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    Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway
    Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway
    Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway
    Audiobook9 hours

    Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway

    Written by N. Jack "Dusty" Kleiss, Timothy Orr and Laura Orr

    Narrated by Mike Ortego, Cassandra Campbell and Patrick Lawlor

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    An extraordinary firsthand account of the Battle of Midway by one of its key participants, timed to the 75th anniversary: American dive-bomber pilot ""Dusty"" Kleiss helped sink three Japanese warships (including two aircraft carriers), received the Navy Cross, and is credited with playing a decisive individual role in determining the outcome of a battle that is considered a turning point in World War II.

    In Never Call Me a Hero, Captain Kleiss (USN, ret.), a U.S. Navy SBD Dauntless dive-bomber pilot with the USS Enterprise's Scouting Squadron Six, tells his full story for the first time, offering an unprecidently intimate look at the battle that reversed America's fortunes after the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. Kleiss is notable for being the only pilot from either fleet on those battle-scarred days of legend, June 4—7, 1942, to land hits on three different enemy ships. On the first day of the Battle of Midway, Kleiss planted bombs on two Japanese carriers—Kaga and Hiryu—sinking both, and later, on June 6, he scored a direct hit on a Japanese cruiser, the Mikuma, which also sank. In his 1967 book Incredible Victory, Walter Lord asserted that the margins of U.S. victory at Midway were so thin that individual participants could rightfully say that their actions turned the tide. Given the amount of destruction inflicted upon the Japanese that day, Kleiss may have been the most important pilot in the air. It is no stretch to say that without him, the Battle of Midway may not have been won, altering the course of the conflict and history itself; for according the U.S. Navy’s historians: ""The Battle of Midway was far more than an epic WWII clash somewhere far away at sea. It was an American victory that forever changed the course of world history. This is the battle that turned the tide of the war.""

    But this is not only the memoir of one man; it is the history of this battle and its legacy. In only five minutes, forty-eight American dive bomber pilots and their gunners destroyed the pride of the Japanese carrier fleet and exacted retribution on the carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor. Never Call Me a Hero is also a story about humility and pushing limits. Throughout his life, Kleiss had always looked toward the heavens for spiritual guidance, and to serve his country. Throughout his life, this humble man considered himself blessed with incredible luck and did his job without complaint. Whenever others referred to his actions as ""heroic,"" he quickly corrected them ""I’m no hero. Never call me a hero.""

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 23, 2017
    ISBN9780062747716
    Author

    N. Jack "Dusty" Kleiss

    Norman Jack “Dusty” Kleiss (1916–2016) grew up in Coffeyville, Kansas, during the Great Depression, before attending the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1938. A carrier-based pilot of Scouting Squadron Six attached to USS Enterprise, he was awarded the Navy Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross. Captain Kleiss (USN, Ret.) was married to his wife, Jean, for more than sixty years before her passing in 2006.

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    Reviews for Never Call Me a Hero

    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      5664. Never Call Me a Hero A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers the Battle of Midway, by N. Jack "Dusty" Klein with Timothy and Laura Orr (read 16 Dec 2019) This a good book to read. It is by a crack pilot who dropped bombs on three Japanese ships during the battle of Midway. The author was born 7 March 1916 in Coffeyville, Kansas. He entered the Naval Academy in 1934. After graduating in 1938 he applied to be a Navy pilot. While awaiting flight training he served on the cruiser Vincennes, the destroyer Goff, and the destroyer Yarnell. Then in August 1940 he started flight training at Pensacola and after completing that successfully was assigned to the aircraft carrier Enterprise. In June 1942 he was in the battle of Midway and had great success therein. All of this is told of with considerable detail as is his career thereafter. He was 99 when he did this book but had a lot of material so did not have to rely only on his memory. He died 22 April 2016, age 100. The book is consistently interesting and when he was in the battle it is super-exciting. I stood in awe of the fact that he apparently enjoyed the very dangerous things he did and did so well.
    • 4/5
      Great story of a great man. He was a hero.
    • 5/5
      Excellent personal history of a man who did his job well at Midway. Cogent on site review and analysis of the many mistakes made by senior leaders that were overcome by individuals, frequently through heroic acts. First notation that I recall: which states Halsey's determination not to send the Devastators out with the very defective Mark 13 torpedo. His subsequent hospital stay put Admirals Fletcher and Spruance in charge. They overlooked or ignored Halsey's concerns and sent their torpedo squadron out with virtually no chance of causing any damage. Their courageous attacks drew the Japanese fighters to their low levels and enabled the SBDs to stage their successful bombing runs resulted in most of these bombers being destroyed.The tactical decisions to form coordinated attacks was forestalled by Hornet's late start. Many casualties were the result of pilots running out of gas, because of these delays, compounded by a too fast, fuel wasting approach.A serious and loud WELL DONE to the two co-creators, Timothy and Laura Orr, of this splendid memoir.