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00:00At 7.30 a.m. on May 8, 1942,
00:03Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley Vitassa strapped into his Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber
00:08on the flight deck of USS Yorktown,
00:11watching radar operators track incoming Japanese aircraft 70 miles to the northwest.
00:1727 years old, five months of combat flying, zero air-to-air kills.
00:23The Japanese had launched 69 aircraft from carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku.
00:2818 of them were Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters,
00:31the most lethal carrier-based aircraft in the world.
00:35Vitassa was about to fight them in a dive bomber.
00:37The SBD Dauntless was never designed for dogfighting.
00:41It weighed nearly 11,000 pounds fully loaded.
00:44Its maximum speed was 250 miles per hour.
00:48The Zero could reach 334.
00:50In a turning fight, the Japanese fighter could complete a full circle in under 6 seconds.
00:56The Dauntless needed twice that time.
00:59American pilots had a name for what Vitassa was about to attempt.
01:02They called it suicide.
01:04But USS Yorktown had a problem.
01:07The carrier had launched its strike force against the Japanese fleet the day before.
01:1153 dive bombers and 22 torpedo planes had attacked and sunk the light carrier Shoho.
01:17Vitassa himself had put a 1,000-pound bomb through her flight deck.
01:21Now those aircraft needed to recover, refuel, and rearm.
01:25The Yorktown was vulnerable.
01:27Fighter protection was almost non-existent.
01:30The carrier had only 18 F4F Wildcats.
01:33Nine were already airborne on combat air patrol.
01:36The remaining nine were being held in reserve.
01:39There simply were not enough fighters to intercept the incoming Japanese strike.
01:42Captain Frederick Sherman of USS Lexington had devised a desperate solution.
01:48He ordered SPD dive bombers to fly anti-torpedo plane patrol.
01:52The theory was simple.
01:54The Dauntless carried two forward-firing .50-caliber machine guns and one or two .30-caliber guns in the rear
02:00cockpit.
02:01If Japanese torpedo planes tried to attack at low altitude, the SPDs could dive on them from above.
02:07The dive bombers would become makeshift interceptors.
02:10The theory had never been tested in combat.
02:13At 7.30 that morning, Yorktown launched eight SPD Dauntlesses from Scouting Squadron 5.
02:20Vitassa was leading a four-plane section.
02:22Their orders were to orbit at low altitude, watch for torpedo planes, and shoot them down before they could release
02:28their weapons.
02:29No one mentioned what would happen if zero fighters found them first.
02:33The mathematics of carrier aviation in 1942 were brutal.
02:38Japanese pilots had been training for years.
02:40Many had combat experience over China.
02:43Their aircraft were purpose-built for the Pacific, with extraordinary range and maneuverability.
02:48American carrier pilots were learning on the job,
02:51flying machines designed before anyone understood what carrier warfare would actually require.
02:57The kill ratio told the story.
02:59In the first six months of the war, zero fighters had achieved a 12-to-1 advantage against allied aircraft.
03:06For every zero shot down, 12 American, British, Dutch, or Australian planes fell from the sky.
03:13Scouting Squadron 5 had already lost aircraft in the Coral Sea campaign.
03:17On May 4th, during strikes against Tulagi Harbor, Japanese float planes had engaged American dive bombers.
03:24On May 7th, anti-aircraft fire had claimed several SBDs during the attack on Shoho.
03:31The squadron was down to 17 operational aircraft from its original 18.
03:36Vaitasa understood the odds.
03:38His dive bomber was 60 miles per hour slower than a zero.
03:42It could not climb as fast.
03:44It could not turn as tight.
03:45It could not dive as steeply.
03:47In every measurable category except one, the Japanese fighter was superior.
03:52The exception was firepower.
03:54The SBD's twin .50 caliber machine guns fired heavier rounds than the Zero's twin 7.7 millimeter guns.
04:02And the Japanese fighter had a critical weakness that American intelligence was only beginning to understand.
04:08The Zero had no armor plating.
04:11No self-sealing fuel tanks.
04:14A single well-placed burst could turn it into a fireball.
04:18But placing that burst required getting a Zero into your gun sights.
04:22And getting a Zero into your gun sights meant surviving long enough to aim.
04:27If you want to see how Vaitasa's slow dive bomber performed against the fastest fighters in the Pacific, please hit
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04:40Back to Vaitasa.
04:42At 10.55 a.m., Yorktown's radar detected the incoming Japanese strike at 68 nautical miles.
04:49Fighter direction officers vected the nine airborne Wildcats to intercept.
04:53But they positioned the fighters too low, expecting torpedo planes at wave top level.
05:00The Japanese were flying at 10,000 feet.
05:02The Wildcats missed them completely.
05:04That left eight SBD dauntlesses orbiting between the Japanese strike force and the American carriers.
05:11Eight slow, heavy, unmaneuverable dive bombers against 18 Zero fighters, 33 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo planes.
05:21Vaitasa saw them first.
05:22A swarm of aircraft descending through scattered clouds to the northwest.
05:27He counted at least 50 silhouettes, and eight of them were breaking formation, turning directly toward his four-plane section.
05:34Eight zeroes against four dauntlesses.
05:37The Japanese pilots must have thought it would be easy.
