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What Manner of Death shall a
Man Die? |
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June 1943. Rides on Wind put the SBD Dauntless diver bomber into a shallow left turn and began the descent toward a Japanese fleet on the turquoise Coral Sea below. Enemy ships easily gave away their position at the head of a long white wake trailing behind for up to a mile or more. He was known to the whites among whom he served as Squadron Executive Officer Lt. Commander Charles Whitaker. Today he preferred to recall his Lakota name Rides on Wind given to him by the tribe when he graduated from flight training at NAS Pensacola. U. S. Navy dive bomber pilots developed a technique for reducing the effectiveness of enemy anti aircraft fire. By increasing the rate of their turn and their rate of descent simultaneously they made it almost impossible for Japanese optical range finders to get a bead on them. Anti aircraft fire almost always passed behind and above the diving squadron. The Japanese Imperial Navy had not yet adopted electronic gun sights on their surface ships as had the U. S. Navy. The first aircraft flying just ahead of Rides on Wind was piloted by his wingman Lt. J.G. Frank Duncan. Frank released his bombs and bracketed an enemy destroyer with one bomb to starboard and the second to port. Huge explosions sent geysers of sea water into the air. The ship shuddered but continued on. Rides on Wind dove his aircraft lower than prudent and released two five hundred pound bombs. His ordinance ripped the Japanese destroyer near the bow just in front of the bridge. The ship shuddered, rose and fell back slowing to a crawl. Rides on Wind pulled his aircraft out of the dive barely missing the destroyer’s radio mast. He passed over the crippled enemy ship close enough to see the carnage on deck. Twisted steel and many bodies testified to the effectiveness of his attack. He had ridden his pony close to the enemy. Almost close enough to touch them. Japanese gunners were equipped with the Imperial Navy’s type 96 adaptation of the French 25 mm Hotchkiss gun. As he pulled upward a single 25 mm projectile passed through the dive bomber’s cockpit canopy barely missing Rides on Wind. Shards of Plexiglas sliced his forehead while others embedded themselves in his left shoulder. None of these wounds was life threatening. A trickle of blood flowed into his left eye making it hard to see. On the way back to the carrier Rides on Wind recalled stories told by his father, Standing Elk about the death of many brave warriors white and Indian alike. How Standing Elk crawled on his belly through the wire into German lines. How he silently cut the throat of a German forward observer. How he took a lock of the man’s hair, and how he dropped hand grenades into a German machine gun nest from barely three feet away. Standing Elk spoke of ghastly bayonet wounds inflicted in the trench warfare in France in 1918. Rides on Wind’s wounds suffered today were nothing compared to those inflicted among the brave warriors of the American Expeditionary Force commanded by General Pershing. At debriefing Rides on Wind was handed a report of squadron casualties. Three SBD dive bombers had been lost. Six brave men died. Three other airmen were wounded and received medical treatment in sick bay. Rides on Wind wondered, “What manner of death did these men die? Were they resolute in the face of the enemy?” They were warriors. He was sure they died bravely. He thought of the Japanese sailors on the destroyer hit by his bombs. Were they brave? Did they die with honor? “Yes,” he thought, “They were the enemy but they died a warrior’s death and that is an honorable way to die.” On the way to the officer’s mess in the evening Rides on Wind recalled the story his father told him how his grandfather Two Ravens died at the Battle of the Greasy Grass which is called by the whites the Battle of Little Big Horn. How grandfather Two Ravens rode directly into the small circle of white eyes sheltered behind their dead horses and took the scalp of a blue coat soldier while the soldier tried to fight him off. Two Ravens was almost back to his own people when a single shot from a blue coat soldier's pistol caught him between the shoulders. He turned around and rode right back into the circle of whites. He stabbed and clubbed three more soldiers before he fell. Rides on Wind thought, “Grandfather Two Ravens would have made a fine dive bomber pilot. Dive bomber pilots go close to their enemies. It is the mark of a brave warrior.” He thought, “If I am to die I would prefer to die as grandfather Two Ravens did at Greasy Grass closing with my enemy and seeing his expression as I take his hair.” * * * * * * * June 2007. Sunlight streamed in at the window. The Montana prairie breeze gently disturbed the curtains. Rides on Wind heard voices but could not see who was speaking. He recognized the voice of his wife Helen Running Deer. She had been at his side for 62 years since he returned from the Navy in 1945. Helen spoke slowly. “They found our son Walks Alone this morning. His body was discovered in an alley in Missoula. He died from alcohol poisoning. I guess he never got over Viet Nam. He often spoke of friends he lost. He never told us anything about his battles there. His battle here is over now. He is gone. Someone needs to tell our grandson Tall Bear that his father is dead. I will call the Marine recruiter and ask him to get a message to Tall Bear in Iraq. I hope the bad news will not interfere with his ability to lead his platoon against the insurgents. Dr. Paulson looked at the monitor on the wall. “Breathing is labored, heart beat is slowing, and his pulse is erratic.” He turned to his nurse and handed her the chart. “I doubt if Mr. Whitaker will be with us in the morning. I know he has been in great pain from the cranial surgery to remove the tumor. Give him another shot of morphine now and call me if there is any change.” * * * * * * * Two Ravens spoke first. “Welcome Rides on Wind, you are a brave warrior. You got close to your enemy and killed many. Your story will be told for many generations at Lakota council fires.” Standing Elk spoke next. “Welcome my son. Sit here and smoke the pipe with us.” Each man drew in the pungent tobacco smoke and let it out slowly. The pipe passed around the circle from Two Ravens to Standing Elk, to Rides on Wind, to Walks Alone and then to Tall Bear.
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