Remembering a forgotten man who lived in a forgotten house and died for his country
Traveling on Zanesville’s Market Street, you will notice sets of concrete steps between Underwood and the site of the former Marie Adornetto’s restaurant.
These steps once led to houses. There are no houses now. There are just crumbling steps leading from a decadent sidewalk to overgrown lots above. I often wonder who the people were that lived in these fine homes and what became of them.
After some searching, I did recognize the name of one person who would have been found there. My parents had talked about him many times, often with a bit of emotion. They had attended the same church as this young man who had lived at 941 Market St. He had become one of the first fatalities of World War II, losing his life in the battle of Midway, the battle that changed the war in the Pacific in favor of the U.S. His name was Osborne Wiseman, but just like the house he lived in, he seems also to be forgotten.
Wiseman graduated from Zanesville High School in 1932, then went on to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1934. He graduated in 1938 and started his naval career aboard various ships until he was accepted into flight school to train as a pilot. After earning his wings, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.
Wiseman was in the first part of the Doolittle Raid on the Japanese mainland (April of 1942), flying his SBD Dauntless dive bomber as a scout plane ahead of the aircraft carriers. He was the first to spot a Japanese patrol boat in the area and dropped a bean bag (radio silence was being observed) on the deck of the Hornet to warn of possible discovery and forcing the Doolittle B-25 bombers on board to take off early.
At the battle of Midway, Wiseman was on the carrier Yorktown under the flight command of Maxwell Leslie, the leader of VB-3 (Wiseman’s group) which found and participated in the destroying of three Japanese aircraft carriers. He returned to the Yorktown but found it under attack and had to land on the Enterprise. After refueling and rearming, Wiseman’s group set out to find the fourth enemy carrier.
There are various opinions as to whose bomb hit and sank the Hiryu (the fourth Japanese carrier). It is known Wiseman dropped his bomb and was last seen flying off with enemy Zeros chasing him. Wiseman’s group, VB-3, was credited with sinking two of the four carriers. Interestingly, Wiseman and his tail gunner/radioman were flying the SBD Dauntless Navy dive bomber on their missions. This bomber carried the nickname Slow but Dangerous, because its speed was 100 miles per hour slower than the speed of its opponent, the Japanese Zero.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented Wiseman’s wife the Navy Cross for his extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy in the air battle of Midway. A destroyer escort was also named after him, the USS Wiseman DE 667.
I continue to travel up Market Street and see the steps to nowhere. I continue to wonder about the forgotten houses and the forgotten people who lived there. But after discovering this one heroic resident, I sometimes go a little slower remembering his sacrifice, especially on this 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Midway, which occurred June 4 to 7, 1942.
Chuck Bell is a former 4-H Educator for Muskingum County.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Local man who died in the in Battle of Midway is all but forgotten