05:40They were about to discover that Stanley Vaitasa had learned something about the SBD dauntless that no training manual had
05:47ever taught, something that would keep him alive for the next 15 minutes while pilots around him died, something that
05:54would change his life forever and earn him a medal that most dive bomber pilots never received.
06:00The zeroes opened fire at 800 yards.
06:04Vaitasa pushed his stick forward and dove straight at them.
06:07The standard response to a zero attack was to run.
06:10Dive for the deck.
06:12Use the dauntlesses' weight to build speed in a descent.
06:15Try to reach the protective anti-aircraft fire of the fleet before the Japanese fighter caught you.
06:20Vaitasa did the opposite.
06:22He had learned something during training that his commanding officer had emphasized repeatedly.
06:27When a faster aircraft attacks from behind or above, the natural instinct is to turn away.
06:33To flee.
06:34But turning away gives the attacker a perfect deflection shot.
06:38The target moves predictably.
06:40The bullets find their mark.
06:42Turning into the attack changes everything.
06:45When a pilot turns toward an incoming fighter, the geometry becomes impossible.
06:50The attacker is closing at combined speeds of 500 miles per hour or more.
06:54The angle changes constantly.
06:56The target is no longer running in a straight line, but spiraling toward the shooter.
07:01A pilot has perhaps two seconds to adjust his aim, fire, and pull away before collision becomes inevitable.
07:08Most pilots cannot make that shot.
07:11The Tassa yanked his stick hard left and pulled back,
07:14bringing his dauntless around in a tight climbing turn directly into the lead zeroes path.
07:19The Japanese pilot had expected an easy tail chase.
07:22Instead, he found himself staring at the nose of an American dive bomber,
07:27growing larger in his windscreen at a closure rate that left no time for correction.
07:32The zero broke off, pulling up and away to avoid collision.
07:35The Tassa had survived the first pass.
07:39Seven more fighters were circling for position.
07:41The next 60 seconds became a blur of violent maneuvering.
07:45The Tassa repeated his tactic again and again.
07:48Each time a zero dove on him, he turned into the attack.
07:52Each time, the Japanese pilot had to choose between collision and breaking away.
07:57Each time, the geometry bought Vetassa another few seconds of life.
08:01His rear gunner was firing continuously.
08:04The twin .30 caliber machine guns swept across the sky,
08:08forcing attacking zeroes to break off or risk taking hits from an unexpected angle.
08:13The two-man crew was fighting as a unit, pilot and gunner covering each other's blind spots.
08:19Around them, the other SBDs were dying.
08:22The problem with Vetassa's tactic was that it only worked for one aircraft at a time.
08:27While he turned into one attacker, another zero could line up a clean shot from a different angle.
08:33The Japanese pilots were experienced.
08:36They had fought over China.
08:37They knew how to coordinate attacks against a single target.
08:41Within the first five minutes, four of the eight Dauntlesses went down.
08:45Pilots and gunners who had been flying formation with Vetassa moments earlier
08:49were now falling toward the Coral Sea in burning wreckage.
08:53Some managed to bail out.
08:55Others did not.
08:57Vetassa kept fighting.
08:59The zeroes' weakness became apparent as the battle continued.
09:02The Japanese fighter was fast and agile, but its 20-millimeter cannons carried only 60 rounds per gun.
09:09Its 7.7-millimeter machine guns were light, designed to damage fabric-covered biplanes,
09:16not the all-metal construction of American aircraft.
09:19The SBD Dauntless had armor plating behind the pilot's seat.
09:23It had self-sealing fuel tanks.
09:25It could absorb hits that would have destroyed a zero.
09:28And Vetassa was getting shots.
09:30Each time he turned into an attack, his nose briefly aligned with the incoming zero.
09:35Each time, he squeezed the trigger on his twin .50 caliber guns.
09:40The bursts were short, measured in fractions of a second.
09:43But the .50 caliber round was devastating.
09:46One hit to a fuel tank, one hit to an engine, one hit to a pilot.
09:51Any of these could end the fight instantly.
09:54His first confirmed kill came when a zero committed too deeply to a head-on pass.
09:59The Japanese pilot held his course a moment too long, trying to score hits on the American bomber.
10:06Vetassa's .50 caliber's found him first.
10:08The zero's engine exploded in a spray of oil and coolant.
10:12The fighter rolled inverted and fell.
10:15The second zero died in a similar manner.
10:18Another head-on pass.
10:20Another pilot who believed his speed advantage would allow him to fire and break away
10:24before the slow American bomber could respond.
10:27Another miscalculation.
10:30The third kill was different.
10:32Vetassa and a zero found themselves on a direct collision course.
10:36Neither pilot would give way.
10:38The closure rate exceeded 500 miles per hour.
10:42At the last possible moment, both aircraft banked slightly to avoid destruction.
10:47They passed within feet of each other.
10:49Some accounts suggest Vetassa's wingtip actually struck the zero's wing, shearing it off.
10:55The Japanese fighter spiraled into the sea.
10:58Three kills.
10:59In a dive bomber.
11:01Against the most feared fighter aircraft in the Pacific.
11:04But the battle was not over.
11:06The Japanese strike force was still inbound.
11:10Torpedo planes were lining up their attack runs on Yorktown and Lexington.
11:14And half of the SBD anti-torpedo patrol had been destroyed.
