A final St Louis related WW2 connection repost. -- March 13, 1914 - 100 years-ago today, Edward Butch OHare was born in St. Louis, the son of Selma (southside German) & Eddie OHare (northside Irish). Ed spent his early years in the Soulard neighborhood, where his family lived at 2604 South 18th St. When his parents divorced in 1927, his father moved to Chicago, & his mother moved the children to 4108 Holly Hills. Eds father was an associate of Al Capone, & operated his dog & horse racing tracks. Although he moved to Chicago, he continued to provide very well for his family, & their home with an inground pool became a favorite neighborhood hangout. As a teen, Butch was overweight, & its said that he was so lazy, he would get in the family car & drive to the corner to buy doughnuts. He attended Cleveland High School, but the course of Butchs life changed when his father enrolled him at Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois. After graduating, he went on to the US Naval Academy, where he was in the Class of 1937. Shortly afer America entered WW2, Butch was serving as a fighter pilot aboard the aircraft carrier Lexington. On Feb. 20, 1942, a squadron of Japanese bombers was heading toward Lexington, & being airborne, Butch had the only plane in position to intercept them. Shooting down five bombers & damaging a sixth, he became the first Navy ace of WW2, & in the process, earned the Medal of Honor. On November 26, 1943, Butch OHare was operating in the first-ever night time attack from an aircraft carrier when he was shot down, & his body was never recovered. St. Louis offered to name a street, bridge, or municipal building in his honor, but Butchs mother objected, stating that all the boys that died were heros. But in 1949, due to a campaign led by the Chicago Tribune, the City of Chicago changed the name of the small Orchard Depot Airport to OHare Field, Chicago International Airport & it would grow into one of the busiest in the country. The 3-letter IATA (International Air Transport Association) Code for Chicagos OHare Airport remains ORD, carried over from its days as Orchard Depot. At Western Military Academy, OHare was on the pistol shooting team with Paul Tibbets, who would go on to pilot the Enola Gay, & drop the first atomic bomb on Japan. My brother would also attend Western.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:35:04 +0000
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