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Nicole Summers, MMFN
to remember
Blaha, Frank, LCDR.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Dillonville, OH
Last Address 122 Glendora Long Beach, CA
Casualty Date Oct 17, 1944
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Pacific Ocean
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates M1-127 (memorial marker)
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
The USS Escolar (SS-294) set out on her first war patrol on 18 September 1944. On 30 September she reported attacking a small surface ship. Her last communication was on 17 October 1944. There are no records to indicate she was attacked and it has been presumed that she struck a mine and sunk. Lieutenant Commander Blaha was listed as Missing in Action and later declared dead on 14 November 1945.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 082335
Silver Star
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant
Division: U.S.S. Greenling (SS-213)
General Orders: Commander in Chief Pacific: Serial 29 (February 1, 1943)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Lieutenant Frank Blaha (NSN: 0-82335), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action as Gunnery Officer of the U.S.S. GREENLING (SS-213), during THREE War Patrols of that Submarine in enemy controlled waters during World War II. His calm determination and great ability as Assistant Approach Officer contributed directly to the success of his submarine in the destruction of 61,800 tons of enemy shipping. While under gunfire from enemy surface craft, he courageously and coolly directed the gunfire of his ship from an exposed position, thereby causing damage to the enemy. His performance of duty was 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.