11:19Vetassa turned his battered dauntless toward the fleet.
11:22His aircraft had taken hits.
11:24His ammunition was running low.
11:25But the torpedo planes were still coming, flying low and fast toward the American carriers.
11:31He pushed his throttle forward and dove toward them.
11:35The Japanese torpedo planes were Nakajima B-5N Type 97 aircraft.
11:40American pilots called them Cates.
11:41They were faster than the dauntless, capable of 235 miles per hour in level flight.
11:47They carried the Type 91 aerial torpedo, a weapon that had already sunk or damaged dozens of allied warships since
11:54December 7th.
11:55Fourteen Cates were making their approach on USS Lexington.
11:59Four more targeted Yorktown.
12:01They flew at wavetop height, skimming the surface of the Coral Sea at barely 50 feet.
12:06At this altitude, anti-aircraft guns had difficulty tracking them.
12:10The torpedoes needed calm water and a straight approach to arm properly.
12:14Vetassa dove toward them from above.
12:17The anti-torpedo patrol had been designed for exactly this moment.
12:21SBDs carried enough firepower to damage or destroy a torpedo plane before it could release its weapon.
12:27The dive bomber's speed disadvantage disappeared when attacking from altitude.
12:31Gravity provided acceleration that engines could not match.
12:34But the Cates were too fast.
12:36The Yorktown Action Report later noted that the SBDs attempted to intercept the enemy torpedo planes,
12:42but they were too fast for them.
12:44The torpedo bombers were already in their final approach when the dive bombers reached attack position.
12:49Vetassa fired at the Cates as they street toward the carriers.
12:53His .50 calibers raked across one aircraft.
12:55He saw pieces fly off the fuselage.
12:58But the Cate kept flying.
12:59The Japanese pilots had committed to their attack runs.
13:03They would release their torpedoes or die trying.
13:05Most of them did both.
13:07At 11.20 a.m., two torpedoes struck USS Lexington on her port side.
13:12The massive carrier shuttered from the impacts.
13:15Flooding began immediately in her boiler rooms.
13:17But Lady Lex stayed afloat.
13:20Her damage control teams were among the best in the Navy.
13:23They contained the flooding and restored power to her engines within 30 minutes.
13:27USS Yorktown fared better.
13:29Her captain, Elliot Buckmaster, maneuvered the carrier through a forest of torpedo wakes.
13:34Japanese pilots released 11 torpedoes at Yorktown.
13:38Every single one missed.
13:41But the dive bombers found her.
13:42While Vetassa and the surviving SBDs engaged the low-flying torpedo planes,
13:4733 Aichi D-3A VAL dive bombers screamed down from 18,000 feet.
13:54Yorktown's combat air patrol was still out of position.
13:57The anti-aircraft guns opened fire, filling the sky with black bursts.
14:02Seven VALs fell before reaching their release points.
14:0526 continued their dives.
14:07At 11.27 a.m., a 500-pound bomb struck Yorktown's flight deck.
14:12The explosion penetrated three decks before detonating in an uptake compartment.
14:17Fires erupted throughout the ship's interior.
14:2066 men died in the blast.
14:22Another sailor would die later from wounds.
14:25Vetassa was still airborne when the bomb hit.
14:28His dauntless had taken significant damage during the zero engagement.
14:32Bullet holes peppered the fuselage and wings.
14:34His ammunition was nearly exhausted.
14:36The aircraft was handling sluggishly, likely from damage to control surfaces.
14:41But the engine still ran.
14:43The aircraft still flew.
14:45He nursed the SBD back toward Yorktown.
14:48The scene below him was chaos.
14:50Lexington was burning, black smoke pouring from her stack.
14:54Yorktown was also smoking, but her fires appeared smaller.
14:57Destroyers and cruisers circled the carriers,
15:00their guns still firing at retreating Japanese aircraft.
15:03The Vetassa landed on Yorktown at approximately noon.
15:07Ground crews counted the damage to his aircraft.
15:10Dozens of holes, shattered glass, damaged control cables.
15:14It was remarkable that the dauntless had remained airworthy.
15:17The battle results became clear over the following hours.
15:20The American strike on Shokaku had inflicted serious damage.
15:24Three bomb hits had wrecked her flight deck.
15:26She would spend months in repair at Kure Naval Arsenal.
15:30Her aircraft had diverted to Zuikaku, but both carriers were withdrawing northward.
15:35The American losses were worse.
15:37USS Lexington appeared to have survived her torpedo hits.
15:40But at 12.47 p.m., internal explosions began rocking the ship.
15:45Gasoline vapors from ruptured fuel lines had accumulated in her lower compartments.
15:50Sparts from damaged electrical systems ignited them.
15:52The explosions continued throughout the afternoon.
15:55At 5.00 p.m., Captain Frederick Sherman gave the order to abandon ship.
16:00Destroyers moved alongside to rescue her crew.
16:03By 7.32 p.m., Lexington slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea.
16:08216 men died with her.
16:10The Battle of the Coral Sea was over.
16:12Both sides had lost a carrier.
16:14Both sides claimed victory.
16:16In Tokyo, newspapers celebrated the destruction of American naval power.
16:20In Washington, admirals studied the results and found reasons for cautious optimism.
16:25In the ready room of USS Yorktown, Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley Vaitassa sat with the other surviving pilots of Scouting
16:32Squadron 5.
