SEVEN DAYS AT MIDWAY

摘要

The USS Yorktown (CV-5) left Pearl Harbor for Midway on Memorial Day 1942.1 had barely managed to get on board the night before. When 1 graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in mid-December 1941, my orders were to the USS Oklahoma (BB-37), but she was sunk on 7 December. So I was sent to radar school at MIT and then on to the 14th Naval District for further transfer to the Yorktown. When the Yorktown arrived back from the Southwest Pacific in late May, I asked to be detached but was told there was no hurry, because repairs to the ship would take two months or so. Running into a classmate already in the Yorktown, I asked for his advice. All he would say was that I better be on board before midnight. Because it was after work hours, I went to the Chief of Staff's quarters to get him to approve my being detached. He was irritated but signed my orders.