether the sun on the Imperial Japanese flag was rising or setting, but after the battle he knew it was going down.

Why have I drei’ed your kopf (beat your head) about one small photograph that was taken down from the wall of a museum years ago, for no apparently political reason? Simply this: Thinking about Trump’s rampage over the Smithsonian, one of the truly great institutions of our civilization, I have to wonder whether that photo could have survived the current purge. After all, those men and their colleagues who died for this country were suckers and losers.

The rest of us know better.

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Please remind everyone you know that Donald Trump lacks the mental stability and awareness to be president.

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