16:33Four of the eight SBDs that launched on anti-torpedo patrol had not returned.
16:38Half the patrol was gone.
16:39But Vaitassa had shot down three Zeros in a dive bomber.
16:43Word spread through the air group.
16:45A pilot from the Scouting Squadron had outfought Japanese fighters in an aircraft that was supposed to be a sitting
16:50duck.
16:51He had used tactics that no manual had described.
16:54He had survived an engagement that should have killed him.
16:56Within days, orders arrived.
16:59Vaitassa was being transferred to fighters.
17:01The Navy needed fighter pilots.
17:03Desperately.
17:04In the five months since Pearl Harbor, American carrier aviation had suffered devastating losses.
17:10The attack on December 7th had destroyed or damaged dozens of aircraft on the ground.
17:14The carrier Saratoga had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in January, spending months in repair.
17:21Lexington was now at the bottom of the Coral Sea.
17:23Yorktown had limped back to Pearl Harbor with a bomb-damaged flight deck.
17:27Only three fleet carriers remained operational in the Pacific.
17:31Enterprise, Hornet, and the wounded Yorktown, undergoing emergency repairs that would take 72 hours instead of the estimated 90 days.
17:39The Battle of Midway was approaching.
17:42The Navy could not afford to waste pilots who had proven themselves in combat.
17:46Vaitassa received his transfer orders in late May 1942.
17:50He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 10, a newly formed unit based at Naval Air Station San Diego.
17:55The squadron was flying Grumman F-4F Wildcats, the same stubby fighters that had struggled against Zeros throughout the Pacific.
18:03The commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander James Henry Flatley Jr.
18:07Flatley was already a legend in naval aviation.
18:10He had fought at Coral Sea as executive officer of Fighting Squadron 42 aboard Lexington.
18:15He had engaged Zeros in combat and survived.
18:18More importantly, he had studied the Japanese fighter and developed tactics that gave Wildcat pilots a chance.
18:24The conventional wisdom in May 1942 held that the Zero was simply superior, faster, more maneuverable, better climbing.
18:33American pilots who tried to dogfight Zeros died.
18:36The standard advice was to avoid engagement entirely.
18:39Flatley rejected this thinking.
18:41He understood that the Zero had weaknesses that American pilots could exploit.
18:45The Japanese fighter lacked armor protection.
18:48A single burst from a Wildcat's 6.50 caliber machine guns could destroy it.
18:52The Zero's lightweight construction made it fragile in high-speed dives.
18:56Above 350 miles per hour, its controls stiffened.
19:00Its ailerons became sluggish.
19:02A Wildcat diving at full throttle could escape a Zero that could not follow.
19:07Flatley developed training programs that emphasized these advantages.
19:10His pilots practiced diving attacks.
19:12They learned to fight in pairs, each wingman covering the other's blind spots.
19:16They studied energy management, trading altitude for speed, and speed for position.
19:21He called his squadron the Grim Reapers.
19:24Vaitasa arrived at San Diego in June 1942.
19:28His reputation preceded him.
19:30The pilot who had shot down three Zeros in a dive bomber.
19:33The man who turned into attacks instead of running.
19:36Flatley recognized talent when he saw it.
19:38But Vaitasa was not content to simply adopt Flatley's tactics.
19:41He challenged them.
19:42Lieutenant Commander John Thatch had developed a famous defensive maneuver called the Beam
19:47Defense, later known as the Thatch Weave.
19:50Two aircraft flew parallel courses.
19:52When a Zero attacked one, it turned toward its partner.
19:55The partner turned toward the attacker.
19:57The Zero found itself caught between two Wildcats, each with guns pointed at its flanks.
20:03Vaitasa studied the Thatch Weave and found it insufficient.
20:06The maneuver was defensive.
20:08It kept pilots alive, but did not destroy the enemy.
20:10He argued for more aggressive tactics.
20:13Diving attacks from altitude, slashing runs through enemy formations, hit hard, break
20:18away, climb back to altitude, attack again.
20:21Flatley listened.
20:22He incorporated Vaitasa's ideas into squadron training.
20:26The Grim Reapers became one of the most aggressive fighter units in the Pacific Fleet.
20:30By September 1942, fighting Squadron 10 was ready for combat.
20:35The strategic situation in the Pacific had changed dramatically since Coral Sea.
20:39The Battle of Midway in June had destroyed four Japanese fleet carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu,
20:46Hiryu.
20:47The Imperial Japanese Navy had lost its best pilots, its most experienced deck crews, its
20:52irreplaceable aircraft.
20:54American forces had landed on Guadalcanal in August, seizing Henderson Field and establishing
20:59a foothold in the Solomon Islands.
21:01But the Japanese were not finished.
21:02Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto assembled a massive fleet to retake Guadalcanal.
21:08Four carriers, four battleships, 14 cruisers, 44 destroyers.
21:13Thousands of Japanese soldiers prepared to land and overwhelm the Marines defending Henderson
21:18Field.
21:19The American response was desperate improvisation.
21:22Enterprise had returned from repairs.
21:25Hornet was operational.
21:26The new battleship South Dakota provided anti-aircraft protection.
21:31Rear Admiral Thomas Kincaid commanded Task Force 61 with orders to stop the Japanese advance.
