Los Angeles Times
Richard Best, a former Navy bomber pilot who personally scored hits on two of the four Japanese aircraft carriers sunk in the critical Battle of Midway during World War II, has died. He was 91.
Best, a retired security manager at the Rand Corp., died Oct. 26 in Santa Monica, Calif.
The Battle of Midway — June 4-6, 1942 — is considered the decisive battle of the war in the Pacific.
Before the battle, according to experts at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., the Japanese were on the offensive and had planned to capture Midway to use it as an advance base and entrap and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
But the Pacific Fleet surprised the Japanese forces and sank its four carriers, which had attacked Pearl Harbor only six months earlier. After the victory at Midway, the Allies took the offensive in the Pacific.
For his actions in the battle, Best received the Navy Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
"He exemplified the young Navy pilots who turned the tide of the Second World War," said Jack Green of the Naval Historical Center.
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