Butch O'Hare, the Grumman Wildcat, and the Six Minutes Over the Lexington That Saved a Carrier and Named an Airport

On February 20, 1942, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare flew his Grumman Wildcat alone into a formation of eight Japanese bombers bearing down on the carrier USS Lexington and broke up the attack in roughly six minutes, downing five of them. The action made him the U.S. Navy’s first flying ace of World War II and its first naval aviator to earn the Medal of Honor in that war. If you’ve ever connected through Chicago, you’ve said his name: O’Hare International Airport (ORD) is named for him.

Who Was Butch O’Hare?

Edward “Butch” O’Hare was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in the class of 1937. Fellow pilots remembered him as a big, easygoing man with a wide grin - the kind of aviator others wanted to fly alongside.

What set him apart was work, not luck. O’Hare had made himself a genuine gunnery expert, mastering deflection shooting - the art of aiming where a moving target is going to be rather than where it is. That skill would become the only thing standing between eight bombers and three thousand American sailors.

Why 1942 Was So Dangerous for U.S. Carriers

Early 1942 was one of the darkest stretches of the war. Pearl Harbor was only ten weeks past, and Japanese forces were advancing across the Pacific seemingly unchecked.

The Navy had only a handful of aircraft carriers, and each one was effectively irreplaceable - American industry could not yet build them fast enough to replace losses. Losing a carrier in 1942 meant losing a piece of the entire war effort.

The Lexington - “Lady Lex” to her crew - was steaming with her task force toward the major Japanese base at Rabaul, hoping to disrupt the enemy buildup. But the Japanese spotted the task force first, and once a carrier is located by a base full of bombers, an attack is only a matter of time.

The Grumman Wildcat: Outgunned on Paper, Built Like a Vault

The fighter O’Hare flew was the Grumman F4F Wildcat - stubby, round, and homely, with bicycle-style landing gear the pilot had to crank up by hand after takeoff. On paper it lost every argument with the Japanese Zero: it was slower, couldn’t climb as well, and couldn’t out-turn it.

But the Wildcat had two decisive advantages. First, it was extraordinarily tough - Grumman earned the wartime nickname “the Grumman Iron Works” for building airframes that could absorb punishment. Second, it carried six .50-caliber machine guns. When those guns fired, aircraft came apart.

What Happened During the Six Minutes Over the Lexington?

Late on the afternoon of February 20, 1942, the Lexington’s radar - then a brand-new technology - detected an incoming wave of Japanese twin-engine land bombers (the type the Allies later code-named “Betty”). Wildcats already airborne, together with the ship’s gunners, broke up that first wave.

Then radar and lookouts caught a second group of eight bombers approaching low and fast from a different bearing - with almost nothing left to stop them. Most fighters were low on fuel or ammunition or still chasing the first wave. The only aircraft in position were O’Hare’s Wildcat and his wingman’s.

Then it got worse: the wingman’s guns jammed, forcing him to peel away. The math was now brutal - one pilot, one fighter, eight bombers, with the Lexington and its three thousand men directly behind them.

O’Hare didn’t charge in blindly. He climbed above and ahead of the formation and rolled into a high-side gunnery run, diving out of the sun on a curving path that let him rake the bombers from an angle where their defensive guns couldn’t easily answer.

Working in short, disciplined bursts, he aimed for the engines - because a dead engine ends an airplane’s ability to reach the ship. One bomber’s engine coughed black smoke and fell away. Then another. He hauled the Wildcat around in a hard climbing turn and came back for a second pass, threading through the formation close enough to see enemy gunners swinging their weapons at him, and kept firing - engine, engine, engine.

How Many Bombers Did O’Hare Shoot Down?

When the shooting stopped, the crew on the Lexington’s deck had watched one Wildcat tear into eight bombers and knock down five of them in about six minutes. Later analysis, using gun-camera film and cross-checked accounts, trimmed the official tally somewhat - as these things usually are after the fact - but the essential truth never changed.

One man, alone, broke up a bomber attack that had a clear run at an American carrier. The surviving bombers scattered and jettisoned their loads, and not a single bomb hit the Lexington. His Wildcat returned with exactly one bullet hole in it.

Post-flight, crews counted his ammunition and worked out he’d expended roughly 60 rounds per bomber. That figure isn’t luck - it’s a marksman making every trigger pull count with his own life and three thousand others on the line.

The Medal of Honor and Instant Fame

President Franklin Roosevelt personally presented O’Hare with the Medal of Honor at the White House, with his wife Rita standing beside him. Overnight, the easygoing kid from St. Louis became the most famous fighter pilot in America - the good news a struggling country was starving for.

Characteristically, O’Hare went right back to work.

How Did Butch O’Hare Die?

By late 1943, Japanese aircraft had begun attacking the carriers at night, when daytime fighters couldn’t find them. As a Lieutenant Commander leading a fighter squadron, O’Hare helped pioneer one of the first carrier night-fighter tactics: launch a radar-equipped bomber to locate the enemy, with fighters flying tight on its wing in total darkness, using the larger aircraft’s radar as their eyes.

It was dangerous, experimental flying over open water - and O’Hare volunteered to lead it. On the night of November 26, 1943, near the Gilbert Islands, he took off into the dark to try it in combat. Amid the confusion of muzzle flashes and mixed friendly and enemy aircraft, his Wildcat was hit and went down into the ocean. He was never found. He was 29 years old.

The man who single-handedly saved a carrier in daylight was lost in the dark, pushing into new territory so other pilots could survive the night.

Why Is Chicago’s Airport Named O’Hare?

After the war, Chicago wanted to name its new airport for a local hero, and O’Hare’s family had deep Chicago roots. In 1949, a former aircraft-factory site northwest of the city known as Orchard Field was renamed O’Hare International Airport.

That history is hiding in plain sight in the airport code: ORD stands for ORcharD Field - the old name still tucked into the identifier. A plaque and one of his Wildcats hang in a terminal there today.

Key Takeaways

• Butch O’Hare downed five bombers in about six minutes on February 20, 1942, single-handedly breaking up an attack on the USS Lexington and its 3,000 crew.
• The feat made him the U.S. Navy’s first WWII flying ace and its first naval aviator to receive the Medal of Honor in the war, presented by President Roosevelt.
• His success came from preparation and marksmanship - disciplined bursts aimed at engines, roughly 60 rounds per bomber, and just one bullet hole in his own aircraft.
• O’Hare was killed on November 26, 1943, at age 29, pioneering carrier night-fighter tactics near the Gilbert Islands.
• Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD) was named for him in 1949; the code ORD preserves the site’s original name, Orchard Field.