Navy LCDR John Charles Waldron was born in Ft. Pierre, South Dakota on August 21, 1900, the son of Charles Westbrook Waldron and Jane Elizabeth Van Metre. John entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis, in the Class of 1924 followed by flight training and his wings at NAS Pensacola in 1927. During his time in Pensacola he met, courted, and married the lovely Miss Adelaide Wentworth in Santa Rosa County in 1927. A Pensacolian born on October 7, 1906, she was the daughter of George Parker Sr. and Anna Blanche Guttman Wentworth. The family home was in the prestigious North Hill section of the city at 821 North Barcelona Street. The patriarch of the family was her grandfather George E. Wentworth who had come to Pensacola in 1871 from Massachusetts. He was a veteran of the Union Army during the Civil War and was looking for business opportunities. Adelaide would graduate from Pensacola High School in the Class of 1925 while her brother George Jr. would follow in 1929. Her family was very influential in the city’s social and business circles and now Adelaide was marrying a member of the Navy’s fledgling air force. But the family adjusted to her decision, as Adelaide settled down to the humdrum life of a career Navy wife.
Now her nation was in a desperate war and her husband was flying directly into the South Pacific's greatest battle! But you cannot strike an enemy if you don't know where they are! Before Waldron took off from the USS Hornet, he became involved in an argument with his air group commander and the ship’s commanding officer Admiral Marc Mitscher. The last report placed the Japanese southwest of the Hornet, but Waldron was being ordered to head due west. Waldron felt strongly that they should fly southwest since that was where the last report placed them. He was overruled. But once he and his squadron were aloft, Waldron made a command decision and took his squadron southwest straight to the Japanese carrier group. This one man’s decision determined the fate of his entire nation and a global war.
At 0920, Waldron sighted the enemy fleet and radioed their correct location back to his carrier. He then ordered his torpedo squadron to drop into attack formation and commenced his run on the selected targets. With no fighter escort above, he and all but one of his men were shot down and killed by antiaircraft fire or by the much faster and highly maneuverable Zero’s. Although shot down, Ensign George Gay Jr. would survive the crash to become the only survivor of the famed squadron. He watched the entire battle while bobbing on the ocean’s surface, hiding under his floating seat cushion. Although they inflicted absolutely no damage upon their enemy, VT-8's heroic deed spelled doom for the pride of the Japanese Fleet. Their unexpected attack had completely interrupted flight operations aboard the enemy carriers. Now the Japanese air cover was forced to descend to wave top height to dispose of the American torpedo planes. This meant that when the US dive bombers finally arrived there were no enemy fighters to oppose them. And chasing the torpedo planes had left the Zero’s with no remaining fuel and ammunition to meet the new threat from the incoming American dive bombers. The result was four enemy carriers were sent to bottom of the Pacific along with their planes and pilots. LCDR Waldron would receive the Navy Cross and a Purple Heart plus a memorial next to Adelaide in St. John's Cemetery that states, "In Memoriam LCDR John C. Waldron - Killed Battle of Midway June 4, 1942."
Click here to actually see the Torpedo #8 heroes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPbYilMzWpw
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