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Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Vandivier, Norman Francis, LTJG.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Edwards, MS
Last Address Franklin, Indiana
Casualty Date Jun 04, 1942
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Greenlawn Cemetery - Franklin, Indiana
Wall/Plot Coordinates (memorial marker)
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Early on the morning of 4 Jun 1942 aircraft of the USS Enterprise's (CV-6) air group six launched to attack the Japanese carrier striking force that was approaching the Midway atoll. VB-6 attacked the enemy Japanese Force scoring a number of direct and fatal hits on the enemy aircraft carriers. Of the fifteen dive bombers from VB-6 that took off from the Enterprise that morning only five survived the attack although six pilots and five gunners where rescued later. Enemy anti-aircraft fire and fuel exhaustion took the biggest toll on this squadron after the initial attacks. Ltjg John J. Van Buren and his gunner, ARM1 Harry W. Nelson, ran out of fuel and make a successful water landing according to witnesses. They entered their life raft but were never seen again. They were listed as missing in action as of 04 Jun 1942. Their remains were unrecoverable. On 5 Jun 1943 they were presumed dead.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 083280
Although most sources have Norman Vandivier listed as an Ensign, the Navy Registers show him as being promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on 4/15/42.
Navy Cross
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Battalion: Bombing Squadron 6 (VB-6)
Division: U.S.S. Enterprise (CV-6)
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 309 (December 1942)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Ensign Norman Francis Vandivier (NSN: 0-83280), United States Naval Reserve, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Dive Bomber in Bombing Squadron SIX (VB-6), attached to the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE (CV-6), during the "Air Battle of Midway," against enemy Japanese forces on 4 - 6 June 1942. Defying extreme danger from concentrated anti-aircraft barrage and powerful fighter opposition, Ensign Vandivier, with bold determination and courageous zeal, led his squadron in dive-bombing assaults against Japanese naval units. Flying at a distance from his own forces which rendered return unlikely because of probable fuel exhaustion, he pressed home his attacks with extreme disregard for his own personal safety. His gallant intrepidity and loyal devotion to duty contributed greatly to the success of our forces and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Central Pacific Campaign (1941-43)/Battle of Midway
From Month/Year
June / 1942
To Month/Year
June / 1942
Description The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy (USN), under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo on Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863.
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap. The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.
