This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Robert Cox, YNCS
to remember
McClusky, Clarence Wade, Jr., RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Buffalo, NY
Last Address Bethseda, MD
Date of Passing Jun 27, 1976
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
For outstanding service while attached to USS ENTERPRISE, participating in raids on Marshall, Wake, Gilbert and Marcus islands and the Battle of Midway, he was awarded the Air Medal, the Distinguised Flying Cross, a letter of Commendation with Ribbon, a Ribbon and facsimile of the Presidential Unit Citation to ENTERPRISE, the Purple Heart Medal and the Navy Cross.
In addition, he held the American Defense Service Medal with Fleet Clasp; the American Medal; Asiatic-Pasific Campaign Medal; World War II victory Medal; Naval Occupation Service Medal, Asia Clasp; China Service Medal; National Defense Medal; Korean Service Medal; United Nations Service Medal; and the Korean Presidential unit Citation.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is presented to Clarence Wade McClusky, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving as Air Group Commander for Air Group SIX (AG-6) on board the U.S.S. ENTERPRISE (CV-6) during the Battle of Midway on 6 June 1942. On receipt of a report of an enemy Japanese invasion fleet in the area, Lieutenant Commander McClusky led his squadron of planes in a dogged and thorough search, continued until the objective was located, and attacked with boldness and determination four enemy carriers in complete disregard of heavy antiaircraft fire and strong fighter opposition. Such severe damage was inflicted on the flight decks of the Japanese carriers that they were effectively putout of action. Lieutenant Commander McClusky's courage and inspiring leadership in the face of great danger and very large opposition were in keeping with the finest 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.