Just Passing Through - Phase 2

After the landing approach over michi-gami

Nobody likes O'Hare. You're always late leaving; even when you land it's a longer drive to the gate than the flight to get there; and if you're really lucky you get to fly through thunderstorms while waiting for a landing slot.

O'Hare is a wholly owned entity of the City of Chicago located out in the suburbs that Do Not Like that city. If you look on a map, Chicago is a growth along the lower left blob of Lake Michigan, with a thin little umbilical cord extending NNW to attach to the airport complex.

It was a cold-war era air force base that got taken over for an international airport. If you are flying through it, that usually means you are flying United or American, and I'm sorry for you.

But the name O'Hare comes from a real person, Edward "Butch" O'Hare. A true son of Chicago, his father was gunned down in the family car, reportedly on orders of Al Capone, against whom Butch's father had testified. 

Butch was a naval aviator, a fighter pilot flying the F4F Wildcat. For a while he was the wingman of John Thach, the man who helped lead naval aviation to dominating the Pacific in World War 2. Then Butch led his own flight. One night in February 1942, The USS Lexington was attacked by waves of Japanese bombers. All of them were deflected, until the last group appeared on the radar screen. By this time there were only two fighters left to take on at least eight Japanese bombers. 

O'Hare shot down three, damaged three others, and ultimately only one was able to make its attack, which failed.

O'Hare won the Medal of Honer for this action, but ultimately died in action in 1943. A Grumman F4F Wildcat that had been salvaged from Lake Michigan has been restored to mimic O'Hare's plane, and can be seen in Terminal 2. I've seen it before, and may stop by again this trip.