I am pausing to remember the great Butch O’Hare, the US Navy’s First World War II ace and a Medal of Honor recipient, after whom O’Hare airport in Chicago is named, who was lost over the Pacific Ocean on this day in 1943.

O’Hare earned the Medal of Honor in February 1942, when he attacked nine Japanese bombers, alone, that were bearing down on the USS Lexington, destroying five enemy planes and scattering the attack. 

O’Hare was born and raised in St Louis. His father, Edward O’Hare, was a lawyer who worked closely with Al Capone before testifying against him and helping convict Capon on tax evasion. The senior O’hare will killed by Capon’s men in November 1939, two years after his son had graduated from the Naval Academy. It does not take a talented shrink to surmise that Butch O’Hare was motivated to redeem his family’s name when World War II came about.

After earning the Medal of Honor, O’Hare toured the United States in April 1942. Bataan had just fallen and the country was badly in need of heroes in the War’s early days. He returned to the fleet in the summer of 1942 as a combat instructor, and, by late 1943 was back in action over Wake Island, Tarawa and Makin. 

On the evening of November 26, 1943, O’Hare led the first nighttime sortie against incoming Japanese bombers. His plane was caught in a cross-fire in the confusing dogfight and he disappeared over the Pacific. O’Hare posthumously earned the Navy Cross for his leadership after retiring to the Fleet. 

In 1949, Colonel McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Times, suggested that Chicago’s airport be named in O’Hare’s honor. Terminal 2 has a replica of O’Hare’s Grumman F4F Wildcat on display. 

Honor and remember Butch O’Hare, a great American leader and hero!