Lieutenant Commander Harl Pease Jr.

Lieutenant Commander Harl Pease Jr. was a United States Navy aviator and recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions during the Pacific War of World War II. A native of Nebraska, he served with United States Navy Reserve units and flew combat missions from Pearl Harbor and forward bases during the first months of the War in the Pacific. Captured after a forced landing, he died in captivity at Rabaul and was posthumously recognized for conspicuous gallantry.

Early life and education

Harl Pease Jr. was born in Atkinson, Nebraska and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Harl Pease Sr. and Vera Pease. He attended Prescott High School (Arizona) and later studied at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and West Point (Nebraska) preparatory institutions before entering naval aviation training at Naval Air Station Pensacola and the Naval Reserve Aviation Base program. His early associations included American Legion posts and Reserve Officers' Training Corps activities tied to midwestern communities, and he enlisted in the United States Navy Reserve as tensions rose in the late 1930s.

Naval career

Pease was designated a naval aviator after completing flight instruction at Naval Air Station Pensacola and was commissioned in the United States Navy Reserve assigned to VB-23 aboard patrol squadrons operating from USS Saratoga (CV-3), USS Lexington (CV-2), and later land bases in the Philippine Islands. He flew Douglas SBD Dauntless and Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bomber types in training and in early combat sorties supporting United States Asiatic Fleet operations. During the Attack on Pearl Harbor aftermath and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Pease conducted reconnaissance and strike missions from Clark Field, Cavite Navy Yard, and improvised forward bases on Mindanao and New Guinea in coordination with elements of the United States Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force.

Medal of Honor action

On October 10, 1942, during operations against Rabaul and Japanese shipping in the Bismarck Archipelago, then-Lieutenant Pease led a search-and-attack mission in a Consolidated PBY Catalina or similar patrol bomber from Espiritu Santo forward operating areas. While attempting to locate and strike enemy transports and warships supporting the Battle of Guadalcanal and supply lines to New Britain, his aircraft encountered severe anti-aircraft fire and deteriorating weather over New Ireland and the approaches to Rabaul Harbor. Despite odds and navigational hazards in the Solomon Islands theater, Pease executed low-level reconnaissance runs, made an additional attack pass to mark targets for follow-on strikes, and elected to continue searching for survivors of downed aircrews rather than withdraw. His actions were later cited by the United States Navy and the Department of the Navy as exhibiting "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" in the face of the enemy, meriting the Medal of Honor awarded posthumously.

Prisoner of war and death

Following damage to his aircraft and forced ditching or crash-landing near New Britain in late 1942, Pease and surviving crew were captured by Japanese forces operating from Rabaul, a major Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army base. Imprisoned under harsh conditions alongside Allied prisoners from USS Chicago (CA-29), HMAS Canberra (D33), and other units, Pease suffered from wounds, disease, and malnutrition typical in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Reports from War Crimes investigations and survivor testimonies noted that Pease died in captivity on December 8, 1942; his remains were not recovered until after the Japanese Instrument of Surrender and subsequent Allied occupation of Japan investigations, which documented treatment of POWs in the Southwest Pacific.

Legacy and honors

Pease's posthumous Medal of Honor citation was presented to his family and commemorated by naval ceremonies at Naval Air Station Pensacola and in Nebraska. The United States Navy honored him by naming a vessel and the Harl Pease Jr. Airport and memorials in Atkinson, Nebraska and on veterans' monuments in Omaha. His story appears in World War II histories, Naval Aviation accounts, and museum exhibits at the National Naval Aviation Museum and regional War Memorials alongside other decorated aviators such as John F. Kennedy (USN), Butch O'Hare, and Edward "Butch" O'Hare. Pease is interred in a memorial or commemorated on the Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific registry and remains a subject in military history studies of early Pacific War air operations and POW treatment.

Category:1917 births Category:1942 deaths Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States Navy Medal of Honor recipients Category:World War II recipients of the Medal of Honor Category:People from Atkinson, Nebraska