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| Painting depicting TBD attack at Battle of Midway and planes of Petty Officer Edwin Mushinski's VT-6 prior to take off at same battle. http://steeljawscribe.com/2012/06/04/midway-70-years-later-forces-engaged-4-june-1942 http://www.historynet.com/miracle-men-of-midway.htm |
Edwin John Mushinski never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on October 26, 1917 in Missouri. His mother was also born in Missouri and his father was from Poland. Edwin was an only child.
He enlisted in the Navy on July 13, 1937. He was stationed to the carrier USS Enterprise beginning May 23, 1938 as a fireman second class. He advance to the rank of aviation radioman second class on June 6, 1941 in Torpedo Squadron 6 (VT-6). This meant he flew in the rear seat of the carrier's obsolete TBD Devastators.
On the morning of June 4, 1942 Enterprise got a report on the location of the Japanese carrier fleet. Petty Officer Mushinski and his pilot Paul James Riley were part of 14 VT-6 Devastators who took off to sink the enemy carriers.
The archaic VT-6 Devastators came in low and slow and attracted the attention of the Japanese combat air patrol. One by one 10 of the 14 VT-6 Devastators were shot up and sent crashing into the water. Riley and Mushinki's plane was one of the planes downed by the Japanese. None of the torpedoes hit any Japanese ships.
With the Japanese Zeros preoccupied with attacking the torpedo bombers, the American dive bombers were able to drop their bombs with no fighter interference. Within minutes three of the four Japanese carriers were smoldering wrecks.
Without the sacrifice of VT-6 and the torpedo squadrons from Yorktown and Hornet, it is quite possible that some of the Japanese carriers would have survived the dive bombers attack. The Japanese navy pilots on the Japanese carriers were among the finest fliers in the world. Given a chance to attack all three American carriers, the outcome of the battle could have been very different.
Petty officer Mushinki was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in the Battle of Midway. Edwin's father died later that year. His mom lived another 29 years.
He is remembered at the Honolulu Memorial Court of the Missing.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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