LAUNCH FROM THE LADY LEX - Including a RARE Butch O'Hare Autograph
A rare opportunity to own an ORIGINAL Butch O’Hare autograph - the U.S. Navy's first fighter Ace of World War II and the first Naval aviator to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Lt. Edward ‘Butch’ O’Hare powers his Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat away from the deck of the USS Lexington to intercept a formation of nine Japanese “Betty” bombers with his wingman Marion ‘Duff’ Dufilho. For the action that followed O’Hare was awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor when, under intense fire and with his wingman’s guns having jammed, he single-handedly destroyed five enemy aircraft and damaged a sixth, 20 February 1942.
The historical importance of this restricted edition is highlighted by the inclusion of the extremely RARE and hard-to-come-by ORIGINAL autograph of Butch O’Hare himself which has taken a number of years to source and collect. Alongside is a completely separate portrait of O’Hare, museum-quality reproduction U.S. Naval Aviator Wings and the original autographs of a further five veterans who all flew Gruman F4F Wildcats with the U.S. Navy during World War Two, all saw action in the Pacific Theatre, and all finished the war having achieved Ace status with at least five confirmed victories over enemy aircraft. They include Alex Vraciu who at times flew as wingman to O’Hare and later became one of the foremost Aces in the USN with 19 victories, plus Hamilton ‘Mac’ McWhorter III who was the first USN carrier-based Double-Ace.
