12/7/41 0927 hours

On the carriers the radios monitoring the air channel came alive with excited chatter from planes that were at the edge of the range of their radios. Some of the transmissions made it, others did not, some of those which did were garbled, some of the messages were just plain wrong. All of these contributed to the confusion on the carriers. Based on the fragments of messages that got through it was obvious the American aircraft had found the Japanese fleet and were attacking. In the next ten minutes, one hundred thirty three American bombers and torpedo planes were set upon by nearly forty five fighters and thirty five of them fell from the sky. The remainder pressed in and ten more fell to anti-aircraft fire. They were able to attack only two of the six Japanese carriers. One carrier was on fire as they withdrew. As they turned toward the fleet, the bombers and torpedo planes from the Sara and the Lex were advised to go to Pearl. By now it was apparent there was little chance of saving either ship.

By 1100 hours on December 7, 1941, the US Navy had lost two carriers, six battleships, seven cruisers and nine destroyers. Its aircraft losses were high, twenty two of forty five fighters had been shot down. Forty five bombers were lost with their crews. Five other planes ditched for lack of fuel or battle damage and three more returned so badly damaged they would not fly again. The only good news in this was that eighteen of the fighter pilots were rescued and only one was hurt seriously. All were transferred to the Enterprise. Spare planes were available and some of the pilots were taking their place to reinforce the CAP.

Lt. Ed Boise, a fighter pilot, was the first man shot down that morning by a Japanese fighter making a head on pass. The water was cold. He was picked up by a destroyer and transferred to the Enterprise. Now he was aloft again and had been tracking an elusive plane for about twenty minutes. It kept dodging in and out of the clouds. He was sure it was a Japanese float plane, the ones carried on the cruisers for spotting. It was apparently checking out the fleet. He looked below, all that was left of the carrier fleet was one carrier and five destroyers. The bombers and torpedo planes returned about an hour ago, or more correctly, about a half of them had returned and were even now being spotted for launch. The remainder would not return. Unknown to Lt. Boise, Halsey had made a decision to head south as soon as the attack was launched. He saw the carrier turn into the wind and watched the planes being launched. It suddenly hit him, if we were launching a second wave, the Japanese would be doing the same. The float plane appeared again and then ducked into a cloud. The pilot had seen the launch and radioed the information. He also correctly estimated the size of the American CAP. One hour and a half later Ozawa launched all planes. His fighters were launched last. They would remain with the fleet and provide air cover. The remaining planes would attack the Battleships where he had correctly estimated there would be no fighter opposition. He would not attack the remaining American carrier at this time. He could not allow the battleships to remain afloat and be a menace to his fleet after nightfall. He also correctly believed that the one remaining carrier would not be a significant threat.