21:38Fighting Squadron 10, the Grim Reapers, embarked aboard Enterprise in early October.
21:44Vatassa was now a full lieutenant.
21:45He served as operations officer for the squadron, third in command behind Flatley and the executive
21:51officer.
21:51He had transitioned completely from dive bombers to fighters.
21:55His days of flying the slow, heavy Dauntless were over.
21:59On October 25, 1942, a PBY Catalina Patrol aircraft spotted the Japanese carrier force 360 miles
22:08northwest of the Santa Cruz Islands.
22:10Four carriers, dozens of escorts, hundreds of aircraft.
22:14The enemy was coming.
22:16That evening, Admiral William Halsey sent a message to Task Force 61.
22:20Two words that would define the next 24 hours.
22:24Attack.
22:25Repeat.
22:26Attack.
22:27Vatassa sat in the ready room of Enterprise, studying reconnaissance photographs of Japanese
22:32carriers.
22:33Shokaku and Zuikaku were there, the same ships he had fought at Coral Sea.
22:38They had been hunting each other for six months.
22:40Tomorrow, one of them would die.
22:42The day before the battle nearly ended in disaster.
22:46On October 25, a PBY Catalina reported the Japanese carrier force 355 miles northwest of
22:54Task Force 61.
22:56Admiral Kincaid faced a decision.
22:59The enemy was at the extreme edge of carrier aircraft range.
23:02A strike launched immediately might catch the Japanese before they could launch their own
23:07aircraft.
23:08But the returning pilots would have to land in darkness, a dangerous proposition on a pitching
23:13carrier deck.
23:15Kincaid ordered the strike.
23:17Hornets Air Group was designated the primary attack force.
23:20Enterprise would serve as duty carrier, keeping her fighters aboard to protect the task force.
23:25It was standard doctrine.
23:27One carrier attacks.
23:29One carrier defends.
23:30Then Kincaid changed his mind.
23:33At 2.25 p.m., he ordered Enterprise to launch 12 SBD Dauntless dive bombers on a search mission
23:40to locate the exact position of the Japanese fleet.
23:44Thirty minutes later, he ordered the rest of Enterprise's air group to follow.
23:48Fighters.
23:49Torpedo planes.
23:50Everything.
23:51Vichassa was incredulous.
23:53The search vectors assigned to the Enterprise pilots pointed away from the last known Japanese
23:59position.
23:59They were flying into empty ocean.
24:02Worse, the launch time meant they would be returning after sunset.
24:06Finding a carrier at night, in radio silence, with fuel running low, was nearly impossible.
24:12The pilots of Fighting Squadron 10 protested through the chain of command.
24:17The orders made no tactical sense.
24:19Enterprise was stripping herself of aircraft while the Japanese fleet was within striking
24:24distance.
24:24If enemy scouts found the American carriers, there would be no fighters to defend them.
24:29The order stood.
24:31Vichassa launched with the rest of the Grim Reapers at approximately 3 p.m.
24:35They flew their assigned search vectors for hours, finding nothing but empty sea and scattered
24:41clouds.
24:41As the sun dropped toward the horizon, fuel gauges began showing the ugly truth.
24:47Some aircraft would not have enough to reach the designated recovery point.
24:51At dusk, the Enterprise air group turned back toward Point Option, the calculated position
24:56where their carrier should be waiting.
24:58Enterprise was not there.
25:01Kincaid had maneuvered the task force throughout the afternoon, responding to submarine contacts
25:06and course changes.
25:07The carrier was now miles from where her pilots expected to find her.
25:11Radio silence prevented communication.
25:14The air group was scattered across hundreds of square miles of darkening ocean, searching
25:18for a ship that had moved.
25:20Pilots began running out of fuel.
25:22Some ditched in the open water, hoping destroyers would find them before sharks did.
25:28Others circled desperately, watching their gauges drop toward empty.
25:32Vatassa remembered something from the morning combat air patrol.
25:36Enterprise had been leaking oil.
25:38A thin slick trailed behind the carrier, visible on the surface of the sea.
25:42In the fading light, he dropped low and began searching for that slick.
25:47He found it.
25:48Following the oil trail through the darkness, Vatassa located Enterprise.
25:52And led other aircraft back to the carrier.
25:55Deck crews worked frantically, recovering aircraft in conditions that would have been considered
26:00too dangerous for daylight operations.
26:02Some pilots crashed on landing.
26:05Others ran out of fuel in the landing pattern and ditched alongside the ship.
26:09By midnight, the air group had been recovered.
26:12Barely.
26:14Vatassa had saved aircraft and pilots through quick thinking and observation.
26:18But the experience left him shaken.
26:20Admiral Kincaid's orders had nearly destroyed Enterprise's air group before the battle even
26:26began.
26:27If the Japanese attacked at dawn, the American pilots would be exhausted, their aircraft
26:32damaged, their confidence rattled.
26:34The Japanese did attack at dawn.
26:36At 6.45 a.m. on October 26th, both sides launched search aircraft.
26:42At 7.40, a Japanese scout reported the American carriers.
26:46At 7.50, Enterprise radar detected incoming aircraft.
26:51Minutes later, American scouts found the Japanese fleet.
26:54Both sides launched full strikes simultaneously.
