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by Ronald Russell
(The following originally appeared in Veterans Biographies,
distributed during the annual Battle of Midway commemoration in San Francisco,
June 2006)
The
small town of Willmar, Minnesota is rather unique with regard to the Battle of
Midway, for it is the home town of three of its veterans who by chance all
wound up on the same ship during the battle
One of the three was Pete Newberg, who joined the Navy on his 18th
birthday in order to pursue education opportunities—an interest in amateur
radio had fueled a desire for training in a related technical field. Training would have to come later, though,
as the Navy needed seamen for its big new carriers. Thus upon completing boot camp in December 1940, Newberg was sent
directly to the USS Yorktown (CV-5), where he requested and got
assignment to “E” Division, the ship’s electricians.
During
his first year aboard the Yorktown, the ship was engaged in neutrality
patrols and convoy duty in the Atlantic, but transferred to the Pacific Fleet
following the Pearl Harbor attack. Its
first major taste of combat occurred in May 1942 in the Coral Sea. Newberg’s battle station was with the flight
deck repair party, meaning that he had a front-row view of all the action
occurring around the carrier. His most
vivid recollection of the Coral Sea was a bizarre incident as darkness fell on
the first day of the battle. Two
Japanese pilots got their aircraft into the landing pattern for the Yorktown
and were all set to trap aboard, thinking they had found their own carrier
in the fading light! The first enemy
pilot realized his error at the last possible second and abruptly banked away,
passing directly over the landing signal officer. Newberg and the other topside personnel could plainly see the
bright red insignia on the plane’s wingtips.
Newberg
was topside again as Japanese bombs and torpedoes blasted the Yorktown at
Midway. He was firing a .30-cal.
machine gun on the port side catwalk when one of the torpedoes struck almost
directly below him. He’s not certain
exactly what happened for several minutes after that, because his next clear
memory is of treading water near the listing carrier’s stern, kept afloat by
his life jacket. A few minutes later he
was amazed to see Harold Wilger, one his friends from Willmar, Minnesota,
nearby in a small raft. Wilger was a radioman-gunner
in one of the ship’s squadrons and had pulled the two-man raft out of his
aircraft before abandoning ship.
Newberg swam toward the raft and climbed aboard. Wondering exactly what to do next, the two
looked out over the 2000-plus survivors in the water and miraculously spotted
the third sailor from their home town, Bud Qualm, also from “E” division. Mere chance had brought the three Willmar
men together in the oily water near the stricken Yorktown. Their raft was soon overwhelmed by other survivors,
but the three made it to safety aboard the destroyer USS Benham (DD-397).
Upon
return to Pearl Harbor, Newberg was transferred to the USS West Virginia (BB-48),
raised from the bottom of Pearl Harbor and undergoing repair. He served aboard the battleship for the
remainder of the war. After the
expiration of his enlistment in 1946, he earned an engineering degree at the
University of California and began a lengthy career in the petroleum industry. He now serves as the secretary of the USS Yorktown
(CV-5) Association.
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