Capt. Vernon L. Micheel, hero of Battle of Midway, dies at 92
Navy Capt. Vernon L. “Mike” Micheel, an unassuming but heroic naval aviator who downplayed his feat of bombing two Japanese aircraft carriers on the same day during the Battle of Midway, died Thursday at Fleet Landing in Atlantic Beach. He died two weeks short of his 93rd birthday.
A reception in his honor will be held at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in the Coleman Center at Fleet Landing, 1 Fleet Landing Blvd.
When he retired in 1972, Capt. Micheel had spent his last five years as commanding officer of Mayport Naval Air Station and chief of staff for Commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville.
Hugh Ambrose, who wrote the book “The Pacific” as a companion to the HBO series of the same name that premiered this year, included Capt. Micheel in the book.
“He was a pivotal person in one of the biggest battles of World War II,” Ambrose said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “He will always be one of my heroes.”
Yet the combat pilot continued to downplay his role in the Battle of Midway. Ambrose said Ensign Micheel had never flown a plane full of bombs off a carrier before taking to the skies with Scouting Squadron Six from the deck of the USS Enterprise on June 4, 1942.
Capt. Micheel’s bombs struck two Japanese carriers: the Akagi, which sank that day, and the Hiryu, which was heavily damaged and stayed afloat for another day.
In an interview with the late Jacksonville Journal writer Ray Knight in 1967, Capt. Micheel offhandedly said of the bombings, “Somebody in our squadron put about four bombs on two carriers in one day, four bombs each on two carriers in one day — and nobody knows who did it, so they gave it to everybody on the flight. We sank the carriers and this was our mission.”...
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A reception in his honor will be held at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in the Coleman Center at Fleet Landing, 1 Fleet Landing Blvd.
When he retired in 1972, Capt. Micheel had spent his last five years as commanding officer of Mayport Naval Air Station and chief of staff for Commander, Fleet Air Jacksonville.
Hugh Ambrose, who wrote the book “The Pacific” as a companion to the HBO series of the same name that premiered this year, included Capt. Micheel in the book.
“He was a pivotal person in one of the biggest battles of World War II,” Ambrose said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “He will always be one of my heroes.”
Yet the combat pilot continued to downplay his role in the Battle of Midway. Ambrose said Ensign Micheel had never flown a plane full of bombs off a carrier before taking to the skies with Scouting Squadron Six from the deck of the USS Enterprise on June 4, 1942.
Capt. Micheel’s bombs struck two Japanese carriers: the Akagi, which sank that day, and the Hiryu, which was heavily damaged and stayed afloat for another day.
In an interview with the late Jacksonville Journal writer Ray Knight in 1967, Capt. Micheel offhandedly said of the bombings, “Somebody in our squadron put about four bombs on two carriers in one day, four bombs each on two carriers in one day — and nobody knows who did it, so they gave it to everybody on the flight. We sank the carriers and this was our mission.”...