Edward O’Hare

Edward O’Hare (born March 13, 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—disappeared November 26, 1943, near Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands [now Kiribati]) was an American aviator and war hero who became the U.S. Navy’s first flying ace during World War II. At the time, a flying ace was a fighter pilot who shot down five or more enemy planes. O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is named in his honour.

At the age of 13, O’Hare went to the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois. During the mid-1920s, his father, attorney Edward Joseph O’Hare, had become involved with Chicago gangster Al Capone through their mutual interest in the greyhound-racing business. O’Hare senior later turned against Capone, and his testimony was crucial at Capone’s trial for tax evasion.

From 1933 to 1937 the younger O’Hare attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. (Some historians have claimed that his father testified against Capone to secure a place for his son at Annapolis, but this story is likely doubtful.) He was an undistinguished student and graduated 255th out of a class of 323. When he completed his studies there, O’Hare was assigned to the battleship USS New Mexico. He served on the ship for two years before he began flight training. In 1940 he was assigned to the USS Saratoga, where he flew biplanes and learned how to land planes on aircraft carriers. O’Hare joined the crew of the USS Enterprise in 1941. That same year he married Rita Wooster.

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O’Hare was assigned to Fighter Squadron 3 (VF-3) on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1942. He flew a Grumman F4F Wildcat. When the ship was attacked by Japanese bombers near Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands on February 20, 1942, O’Hare found himself facing eight bombers alone when his wingman’s guns jammed. He shot down five aircraft and damaged a sixth, making him the first U.S. air ace of the war. He was the first World War II hero to be decorated by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. For his valour, O’Hare was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Naval command had him spend the next few months touring the United States to boost morale and to sell war bonds. He then assumed command of VF-3 and was stationed in Maui, Hawaii, where he trained fighter pilots.

O’Hare returned to a combat position in 1943, flying the new Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter. While assigned to the USS Independence, he engaged in aerial combat in the Pacific. His actions twice earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross. The first was for an attack on August 31, 1943, in which O’Hare and his squadron inflicted heavy damage on Japanese planes and ground installations on Marcus Island. The second was for an attack on Japanese planes at Wake Island on October 5, 1943, in which O’Hare shot down one plane, and he and his squadron destroyed seven other planes.

O’Hare then became commander of the air operations aboard the USS Enterprise. On November 26, 1943, he participated in one of the first nighttime fighter plane launches from an aircraft carrier. During the air fight that followed, O’Hare disappeared and was presumed shot down. Shortly thereafter the navy declared him missing in action, and in 1944 he was officially declared dead. He received the Navy Cross posthumously. In 1949 Orchard Field Airport near Chicago was renamed in honour of O’Hare.