Footage from deep in the Pacific Ocean has given the first detailed look at three World War II aircraft carriers that sank in the pivotal Battle of Midway.
Julian Hodges, one of the last living veterans who served on the Yorktown, and who swam six hours with a dislocated shoulder to a rescue ship, teared up as he watched.
That changed when Ocean Exploration Trust — founded by Bob Ballard, who led teams that discovered the Yorktown and the Titanic — conducted extensive video surveys of the three ships during a month-long exploration of thein the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, about 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu. The Battle of Midway took place six months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Japanese navy aimed to take control of the U.S. patrol plane base in a surprise attack at Midway Atoll, a tiny group of islands roughly halfway between the U.S. mainland and Asia. The country also wanted to destroy what was left of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.The five-day battle was fought about 200 miles off the group of islands.
One of them, Hodges, is a retired Baptist minister in Johnson City, Tennessee. He joined the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor and worked in the Yorktown’s boiler room during the battle. The other surviving Yorktown veteran, Robert Taylor, needed parental permission to join the Navy on Sept. 12, 1941, at the age of 17. Taylor, now 99, manned an anti-aircraft gun during the battle.
When ordered to abandon ship, Taylor jumped overboard and tried to swim to a nearby destroyer, U.S.S. Balch, giving his life jacket to a fellow sailor who didn’t know how to swim.
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