Wade McClusky
Early on June 4 Lt. Cdr. Wade McClusky led a squadron of Dauntless dive-bombers from the USS Enterprise in search of the Japanese carriers. Arriving at the designated point, he found the sea empty. Unknown to him or anyone else, the Japanese task force had changed course. The search then became a guessing game. Having climbed to high altitude with heavy bomb loads, fuel and time were running out.
As he was calculating his next move, McClusky looked down to see a lone Japanese ship far below:
Call it fate, luck or what you may, because at 1155 (0955 local time) I spied a lone Jap cruiser77 scurrying under full power to the northeast. Concluding that she possibly was a liaison ship between the occupation forces and the striking force, I altered my Group’s course to that of the cruiser. At 1205 (1005) that decision paid dividends. Peering through my binoculars which were practically glued to my eyes, I saw dead ahead about 35 miles distant the welcome sight of the Jap carrier striking force.78
This decision not only “paid dividends” in the Battle of Midway, it was one of the most pivotal decisions ever made in any war. Twenty minutes later McClusky’s dive-bombers delivered fatal blows to the Japanese carriers Kaga and Akagi, ensuring one of the most improbable yet decisive defeats ever inflicted in naval warfare. McClusky’s decision was one of many “lucky” events contributing to this amazing and miraculous victory.
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale.
—Daniel 5:5–6