Marc Andrew Mitscher

Admiral Marc Andrew “Pete” Mitscher, US Navy, was born in Wisconsin on 26 January 1887 and his family moved to Oklahoma Territory in 1889 to participate in the Land Run. He became one of the most important figures in the Pacific Theater in WWII.

Mitscher received some early education in Pawhuska before his father sent him to Washington, D.C. to a preparatory school. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1906 and graduated in 1910. He served in the fleet until 1915 when an opportunity for aviation training arose. In 1919, he received his first of three Navy Crosses for participating in the first trans-Atlantic flight by Navy seaplanes. In 1941, he became commander of the famed USS Hornet from which the Doolittle Raid was launched. That mission in 1942 was to bomb Tokyo and several other Japanese cities. While militarily insignificant, the raid was a psychological shock to the Japanese and exposed the vulnerability of Japanese territory to American bombers.

Rear Admiral Mitscher commanded the Hornet at the Battle of Midway, the turning point victory in the Pacific War. Midway was called “the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare,” and “one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history.” Mitscher took command of Task Force 58 in January 1944 and participated in most major battles in the Pacific including Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Marianas Islands “Turkey Shoot," and the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was the overall tactical commander for Operation Vengeance that shot down Admiral Yamamoto’s plane. Admiral Arleigh Burke called Mitscher the “premier carrier force commander in the World.”

Mitscher was awarded the Navy Cross and Navy Distinguished Service Medal three times each. After the war, Admiral Mitscher was named commander of the Eighth Fleet that operated in the Mediterranean. He died prematurely on 3 February 1947 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.