Wade McClusky

United States state institutions 1902–1976 ○ Natural causes

Enterprise air group commander who followed a destroyer's wake to the Japanese carriers

Born in Buffalo, New York, he became a naval aviator and at the Battle of Midway in 1942 commanded the air group of the carrier Enterprise. On 4 June, not finding the Japanese fleet where expected and running low on fuel, he kept searching, spotted the wake of the destroyer Arashi racing back to the main body and followed it to the Japanese carriers. Arriving almost simultaneously with Yorktown's bombers, his squadrons fatally damaged Kaga and Akagi. Nimitz judged that his decision to continue the search and his judgement of where the enemy might be "decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway".

Also known as: Clarence Wade McClusky