During a change of command ceremony at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in March, outgoing commander of electronic Attack Wing, US Pacific Fleet, Capt. Thomas Slais, Jr. spoke to a World II veteran in the audience. Harry Ferrier stood and acknowledged Slais’ words.

“Harry, thank you for your exemplary honor, courage and commitment in service to our great nation and for the strength your example gives to all who still wear the uniform today.”

Ferrier was honored and a little embarrassed being in the front row with a crowd of high ranking officers, but he was also very deserving of Slais’ words.

As a 17-year-old radioman/gunner, he flew in a TBF Avenger in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Not only was it the most decisive naval battle of World War II, it spelled an end for Japanese control of the Pacific Ocean.

Too Young
When Ferrier joined the Navy in Springfield, Mass., on Jan. 28, 1941, he was too young to enlist. He was just 16 but his mother helped him get in.

After boot camp and aviation radio school he volunteered for Torpedo Squadron 8, which was forming as part of the air group for the new carrier, USS Hornet.

The squadron was selected to receive the first of the new Grumman TBF-1 aircraft, later called the “Avenger”.

The Hornet left for the Pacific and newly promoted radioman third class Ferrier stayed behind to train on the new aircraft.

On April 18, 1942 the USS Hornet launched the famous Doolittle Raid against Japan. Then on May 7, 1942 the first carrier-to-carrier sea battle took place in the Coral Sea. Doolittle and the Coral Sea battle forced the Japanese naval command to plan an action that would lure the remaining US carriers to sea.

Then Japan would destroy the outnumbered force and also establish a base near Pearl Harbor.

What they didn’t know was that Americans had broken their code and knew what they planned.

Ferrier arrived in Pearl Harbor a day after the USS Hornet squadron had left. His detachment was asked to prepare the six new TBF’s and fly them to MidwayAtoll to reinforce the Marines defending the atoll.

They departed on June 1, for the thousand-mile flight. Ferrier was the radioman assigned to pilot Ensign Albert “Bert” Earnest and turret gunner Jay Manning.

They rigged the planes with two-thousand pound torpedoes, slept in tents and manned their planes before dawn, checking the engines and radios.

“On June 4, a Marine climbed up on our wing and told Earnest that an enemy force was picked up heading for Midway, about 150 miles out,” said Ferrier.

The Beginning
The six TBF’s formed up and headed for the enemy position. After an hour, the pilot reported seeing many enemy ships on the horizon. They opened the bomb bay doors and immediately they were under attack.

The bullets hitting the plane sounded like hail hitting a metal roof, Ferrier said. The turret gunner, Manning, opened up.

“He fired a couple rounds from his 50-cal machine gun, then stopped,” Ferrier said.

Ferrier was down below, manning a 30-calibur machine gun. He looked up and back, and knew immediately that Manning was dead, hanging in his harness and bleeding down on him. The tail wheel came down because the hydraulics were hit and he couldn’t fire his gun. Ferrier got hit in the left wrist, then passed out from a head wound.

With no hydraulics, the pilot was struggling with the airplane. He dropped the bomb and discovered the trim tab system worked. He could fly the plane.

When Ferrier came to he asked if he could climb up behind the pilot. The answer was yes.

The pilot’s instruments, including magnetic compass and hydraulics were shot out. He flew by dead reckoning – using the sun as a guide, then black smoke from the bombing to get back to Midway Atoll. Earnest released the main landing gear by the emergency handle but the starboard wheel did not come down. After two approaches he landed, bouncing and skidding off the runway.

The two VT-8 survivors were back.

“Fifteen flew off the Hornet and 15 were shot down,” Ferrier said. “One guy was picked up alive in the ocean the next day.”

Victory
Back at sea the Japanese were winning. Of 51 American, torpedo-carrying, attacking airplanes, just seven made it back, not a single torpedo scored among them.

Then, when the last of the torpedo planes were destroyed, the Navy dive bombers arrived, 15-thousand feet up. The Japanese had been busy down low with the American torpedo bombers and were also busy on their carrier’s decks changing bombs on their planes when the dive bombers hit.

Three Japanese carriers were sunk within the hour and a fourth carrier was sunk that afternoon.

All four of the sunken carriers had been part of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
No one knew it then but the Japanese were permanently crippled and the Pacific was no longer their domain.

Alone
On Midway, Ferrier got patched up in an underground aid station and went back to the tents where his squadron slept.

Except no one else was there and no one would be.

“An officer asked me to collect my squadron’s effects so they could be sent home,” Ferrier said. “Five of six officers and five radiomen; I packed up their belongings to send home.”

His plane, the first Grumman TBF-1 aircraft to be in battle and survive, was taken to Hawaii and inspected. They found 67 machine gun bullet holes and nine 20-mm cannon hits.

Ferrier was given a three-day stay in the Royal Hawaiian but said, “I had a heck of a headache and didn’t enjoy it much.”

A long career
Harry Ferrier would go on to fight other battles in World War II.

Like Guadacanal, where, with Torpedo-3, he landed on the USS Enterprise, the back part of its flight deck missing from battle.

Ferrier spent 30 years in the Navy. He is a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He survived the Battle of Midway, two marriages and retirement.

Today he lives in the Regency on Whidbey retirement community in Oak Harbor, and still people ask him to tell his story of Midway.

The 86-year-old will tell them his story but will also tell them this:

“I was just doing my duty,” he said. “There were so many good guys that didn’t make it back, really good men.”

But Harry Ferrier did.

Ferrier to speak at Centennial
Battle of Midway survivor Harry Ferrier will take part in the Centennial of Naval Aviation events to be held July 30 on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Ferrier is among those scheduled to participate in sharing Tales of Naval Aviation during the public Fly-In event on July 30.
Also scheduled to appear are Stephen Coonts, Ralph Wetterhahn, John Schork, Rear Adm. Lyle Bull (ret.) and Capt. Walt Spangenburg (ret.). The Fly-In will also feature vintage warbird and modern aircraft displays, a car show, food booths, SAR land rescue demonstration, entertainment and more. The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Ault Field on NAS Whidbey.