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Michael Kohan (Mikey), ATCS
to remember
Fletcher, Frank Jack, ADM.
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Contact Info
Home Town Marshalltown, IA
Last Address Bethesda, MD
Date of Passing Apr 25, 1973
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Wall/Plot Coordinates 2 4736-E
Military Service Number 6 132
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Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Frank Jack Fletcher was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. Fletcher was the operational commander at the pivotal Battles of Coral Sea and of Midway. As a lieutenant, Fletcher was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in battle at Veracruz. He was the nephew of Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher, who was also awarded the Medal of Honor for actions at Veracruz.
"Frank Jack Fletcher, was the best fighting commander in the U.S. Navy in the twentieth century. He came out best in all three aircraft carrier battles in which he fought -- there were only five such fights in all of history. Admiral Fletcher was outnumbered at all times and when the other side was at its highest point in the early years of the Pacific War. He didn't let the other side take Australia, Midway, and Guadalcanal. He put down six of the ten Japanese carriers with four of the six great carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor. His acts were completely his own, because there was no such thing as carrier fighting experience before him to learn to fight ships from the air. He kept the Pacific safe which let much support to go to Europe and started the Allied victory in World War II."
Other Comments:
Medal of Honor
Awarded for Actions During Dominican Republic Occupation
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Florida
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 177 (December 4, 1915)
Citation: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Frank Jack Fletcher (NSN: 0-6132), United States Navy, for distinguished conduct in battle attached to the U.S.S. FLORIDA, during the engagements of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 21 and 22 April 1914. Under fire, Lieutenant Fletcher was eminent and conspicuous in performance of his duties. He was in charge of the ESPERANZE and succeeded in getting on board over 350 refugees, many of them after the conflict had commenced. Although the ship was under fire, being struck more than 30 times, he succeeded in getting all the refugees placed in safety. Lieutenant Fletcher was later placed in charge of the train conveying refugees under a flag of truce. This was hazardous duty, as it was believed that the track was mined, and a small error in dealing with the Mexican guard of soldiers might readily have caused a conflict, such a conflict at one time being narrowly averted. It was greatly due to his efforts in establishing friendly relations with the Mexican soldiers that so many refugees succeeded in reaching Vera Cruz from the interior.
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.