Marine Aviators at the Battle of Midway

Early June, 1942

The Japanese Empire was at the height of its expansion.  One last, insignificant possession of the United States remained to be cleared from the western Pacific Ocean.  A mighty Japanese fleet was steaming to do battle and capture Midway.  If things went truly well, the Japanese would lure the American fleet into a decisive naval engagement.  There was little doubt, at least in Tokyo, that the numerically superior, better-equipped, and much more experienced Japanese fleet would be triumphant.

The Japanese fleet included four of the aircraft carriers that had performed so ably at Pearl Harbor: the Akagi, the Hiryu, the Kaga, and the Soryu.  These were accompanied by two huge battleships: the Haruna and the Kirishima.  They proceeded as an integrated battle group, their speed constrained by the top speed of the battleships.  The time advantage conceded to the Americans would prove costly.

The Japanese had planned on all six carriers from the Pearl Harbor raid, but Shokaku had been badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May.  Zuikaku, while not damaged herself, had lost most of her planes and pilots and been forced to return to Japan for refitting.  The United States lost the carrier USS Lexington.  The Japanese were forced to turn back from their planned invasion of Port Moresby, so the Battle of the Coral Sea was a strategic victory for the Americans.  Material loses on both sides, while certainly not trivial, were not decisive.

The Japanese were seeking a decisive victory at Midway.

So were the Americans.

The U.S. forces were deployed in two Task Forces.  TF16, under Rear Admiral Spruance, had two carriers, the USS Hornet and the USS Enterprise.  TF17, under Rear Admiral Fletcher, had the carrier USS Yorktown.

The fleets were on converging courses to history.

Midway Defenses

The defenses at Midway were meager, cobbled together quickly at the outbreak of hostilities -- the perfect metaphor for the American lack of preparedness prior to WWII.

The defenses included:

• Ground Assets - Sixth Marine Defense Battalion (reinforced).
• Naval Assets - Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 1 (MTBRon 1) with eight PT Boats.
• Air Assets - Army Air Force - Seventh Army Air Force Detachment with four B-26 Martin Marauders and 19 B-17 Flying Fortresses.
• Air Assets - Marine - Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221 with 20 F2A-3 Brewster Buffalos and seven F4F-3 Grumman Wildcats) and Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241 (VMSB-241 with 11 SB2U-3 Vought Vindicators and 16 SBD-2 Douglas Dauntlesses).

The Choice Ahead in November

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are very different people; perhaps as different as two candidates for the Presidency have ever been.  They do share one similar trait; a desire for personal privacy. 
Romney's reticence derives from a self-deprecating, reserved form of shyness.

President Obama flaunts a sinister, in-your-face egotism; the self-gratifying arrogance of a narcissist that would issue an Executive Order sealing all of his personal records within 24 hours of taking office.

Romney

Romney is a decent, honorable, and proper man.  His reticence and modesty are the products of old school upbringing.  John Hinderaker of PowerLine put it this way in a posting titled Romney Impresses:

[A]s a person, Romney is hugely authentic.  His persona is no mystery: he is a Dad.  We have all known men like Mitt Romney.  We may think they are square and out of date; we may roll our eyes if they are occasionally goofy.  But when times are tough, in moments of crisis, everyone knows where to turn: we look to leaders of character, competence and decency, like Mitt Romney.

An example (see here and here):  In 1996 the teenage daughter of a friend of Romney went missing; ran off to New York.  The friend, a fellow executive from Bain Capital, asked Romney what he should do.  Romney said they should go and find her.