The Battle of Midway has long been regarded as one of the most decisive victories in U.S. naval history and Oak Harbor is proud to count one of its survivors among its citizens.

Retired Navy commander Harry Ferrier was the guest of honor at a special commemoration of the Battle of Midway last week at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Beautiful blue skies were reflected in the water as approximately 100 active duty Navy personnel, community members and special guests gathered at the Crescent Harbor Adventures boat dock on the Seaplane Base Friday morning.

An opening invocation, NAS Whidbey Island Color Guard and a performance of the National Anthem by Musician Second Class Stephanie Brainard, set the stage for opening remarks by NASWI commanding officer, Capt. Jay Johnston, who reiterated the importance the Battle of Midway played in World War II.

“The real story of Midway, however, is not one of aircraft, ships, grand strategy or geopolitics, it is a story of people,” Johnston said. “From Admiral to Seaman, Midway Island was won by the courage, the skill and the innovation of the American fighter.

“Sailors and Marines, outgunned, outmanned and mostly untested in combat, stopped the enemy advance and made the U.S. victory a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if,’” he continued.

Johnston cited examples of the Navy pilots, code breakers, Sailors and Marines who pulled together during the battle to ultimately win the fight against the Japanese aerial attack, which came so close on the heels of Pearl Harbor.

“While we pray that never again will we have to fight a battle on the scale of Midway, the work of today’s Navy is no less significant,” Johnston said. “Our actions at home and abroad, in peace and war, are a decisive global force for good.”

With a note to take time to remember and thank the service of our WWII veterans, Johnston introduced special guest Harry Ferrier, who enlisted in the Navy in 1941. Just 16 at the time, Ferrier’s mother helped him get in. Following boot camp and aviation radio school, he volunteered for Torpedo Squadron 8, forming as part of the air group for the USS Hornet, a new carrier.

The squadron was the first to receive the new Grumman TBF-1 aircraft, or the “Avenger.” Ferrier, who had stayed behind to train on the new aircraft, arrived in Pearl Harbor the day after the USS Hornet left for the Pacific. His detachment prepared the six new planes and flew them to Midway Atoll to reinforce the Marines there.

Radioman Ferrier, along with pilot Ensign Albert Earnest and turret gunner Jay Manning, was with Torpedo Squadron 8 when it joined the aerial battle near the Midway Atoll on June 4, 1942. Despite heavy losses on the American side, the Navy fliers managed to sink four Japanese carriers. He described part of the battle.

“Out of 51 torpedo planes, only seven returned that day,” said Ferrier. “That sacrifice opened it up to our dive bombers and they were responsible, really, for the destruction of their four carriers.”

Out of the planes in Ferrier’s squadron, his was the only one to return, but they didn’t return unscathed. Manning was killed and Ferrier was wounded. He held up the baseball cap he was wearing that day, sticking his finger through a bullet hole in the fabric.

“I got hit — which this 70-year-old baseball cap shows — which knocked me out for a short time,” he said. When he came to, Ferrier said he and the pilot were dealing with a heavily damaged aircraft, but Earnest figured out how to overcome the lack of hydraulics.

“He instinctively reached for the trim tab, which gave him control of the plane and he was able to fly through the Japanese fleet,” said Ferrier, who described seeing black smoke rising from Midway Atoll. “As we made our approach he got waved off, but Earnest said he was going around and landing whether they liked it or not.”

A damage assessment on the plane counted 67 machine gun hits and 20 cannon shell hits, Ferrier said.

While he was lucky to survive, Ferrier said he always thought about the men who went into the battle and gave their lives.

“I’m pleased to be here and call our interests to the sacrifices made on our side of the battle,” he said. “But it made such a difference in the later years of World War II.”

Ferrier, along with Capt. Johnston, Cmd. Master Chief Darin Hand, junior Sailor of the Year Master-at-Arms Second Class Cody Abernathy and former Navy gunnery officer Harvey Lasell then laid a wreath in the water.

Following a performance of “Taps,” the gathering adjourned for a reception in Simard Hall.