Two aerial shots of Midway Atoll show Eastern Island in the
foreground today and in 1941 (bottom). The naval air station was
decommissioned in 1997 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
took charge. Midway is now home to the world’s largest colony
of the Laysan albatross or gooney bird (inset).
Located 1,300 miles northwest of
Hawaii, Midway became strategically
important as the “sentinel of Hawaii,” and
the naval air station was constructed in 1940.
In 1942, it would be the central focus in one
of the epic battles of the war in the Pacific.
In the dark days following the attack on
Pearl Harbor, the Japanese appeared invinci-
ble. In the spring of 1942, they fi nalized plans
to invade and hold Midway, an essential base
from which they could take Hawaii, leaving
the West Coast of the U.S. under threat. But
American code breakers were hard at work
intercepting their plans. Adm. Chester Nim-
itz, commander of the Pacifi c Fleet, used the
intelligence to sortie his three available car-
riers in time to ambush the Japenese about
200 miles northwest of Midway, when they
were most vulnerable.
64 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2007 IMAGES: PREVIOUS SPREAD, R.G. SMITH; ABOVE, NAVAL HISTORICAL
FOUNDATION; TOP AND INSET, MAJ. DALE ROBINSON, USMC-RET.
DDec_midway.indd 64ec_midway.indd 64 111/1/07 11:29:55 PM1/1/07 11:29:55 PM
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