FOR RELEASE APRIL 2018

Contact: Jacqline Barnes

(410) 295-1028, jbarnes@usni.org

The Life of Fighter Ace Stanley “Swede” Vejtasa

“It was just like flying into the void.” —Stanley “Swede” Vejtasa

This riveting biography details how Stanley “Swede”

Vejtasa became a World War II naval hero. During the
Battle of the Coral Sea, Swede flew an SBD Dauntless
dive-bomber and helped sink Shoho, the first aircraft
carrier lost by Japan in World II. The next day, in
that same Dauntless, he took off from USS Yorktown
and out-flew and out-gunned three Japanese Zeros,
making him the only dive bomber pilot to be awarded
Navy Crosses for both bombing and aerial combat.

Months later, the day before the Battle of Santa Cruz,

Swede was flying an F4F Wildcat fighter off USS
Enterprise and had no recourse but to follow orders he
knew to be insane. He and his squadron mates flew
their predictably empty search legs and beyond, only
to discover upon their return to Point Option in the
dark, that Enterprise was nowhere to be found.
Incredibly, Swede located the oil slick he had noticed
seeping from Enterprise during a morning combat air
patrol and was able to track it back to the carrier.

After their harrowing return, during the Battle of Santa

Cruz, the fate of Enterprise, and by extension Guadalcanal, lay in the hands of that same Swede
Vejtasa. He responded by single-handedly downing an unprecedented two Japanese dive bombers
and five torpedo bombers attacking the carrier. Skipper Jimmy Flatley recognized that in all
likelihood, Swede had saved Enterprise from destruction, and he recommended Swede for the
Medal of Honor.

PRAISE FOR Seven at Santa Cruz:

“Swede Vejtasa is one of the ‘forgotten’ Navy aces of World War II. He is occasionally
mentioned in footnotes and was once featured in a ‘Where Are They Now’ column in The Hook
magazine, but he has never been the subject of a full-length biography, which he definitely
 deserves. Ted Edwards has rectified that glaring omission. Swede’s courage and skill are now
portrayed in this in-depth description of one of the U.S. Navy’s most important World War II
aces and combat leaders. Whether he was flying an SBD Dauntless dive bomber or a Grumman
F4F Wildcat fighter, this daring aviator from Montana owned the sky he flew in at any one
moment. With a strong personality that often goes with a successful fighter ace, however, Swede
was sometimes at odds with superiors, and this tendency to clash with authority kept him from
receiving higher recognition such as the Medal of Honor his skipper Jimmy Flatley rightly
nominated him for as well as for higher rank, which he also deserved. It’s all here, finally.”
—Cdr. Peter B. Mersky, USNR (Ret), author of Whitey, the Story of Rear Admiral E. L.
Feightner, A Navy Fighter Ace (Naval Institute Press, 2014)

“Swede Vejtasa was a great combat leader. I flew my first combat mission with him as his
wingman during the Battle of Santa Cruz. He had great situational awareness in a fight,
something that is required in any aerial engagement. He has not received the recognition he so
richly deserves, until now.”
—Rear Admiral E.L. "Whitey" Feightner, USN (ret)

INTERESTING FACTS
• Squadron Commander Jimmy Flatley recommended Swede for the Medal of Honor,
which Admiral Kinkaid downgraded to a Distinguished Flying Cross.

• Admiral Kinkaid’s decision, on the eve of the Battle of Santa Cruz to send out a meager
strike group against an unreachable Japanese task force nearly cost the whole group,
including Swede, who is credited with saving the Enterprise from destruction the next
day.

• This book corrects many fallacies surrounding the crucial Battle of Santa Cruz, and
specifically Swede’s role in it.

• Without Swede’s heroic performance before and during the Battle of Santa Cruz,
Enterprise, and consequently Guadalcanal would have been lost, severely upsetting the
Allied timetable.

Ted Edwards is an historian whose oral history work with World War II aviators and other
veterans of twentieth-century war is driven by a desire to understand the events via firsthand
accounts. Edwards has written on World War II aviators for Naval Aviation News.

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS

Publication date: 15 June 2018
World War II
24 B&W photos | 304 pp.
Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-68247-287-3 | $29.95
www.usni.org