The Last Midway Marauder

James P. Muri was born in Carterville, Montana, to a cattle ranching family 19 October 1918, grew up during the Great Depression and while in school developed a love for pole vaulting. In 1936, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps where he trained as an aircraft welder. After serving as an aircraft welder for two years, Muri was selected for initial flight training where he earned his pilot wings and a commission in the Army Air Corps as a second lieutenant. On 8 December 1941 Muri’s unit was reassigned to Muroc Dry Lake, California, where he trained and waited to deploy to Hawaii. After deploying to Hawaii and reassembling his B-26 he and his crew received new orders and were diverted to Midway for a special mission designed to thwart a Midway invasion by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his Japanese naval armada. Muri’s task was to deliver a single 2,000-pound torpedo against the fleet. With no torpedo training, Muri launched out and was intercepted by 30 Japanese Zero fighters and was forced to make his torpedo run at 200 feet above sea level. After releasing his torpedo, Muri’s only egress route was to climb and fly down the deck of the Japanese Aircraft Carrier Akagi from bow to stern as it was the only part of the sky not filled with antiaircraft fire or Zeros. He successfully traversed the carrier deck and limped his aircraft back to Midway where he landed without a left main landing gear, with more than 500 bullet holes and with every major system degraded.