The Japanese fleet enroute to attack Midway had been sighted by American reconaissance aircraft and their position plotted. Yet, when the three squadrons, fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes, which composed the strike force to be launched from the American carrier Hornet took off they were given a course of over thirty degrees to the north of the plotted Japanese position. This course was based on a hunch of the then commander of the Hornet. A decision which was to have disastrous results, and when subsequently reviewed was quietly swept under the rug by top navy brass. The leader of the torpedo squadron, Lieutenant Commander John Waldron strenously objected to said course, arguing for a course some twenty-five degrees farther south, however, to no avail. And so the flight flew in the wrong direction for quite some time until Waldron raised his objection once again with the flight commander over the intercom, only to be told to follow orders. Eventually he said “fuck it”, broke formation and took his squadron off in the direction he had initally proposed. The rest of the flight carried on until pilots in the fighter squadron determined that they had reached the point of no return and turned back for the carrier, followd by their commander. shortly after the leader of the dive bomber squadron turned back also and left the flight commander, a questionable individual as it turns out, to carry on by himself. He did, however, eventually turn around and,racing back, overtook the dive-bomber squadron and was the first to land on the Hornet. He immediately sequestered himself in his quarters, utterly humiliated I should think.
This is not an excerpt, but my own words. To be continued: Islander.