Edward Butch O'Hare F4F-3 1942 USS Lexington 1/48 Scale Airplane by Carousel 1

Butch O'Hare F4F-3 1942 USS Lexington 1/48 Scale Airplane by Carousel 1. Each airplane comes with a history card of the pilot.

Edward "Butch" O'Hare was a 1937 Annapolis graduate and a member of Fighting Squadron 3, which was based on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington in early 1942. Japanese forces thrust towards Port Moresby, New Guinea, to gain a base for an invasion of Australia. The US Navy gambled one of their three Pacific aircraft carriers to strike the Japanese base at Rabaul in the Bismark Sea. But Japanese flying boats spotted the Lexington 400 miles from its target. Instead of launching an attack, the Lexington and its task force were attacked by two waves of Rabaul-based Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" twin engine bombers. Nine Mitsubishis were intercepted by fourteen VF-3 F4F-3's which downed five Mitsubishis for the cost of two F4F's. The F4F's were low on fuel and preparing to land or out of position when the second wave of eight Mitsubishi bombers attacked. There were only two F4F's that could stop them—O'Hare and his wingman, whose guns jammed (a then-common F4F problem). O'Hare attacked from the side, shooting down two on his first pass. On his next pass O'Hare flamed two more. On his third pass O'Hare exploded the leader of the Japanese formation, before the Mitsubishis were in position to drop their bombs, none of which scored a hit. The leader of VF-3, Lt. Commander John "Jimmy" Thach, asserted that O'Hare had splashed six Japanese planes, but O'Hare was credited with five and with saving the Lexington. He became the first Navy ace and an instant celebrity in an America hungry for heroes. A much-published publicity photo taken off Hawaii on 11 April 1942 shows Thach piloting F-l and O'Hare F-13, but O'Hare's logbook shows he flew F-l 5 on 20 February. President Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor on 21 April 1942. The Japanese sunk the Lexington on 8 May 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but its loss 14 weeks earlier would have hamstrung American strategy and given the Japanese many more months to extend and consolidate their gains. Commander O'Hare returned to combat in the summer of 1943. He failed to return from a night interception mission in an F6F on 27 November 1943. Chicago's Orchard Field airport was re-named for Edward O'Hare in 1949.