O’Hare Airport: The Man Behind the Name
He could have turned back to the USS Lexington. He could have splashed into the sea like the other bombers. Instead, Butch O’Hare made a series of moves that led him to become a celebrated war hero and the namesake of O’Hare Airport.
Who was Butch O’Hare?
A better first question is: Who was Butch O’Hare’s dad? His father was known in some circles as ‘Easy Eddie.’ And by ‘some circles,’ we mean the folks in the inner circle of Al Capone. Easy Eddie, or EJ O’Hare, was a lawyer, who first gained wealth and acclaim in Chicago by purchasing a widowed client’s patent rights to the mechanical rabbit that baits racetrack greyhounds. Later, according to legend, O’Hare was on retainer by Capone and kept the notorious gang leader from behind bars. They say the O’Hare family’s mansion took up an entire Chicago city block. But, according to some, eventually O’Hare wanted to do the right thing, and cooperated to have Capone charged, and jailed, for tax evasion. Two months before Capone was released from Alcatraz, Easy Eddie was gunned down and killed. On that very afternoon, his son Butch, a Navy pilot, “…had made two training flights at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle. The sky he was flying in was a brilliant azure, dotted by a few white puffs. He landed at sunset—and heard the news of his father’s death.” (Source: St. Louis Magazine)
How did Butch O’Hare become a war hero?
In 1942, the USS Lexington was on a mission to head to the South Pacific and attack the Japanese. On one fateful afternoon, though, more than a dozen Japanese bombers were sent to attack the Lexington and its Wildcat fighters.
O’Hare Airport is named after war hero Edward ‘Butch’ O’Hare. (US Navy photo)
How Did O’Hare Airport Get Its Name?
Photo by Skyler Smith via unsplash.com
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