The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-09-07
Admiral
Continued from Page one)


He had planned short visit
with his wife here, then trip
TO Washington TO report for a
new assignment.
Peppery and forward-looking
despite the tired lines in his
face, he was full of postwar
plans.
Give me enough fast car
riers and let me run them and
you can have the atom bomb,
he told newspapermen in Homo
lulu enroute home by air.
CARRIER MAN
Mccain was graduated from
the Naval Academy in 1906.
Thirty years later, at So, after
having served on almost every
type of ship from destroyer to
battleship. he received his wings
at Pensacola and plunged into
naval air strategy. He already
wore a captains eagle.
In May, 1912, then a rear ad-
miral, he became commander,
Aircraft, South Pacific. A few
months later was awarded the
Distinguished Service Medal for
having Contributed greatly to
the occupation of the Guadal-
canal-Tulagi area" Then he be-
came Deputy Chief Of Naval OPP
erations, Air, in Washington.
Late in the summer of 1914,
Mccain returned to the Pacific
to study carrier force tactics
first hand under past master
Marc A Mitscher. After few
weeks, he was given command
of a carrier task group under
Mitscher.
MULTIPLE ACTIONS
In September and October, he
helped cover the Peleliu and
Leyte invasions and participated
in the second battle of the Phil
ippines, which sank or damaged
50 of 81 Nipponese ships par
ticipating.
0n-0ct- So Mitsehef asked
Mccain, Are you ready to take
over, john" And Mccain re-
piled simply, II am"
Rain had prevented General
MacArthur's air forces from
firmly establishing themselves
on bitterly-contested Leyte, so
he asked McCs~. to smash the
japanese air forces in the Phil
ippines.
McCain's famous Task Force
38 did - with almost daily
raids on Philippine bases and
strikes at Formosa and along
the Ryukyus which blasted stag
ing bases.
Then Halsey and Mccain dar-
ed to penetrate the South Chi
ma Sea. They went in 1000
miles and the japanese never
knew they were there until,
carly in January, their carrier
planes blasted Saigon and 300
miles of the French Indo-China
coast. Then they bombed, rock
eted and strafed 800 miles of
the China coast, ranging from
Canton to Hong Kong to Swa-
tow and ranging over to the
Takao-Toshien area of Formosa.
They wound up with another
neutralizing smash at the Kyu-
kyus.
In that three month period,
Oct. 30. 1914 to Jan. rs, l94o,
McCain's force sank or damaged
298 merchantmen totalling $685.
100 tons: 101 cruisers, destroyers
and destroyer escorts totalling
$4,000 tons, and another 10000
tons of small craft for a grand
total of 1,l62,500 tons.
In the same period, 1t destroy
ed or damaged 1852 japanese
aircraft - representing two
months full Nipponese produc-
ton.
Mccain was given rest, the
Navy Cross - his services high
est award - for extraordinary
heroism," and gold star in
lieu of a second Distinguished
Service Medal.
On May q. Mccain returned
to the command of IF 38 -
in the middle of the fierce Oki-
nawa campaign. He had the
three-way task of neutralizing
the kamikaze bases on Kyushu,
protecting the Okinawa forces
and smashing Japan itself.
Detailed figures are not avail
able, but from then until the
truce his carrier force added g.
600 Japanese aircraft and 2,000,-
900 tons of shipping to its great
record.
Mccain share fame with
Mitscher as the worlds greatest
carrier strategists. He once gave
this as one reason for American
success in the Pacific:
I'VE kill the good pilots, and
we don't give the Japs time to
train requirements"
William Howard Taft, former