Evening star., 1942-06-14
anticipations Of meeting the men
who made her tick.

VINO maze NeT JlCk.
Fitch in Charge on Force.
Although I did not meet him that
night the individual with the great
est authority aboard the Lexington
was Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch,
commander OF the task force The
admiral, a native of st. Ignace,
Mich, and his staff-a dozen off,
cers-had quarters apart from the
rest Of the vessel. They lived and
dined separately, and concerned
themselves only with the movement
of the flotilla of ships.
Short. slender, quiet and friendly
the admiral in spite of the strict
naval formalities surrounding all
his movements managed to remain
an easy-going person.
I never saw him ruffled. Later
I saw him stand unprotected on his
open bridge on the Lexington's "is-
land" throughout the Is minutes
of hellish hammering by Japanese
aircraft that preceded her loss.
When, hours later, the aircraft car
rier was being shaken by internal
gasoline vapor explosions at inter-
walls Of a few seconds. and it was
obvious that the fires were out of
control. saw him make the mo-
mentous decision to abandon ship
and give the directions himself to
Capt. Frederick Sherman.
1t was not a scene of melodrama
The admiral leaned over the rail
of his bridge and spoke in a quiet.
conversational tone:
Let's get the men off, Fred"
O'Hare From Lexington.
Capt. Sherman is a rugged, crusty
sea character. He is one OF the
few senior ship officers who can
wear the dolphins of the subma-
rine service and the wings of the
naval aviator. He was the first
commander to take an aircraft car
rier through the twisting narrow
channel into Pearl Harbor His
men say he handled the 880-foot
Lexington like a speedboat.
In the battle of Bougainville when
his snip was attacked by 18 high
altitude japanese bombers-it was
this fight in which 1t. Comdr. Ed
ward H. Butch O'Hare shot down
five and damaged a sixth Jap plane
the captain watched the enemy
approach the bomb release point.
-Four planes dropped their bombs
Capt. Sherman watched the missiles
leave the planes judged their flight
and ordered change of course. He
watched the bombs fall few sec
onds longer. decided they would miss
the ship. and muttered:
They won't get lis, you can
straighten her out again"
He turned his back and walked
of. The bombs fell 100 yards away.
Captain Dimes Alone.
The captain, an august person.
age. too, aboard ship. also dimes in
his own quarters This made the
ships executive officer, Comdr. Sc
ligman, head of the wardroom mess
and head of the senior officers table
l sat at this table with as splendid
a group of men as ever went to sea
They were the commanders and
lieutenant commanders, heads of
ship departments and air squad
rons. Among them was Comdr.
Walter w. Gilmour. ship supply Of
ficer. later killed by a bomb blast
There was Comdr. Rex H. White.
senior medical officer, who, after the
bombing of the Lexington on May
8, served injured men for five hours
after his own shoulder and ankle
were broken in an internal explosion
On the ship
There also was Comdr William
Ault, senior flying officer of the
ships air squadrons, last heard from
when he reported by radio that he
was making a forced landing at sea.
with himself and his rear gunner
wounded after fight with japanese
Zero planes.
On PrOwl for japanese.
I could 90 on indefinitely There
were the flying men, the Marine
gunnerS, the boys who manned the
fire fighting equipment, and liter
ally hundreds of others. I was
proud to be their shipmate I was