Lowell Edward Humfleet

When I had occasion to study this battle, I discovered that the carrier
Hornet, although instrumental for it's planes being in the thick of
battle, the Japanese never found the Hornet. Lowell was not a gunner on
any plane but manned an anti-aircraft battery on the deck of the carrier.

I wondered about the facts of his death
and am pretty well satisfied with the findings.

Thanks to bits and pieces of World War history and most particularly
to a diary kept by a young Lt. Frederick Mears whose duty was a late
assignment to the Hornet. Mears later lost his life in later action but
did not participate in the Hornet's Midway activity due to not being
available for training before the battle. His diary was published in 1967,
"Carrier Combat-
A Young Pilot's Story of Action Aboard the Hornet in World War II."
The story is most graphic and real.
"A Yorktown fighter made a forced landing aboard. The pilot had been shot
in the ankle. He landed in a skid to starboard, his right wheel buckled,
and suddenly all six of his 50 caliber machine guns let go in automatic
fire. I was standing on the starboard rail watching the landing and
dropped on my back, with three others down in front of me. Karzmar was
directly ahead of me. He turned without a word and walked forward to the
emergency dressing station. I didn't think he was hurt at the time but
believed he had just decided to get the hell out of the place. He had
been hit in the mouth and shoulder and peppered with schrapnel. A sailor
in front of Karzmar was shot in the knee but not hurt badly. I dragged
him to a level place, slit his trouser leg open, and looked at the wound.
It seemed only a nick, so I told him to take a look at it. After that he
felt better. There was blood all over me after tending the sailor.
I stood up and took a look around. Directly behind me lay the mutilated
body of another sailor. He had been hit squarely in the face. The dead
sailor lay in great peace, one leg flat on the deck with the toe
out-turned, the other with the knee drawn up, his arm was outstretched,
the palm skyward in a relaxed gesture; 'my he's quiet', I thought.
He had returned to simplicity. I walked on past him to the ladder and
saw a Marine sergeant being carried in a stretcher to the dressing room.
His right arm was torn badly from shoulder to elbow, and a mess of muscle
was exposed. He clutched at his stomach and graoned, as though it were
something he not comprehend. This was the shock I had heard about. The
man died that night. Five men were killed, and more than twenty were
wounded by the automatic fire, etc. Bob Devine, ghosting about on the
midwatch that same night saw a small knot of men busied on the hanger
deck forward. They were sliding overboard the canvas-cased bodies
of the five men killed that day, silently and in the darkness
after a two-minute prayer for each."

No doubt this was the moment
that Marine Private Lowell E. Humfleet was buried,
being one of the three of five not described by Lt. Mears as this
action was on the same date that Lowell met his death, 4 June 1942.
The Japanese fleet never attacked the Hornet nor the Enterprise.
Lowell had joined the Marine Corp on 15 July 1941. It is established by
his personal belongings in a dated newsletter and dated celebrations in
the pacific that he was on the Hornet during the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
The carrier Enterprise was also in the group.

Other sources verifying the above come from "Incredible Victory,"
discribing the Yorktown pilot's landing and that he had been badly mauled
by Zeros. Also, in "The United States Navy in WWII", 1966.
Planes waved off the Yorktown because of Japanese attack weretrying to
land on the Hornet before all their fuel was gone. In this account, it is
told that one of the killed was an Admiral's son and four enlisted men.
This left only two not described, Lowell and one other.

7. Tragedy on the Flight Deck
The Hornet's deck log reported the following remarks
on Friday, 5 June 1942: