Four Minutes Off Bougainville: How One Pilot Saved the USS Lexington in 1942

On February 20, 1942, the Action off Bougainville pitted the carrier USS Lexington against seventeen Japanese bombers from Rabaul in one of the early Pacific War's most lopsided air battles. We trace the full chain of events: Vice Admiral Wilson Brown's aborted raid on Rabaul, the morning interception of Japanese scout planes, and the four-minute dogfight in which Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare became America's first flying ace of World War II. We follow the ripple effects through the March 10 strike on Lae-Salamaua, and close with O'Hare's full story — heroism, tragedy, and a legacy still hiding in plain sight at one of America's busiest airports.