N. Jack “Dusty” Kleiss and Timothy and Laura Orr. Never Call Me a Hero. Harper, 2017.

Never Call Me a Hero is an articulate and personal gem. Its subtitle is A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway. It is more than that, but the story does focus on that key battle in the Pacific War.

Kleiss relates what amounts to a naval autobiography. He tells of his family and upbringing and of his marriage, but the focus is on his life in the U. S. Navy prior to and during World War II. We get a good sense of what it was like to attend the Naval Academy. Kleiss always wanted to fly, but back then recently commissioned officers had to wait two years before going to flight school. Kleiss did get some good experience and learned some clear lessons while an officer in the surface fleet, but his goal was always flight.

He became a dive-bomber pilot and was assigned to the aircraft carrier Enterprise in May of 1941. The Enterprise was out to sea during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but Kleiss got to see the devastation that attack caused. We get a good sense of what the Japanese strategy was at the time, and how the American Pacific command was trying to counter it.

Kleiss would be involved in attacks on the Marshall Islands, Wake Island after the Japanese took it over, and the Japanese base on Marcus Island. He received a medal for his flying in the Marshalls, but he felt like they could have done more damage.

There are a couple of recurring themes. None of the Allies really understood the potential for naval air power, at least not until Pearl Harbor, and even then there was ambivalence. Some of that ambivalence might have been warranted. Another theme was simply that the American torpedoes stunk. Until some time in 1943, missions with torpedo planes were suicide missions. Kleiss would lose some comrades including his best friend who flew torpedo bombers.

The book, though, focuses on the Battle of Midway. Kleiss admits that he knew nothing about how the Americans had cracked the Japanese radio code so that by the end of May 1942, the Americans knew the Japanese were up to something in the Northern Pacific. At about the same time they launched their attack on Midway Island, they attacked the Aleutians. Their plan was apparently to put a naval barrier to approaching the homeland of Japan. Some would say they this was the next step before attacking North American mainland to control the entire Pacific.

Kleiss effectively disputes the common assumption that the Americans were lucky. Yes, in any air engagement there may be individual cases of luck. Kleiss notes that during the Battle of Midway it seemed that more Japanese planes attacked other planes rather than his. But the overall battle was more than luck.

As already mentioned, codebreakers had an idea of what Japanese plans were and where the Japanese fleet was headed. When planes from American carriers did not locate any Japanese vessels where Intelligence predicted, they began a typical search sequence until they were located. (From my own experience in the Coast Guard, a similar sequence is followed in search and rescue.)

The once the Japanese convoy was found, the bombers did their job. Four aircraft carriers were sunk or permanently disabled. Japan only had eight during the entire war. Many men lost their lives. Some because they were hit by Japanese antiaircraft or fighter plane fire. Some ran out of fuel before they could make it back to their carriers. At least three airmen were captured and executed by the Japanese. (Japan, of course, would become notorious for disregarding any prisoner of war conventions.)

Kleiss and his two-man plane would actually make two attacks during the three-day battle. He had confirmed hits himself on three different vessels including two carriers. He gives us a thrilling blow by blow account. Here we note that the husband and wife team of co-authors are well known military history writers (mostly the American Civil War). Together with Kleiss, they keep the interest going.

In so many cases, the perspective of wars we get is from the leaders, the generals and high ranking officers and officials. While Kleiss, as an officer, did interact with Captains and Admirals, he was here one of the fighters, one of the men on the front lines, so to speak. He could tell what things were really like. While he certainly commends most of the military leaders, he also notes where they may have missed things. If nothing else, the Battle of Midway demonstrated that naval power would become in a large part air power.

Yes, even in the 1930s they trained on biplanes, but airplanes had developed a lot since World War I, and would continue to develop in the course of World War II. While Kleiss may have criticized the lousy torpedoes, he commends the designers at Douglas Aircraft for the SDB class airplanes that really were state of the art back then.

Kleiss also, like many of his generation, believed that God had a purpose for everyone’s life. For many years he seldom spoke of his experiences. People knew he had received some medals for what he did at Midway, but until he read a report about two friends of his who were captured and executed by the Japanese he said little. After reading that report which made it sounds like the two men were traitors, he felt he had to set the record straight. (One, a gunner by the name of Gaido, Kleiss sometimes flew with and had reason to respect his judgment.)

Kleiss lived to be one hundred. He was the last survivor of Midway. The book actually did not come out till about a year after he died. But he believed the Lord was not finished with him until he told his story. And what an exciting and delightful and sober story it is.