26:57The mathematics of carrier warfare meant that both fleets would be attacking each other at
27:02the same time.
27:04Japanese aircraft would arrive over the American carriers, while American aircraft were over
27:09the Japanese carriers.
27:10Defense would depend entirely on combat air patrol fighters and anti-aircraft guns.
27:16Fighting Squadron 10 had eight Wildcats airborne on combat air patrol.
27:21Vachassa was among them.
27:23At 8.22 a.m., radar operators on Enterprise reported a massive formation approaching from
27:29the northwest.
27:31Over 60 aircraft, fighters, dive bombers, torpedo planes.
27:36The entire striking power of the Japanese carrier fleet was inbound.
27:41Vachassa checked his ammunition.
27:43Full load.
27:44He checked his fuel.
27:46Enough for 40 minutes of combat.
27:49He scanned the horizon to the northwest.
27:51The sky was filling with enemy aircraft.
27:54The first wave struck USS Hornet.
27:5727 aircraft from carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku descended on the American task force at 8.50 a.m.
28:0415 Aichi D-3A Val dive bombers, 12 Nakajima B-5N Kate torpedo planes.
28:12A screen of zero fighters flew top cover.
28:15Vachassa was part of the combat air patrol assigned to protect both carriers, but fighter
28:20direction was chaotic.
28:22Radio channels were clogged with overlapping transmissions.
28:26Radar operators struggled to track multiple formations approaching from different altitudes
28:30and directions.
28:31The eight Wildcats of Fighting Squadron 10 were scattered across the sky, each pilot fighting
28:38his own desperate battle.
28:40Vachassa spotted two Val's beginning their dive on Hornet from 18,000 feet.
28:44He pushed his throttle forward and climbed toward them.
28:47The Wildcats' Pratt and Whitney engine strained at full power, clawing for altitude.
28:52The Val's were already committed to their dives, screaming downward at nearly 300 miles per
28:58hour, their fixed landing gear creating the distinctive whistling sound that gave them
29:03their reputation.
29:05Vachassa intercepted them at 12,000 feet.
29:07His first burst caught the lead Val in the engine cowling.
29:10The Japanese dive bomber staggered, trailing smoke.
29:14The pilot tried to continue his attack run, but the aircraft was dying.
29:18It rolled slowly to the left and fell away, splashing into the ocean without releasing its
29:23bomb.
29:24The second Val was already past him, diving toward Hornet.
29:28Vachassa rolled inverted and pulled through, reversing his direction to pursue.
29:33But the angle was wrong.
29:34The Japanese pilot was too far ahead, too committed to his dive.
29:39Vachassa fired a long burst at extreme range.
29:42He saw hits spark along the fuselage.
29:44The Val continued downward.
29:46At 8.54 a.m., a 250-kilogram bomb struck Hornet's flight deck near the island structure.
29:53The explosion killed seven men instantly.
29:56Fires erupted across the deck.
29:59Seconds later, a burning Val, possibly the one Vachassa had damaged, crashed directly.
30:04into the carrier stack.
30:06Aviation gasoline sprayed across the signal bridge.
30:09More fires.
30:10Two torpedoes struck Hornet's starboard side within the next three minutes.
30:15The carrier lost power.
30:17Dead in the water, she became a stationary target.
30:20More bombs found her.
30:22By 9.15 a.m., Hornet was burning from bow to stern.
30:27Vachassa had no time to watch.
30:29Enterprise was next.
30:30The second wave appeared on radar at 9.30 a.m.
30:34This formation was larger.
30:3644 aircraft.
30:37And leading the attack were 20 CATE torpedo bombers, flying low and fast toward the surviving American carrier.
30:45Enterprise was the last operational fleet carrier in the Pacific.
30:48If she sank, the Guadalcanal campaign would collapse.
30:52Henderson Field would fall.
30:54The strategic initiative would shift entirely to Japan.
30:57Everything depended on stopping those torpedo planes.
31:00Vachassa dove toward them.
31:02The Cates were approaching from multiple directions,
31:05a coordinated attack designed to overwhelm the carrier's ability to maneuver.
31:09Turn to avoid torpedoes from one group, and you present a perfect target to another.
31:14The only defense was to destroy the attackers before they could release their weapons.
31:18Vachassa selected a group of 11 Cates boring in from the port side of Enterprise.
31:23He came at them from above and behind, using altitude to build speed.
31:27His six .50 caliber machine guns opened fire at 400 yards.
31:31The first Cate exploded.
31:33The formations scattered.
31:35Japanese pilots broke in different directions,
31:37trying to escape the American fighter that had appeared among them.
31:40Three Cates jettisoned their torpedoes immediately.
31:43The weapons tumbling uselessly into the sea.
31:46The carefully planned attack was disintegrating.
31:49Vachassa stayed with them.
31:50He shot down a second Cate.
31:52Then a third.
31:53His Wildcat was taking hits from Japanese rear gunners,
31:57but the bullets could not stop him.
31:59A fourth Cate fell.
32:00Then a fifth.
32:01Five torpedo bombers destroyed in approximately four minutes.
32:05Combined with his two Val kills earlier in the battle,
32:08Vachassa had shot down seven Japanese aircraft in a single mission.
32:11No American pilot had ever achieved such a score in one engagement.
32:16Not at Pearl Harbor.
