US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

38Lf Am@ibians Came To Conquer
(C) Carrier Strength and Husbanding by
Non-Aviator Cornrnanders
Vice Admiral Fletcher was a distinguished Line officer, a wearer of the
Medal of Honor, but not an aviator. He was serving as the commander of an
Expeditionary Force containing 7’5 percent of the battle line carriers in the
United States Navy, the Saratogti, the Enterprise, and the Wasp.73
The United States Navy had started the war with six battle line carriers
and the slower and much smaller Ranger of only 16,000 tons. The latter
could not be and was not used as a battle line carrier during World War 11.
NO new carriers were due to reach the Fleet for another nine months, until
the spring of 1943. One-third of the large carriers had been lost in action.
The Lexington had been sunk on 8 May 1942, at the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Yorktown went down not quite a month later at the Battle of Midway.
Both of these losses occurred in task forces under Vice Admiral Fletcher’s
immediate command. Naval aviators could be heard to say that the losses
would not have occurred, had the Task Force Commander been a naval
aviator. Vice Admiral Fletcher was conscious of these criticisms and deter-
mined that in all future operations full weight would be given to sound
aviation points of view .74
This was one reason he flew his flag in the Saratoga, whose Commanding
Officer, Captain DeWitt C. Ramsay (later Vice Chief of Naval Operations
and then Commander in Chief, Pacific) was known to be up on the step and
rising fast.
(D) Over-Riding Instructions
Admiral Nimitz’s special instructions governing future combat operations,
and issued prior to the Battle of Midway, contained these controlling words:
You will be governed by the principle of calculated risks which you shall
interpret to mean the avoidance of your force to attack by superior force without
good prospect of inflicting, as a result of such exposure, greater darnage to
the enemy, This applies to a landing phase as well as during preliminary air
attacks .75
‘3The Horne~, which on 7 July CINCPAC (CINCPAC 070125 July) had indicated to
COMSOPAC might participate in WATCHTOWER, was being held in the Hawaiian Area for
defensive and training purposes.
“ Interview with Admiral Frank J. Fletcher, USN (Ret.), 25 May 1963. Hereafter Fletcher.
7’CINCPAC to Commander Striking Force, Letter of Instructions, Al&3/A14–3 GG13 ( 12)
(16), Ser. 0115 of 28 May 1942.