32:17Not at Midway.
32:18Not at Coral Sea.
32:20Enterprise survived.
32:22Barely.
32:23Two bombs struck the carrier during the battle.
32:26Three near misses caused additional damage.
32:28But the torpedo attack had been broken.
32:30The coordinated assault that should have sunk her
32:33had fallen apart under Vachassa's guns.
32:35Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Flatley watched the engagement from his own cockpit.
32:40He understood immediately what had happened.
32:42His pilot had saved the carrier.
32:44His pilot had possibly saved the entire Guadalcanal campaign.
32:48That evening, Flatley wrote in Vachassa's flight log,
32:52seven words that would follow the pilot for the rest of his life.
32:55Greatest single combat fight record in history.
32:57Then, Flatley did something unusual for a squadron commander
33:01who rarely recommended medals.
33:03He began drafting a nomination for the Medal of Honor.
33:06The Medal of Honor nomination traveled up the chain of command.
33:10Flatley documented everything.
33:12The seven confirmed kills.
33:14The broken torpedo attack.
33:16The survival of Enterprise.
33:18He compared Vachassa's achievement
33:19to Lieutenant Edward O'Hare's famous engagement in February
33:23when O'Hare had shot down five Japanese bombers
33:26attacking USS Lexington.
33:28O'Hare received the Medal of Honor for that action.
33:31Vachassa had shot down seven aircraft.
33:34Two more than O'Hare.
33:36In circumstances equally desperate.
33:38The nomination reached Rear Admiral Thomas Kincaid,
33:41commander of Task Force 61.
33:43Kincaid had problems.
33:45The Battle of Santa Cruz was technically an American defeat.
33:48Hornet was gone,
33:50sumped by Japanese destroyers
33:52after her own escorts failed to scuttle her.
33:55Enterprise had survived, but was badly damaged.
33:57Her forward elevator jammed in the up position,
34:00her flight deck scarred by bomb hits.
34:03The American carrier force in the Pacific
34:05had been reduced to a single operational ship.
34:08Questions were being asked about Kincaid's decisions.
34:10The disastrous search mission on October 25th
34:13that nearly destroyed Enterprise's air group before the battle.
34:16The positioning of combat air patrol
34:18that allowed Japanese strikes to reach the carriers
34:21with minimal interception.
34:23The failure to coordinate fighter direction effectively.
34:26Kincaid needed the narrative of Santa Cruz
34:28to focus on Japanese losses,
34:31not American mistakes.
34:32A Medal of Honor would draw attention.
34:35Reporters would investigate.
34:37Questions would be asked about why such heroism was necessary.
34:40Why were eight Wildcats defending two carriers
34:43against 60 aircraft?
34:45Why was fighter direction so chaotic?
34:48Why had the air group been scattered across empty ocean
34:51the night before the battle?
34:52Kincaid downgraded the nomination.
34:55Instead of the Medal of Honor,
34:56Vatassa received his third Navy Cross.
34:59The citation praised his extraordinary heroism
35:02and indomitable fighting spirit.
35:03It acknowledged the seven aircraft destroyed.
35:06It made no mention of the Medal of Honor recommendation
35:09that Flatley had submitted.
35:11The decision stunned the pilots of Fighting Squadron 10.
35:15Hal Buell, a dive bomber pilot
35:17who had flown with Vatassa at Coral Sea,
35:19later wrote that Vatassa deserved the Medal of Honor
35:22for his flying at Coral Sea alone,
35:24let alone what he accomplished at Santa Cruz.
35:27Other pilots agreed.
35:29The downgrade became a source of quiet bitterness
35:31within the air group.
35:32Vatassa said nothing publicly.
35:35He accepted the Navy Cross and continued flying.
35:38The strategic impact of Santa Cruz
35:40became clear in the following weeks.
35:43The Japanese had won a tactical victory.
35:45They sank Hornet and damaged Enterprise,
35:48but they lost 99 aircraft
35:51and dozens of irreplaceable pilots.
35:53The veteran aviators who had attacked Pearl Harbor,
35:56who had sunk Prince of Wales and Repulse,
35:58who had devastated Allied air power across the Pacific,
36:02were dying faster than Japan could train replacements.
36:06Enterprise returned to service within weeks.
36:09Her repair crews worked around the clock at Numea,
36:12patching bomb damage and restoring her flight deck.
36:15By mid-November, she was operational again,
36:18the only American carrier defending Guadalcanal
36:21during the crucial naval battles that decided the campaign.
36:24The Japanese carriers never recovered from Santa Cruz.
36:28Shokaku and Zuikaku had lost so many aircraft and pilots
36:32that they could not mount offensive operations for months.
36:36The light carriers Junyo and Hiyo
36:38lacked the trained air crews to fill the gap.
36:41When American forces pushed up the Solomon Islands chain in 1943,
36:45Japanese naval aviation was a shadow of its former strength.
36:50Vitassa's combat tour ended in early 1943.
36:53He was transferred stateside to train new fighter pilots
36:56at Naval Air Station Atlantic City.
36:59The skills he had learned, the tactics he had developed,
37:02the instincts that had kept him alive through two carrier battles,
37:05were now being passed to the next generation of naval aviators.
37:09His final combat score stood at ten and one-quarter confirmed aerial victories.
37:15Three zeros at Coral Sea.
37:17Seven aircraft at Santa Cruz.
37:19A shared kill from earlier in the war.
37:22By the standards of the Pacific Air War,
37:24he was an ace twice over.
37:27He never flew in combat again.
37:29The war continued without him.
37:31New carriers joined the fleet.
37:33Essex.
37:34Yorktown.
37:35Lexington.
37:36Names resurrected from ships that had been sunk.
37:39New fighters arrived.
37:41The F-6F Hellcat.
37:43The F-4U Corsair.
37:45Aircraft designed with the lessons of 1942 built into their airframes.
37:50Vitassa watched from training squadrons
37:52as pilots he had instructed flew these new aircraft into battle.
37:56The desperate days of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz faded into memory.
38:00The Navy was winning now.
38:01The question was no longer survival, but victory.
38:04But for Stanley Vitassa, there was still one more chapter to write.
38:09A career that would span three decades.
38:12Commands that would take him from training squadrons to aircraft carriers.
38:15And a question that would follow him for the rest of his life.
38:19Why had the Navy denied him the Medal of Honor?
38:22Stanley Vitassa stayed in the Navy.
38:24The war ended in August 1945, but Vitassa's career was just beginning.
38:30He commanded fighter squadrons.
38:32He served as air officer aboard USS Essex during the Korean War, coordinating strikes against
38:37North Korean and Chinese positions.
38:39He attended the Naval War College.
38:42He rose steadily through the ranks.
38:43In November 1962, Captain Stanley Vitassa assumed command of USS Constellation.
38:50The irony was not lost on him.
38:53Twenty years earlier, he had been a junior lieutenant fighting desperately to save Enterprise from Japanese torpedo planes.
38:59Now, he commanded one of the most powerful warships ever built.
39:04Constellation was a supercarrier, over a thousand feet long, carrying 80 aircraft, capable of projecting American power anywhere in the
39:12world.
39:13Vitassa commanded Constellation for one year.
39:16He ran the ship with the same precision and aggression that had defined his flying.
39:20Officers who served under him remembered a captain who demanded excellence and led by example.
39:24The lessons of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz had shaped him.
39:27He understood that preparation and training were the difference between victory and disaster.
39:32He retired from the Navy on July 1, 1970, with the rank of Captain.
39:37Thirty-two years of service, three Navy crosses, two bronze stars, the Legion of Merit, countless other decorations, but not
39:45the Medal of Honor.
39:46The question resurfaced periodically throughout Vitassa's retirement.
39:50In 1987, he was inducted into the Carrier Aviation Hall of Fame, recognition of his place among the greatest naval
39:57aviators in American history.
39:59Journalists who interviewed him inevitably asked about Santa Cruz, about the seven kills, about the medal that never came.
40:06Vitassa deflected the questions.
40:08He spoke about his fellow pilots, about the men who did not come back,
40:12about Jimmy Flatley, who had believed in him and trained him and recommended him for the highest honor the nation
40:18could bestow.
40:18Flatley had died in 1958, a vice-admiral, never knowing that his Medal of Honor recommendation had been quietly buried.
40:26In 2012, author Ted Edwards began researching Vitassa's life for a biography.
40:32He interviewed the aging pilot extensively, recording hours of conversation about Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, and the decades that followed.
40:40Edwards documented the Medal of Honor controversy in detail, tracing the paperwork through naval archives.
40:45The evidence was clear.
40:47Flatley had submitted the recommendation.
40:50Kincaid had downgraded it.
40:51The decision had been made for reasons that had nothing to do with Vitassa's performance in combat.
40:56Edwards titled his book, Seven at Santa Cruz.
41:00Stanley Winfield.
41:01Vitassa died on January 23, 2013.
41:05He was 98 years old.
41:07In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.
41:11The ocean that had witnessed his greatest triumphs received him one final time.
41:17The Medal of Honor question remains unresolved.
41:20Some military historians have argued that the award could still be granted posthumously.
41:25Congress has the authority to waive time limitations for Medal of Honor nominations.
41:30Presidents have occasionally approved such waivers for World War II veterans whose heroism was overlooked or suppressed.
41:37But Stanley Vitassa never asked for reconsideration.
41:41He never lobbied for the medal.
41:43He never complained publicly about Kincaid's decision.
41:46He simply lived his life, served his country, and let his record speak for itself.
41:51That record speaks loudly.
41:53Three zeroes shot down in a dive bomber.
41:56Seven aircraft destroyed in a single mission.
41:59A carrier saved from destruction.
42:01A campaign preserved.
42:02All accomplished by a pilot who was told his aircraft could not fight, who faced odds that should have killed
42:08him, who refused to accept the limitations that others imposed.
42:12The SBD dauntless that Vitassa flew at Coral Sea was never designed for dogfighting.
42:18The Navy sent him against zeroes in an aircraft 60 miles per hour slower, with half the maneuverability, expecting him
42:25to die.
42:26He turned into the attacks instead.
42:28The lesson of Stanley Vitassa is simple.
42:31The weapon matters less than the warrior.
42:33The aircraft matters less than the pilot.
42:36Courage and skill can overcome any disadvantage, if the person wielding them refuses to quit.
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42:58Stories about dive bomber pilots who fought zeros with impossible odds.
43:03Real people.
43:04Real heroism.
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