Two Japanese planes managed to get by the carrier and all the firing, flying very low in front of the Hughes. I can see their cockpits open, grinning faces and leather headgear flapping. Watching them fly off, I noticed two of our fighter planes jump them. The results: two splashes, flights terminated.
On June 4, 1942 the Yorktown was officially abandoned. We had rescued some twenty odd survivors on that day. The Hughes was ordered to stay with the carrier as the rest of the task force left the area. It did not make sense to keep the task force there, with a doomed carrier and the Japanese fleet still in the area. Losing a single destroyer and damaged, sinking carrier was acceptable, but not several ships. The Hughes was chosen to be the expendable one.
Our instructions: "Do not permit anyone to board her. Sink her if necessary to prevent capture or if serious fire develops." We spent the night of June 4th alone with the Yorktown. We stood close in for protection. Some lights were showing aboard and we could hear items sliding off the carrier, hitting the water.
June 5th, within a period of fifteen to twenty hours after the carrier was officially abandoned, we were patrolling on the port side of the carrier when we heard gunfire coming from the Yorktown. A crewmember was spotted at a gun on the carrier. We sent over a motor whaleboat with a crew to rescue him. They came back with two survivors. The other man was located IN THE SICK BAY. Both were injured. Unfortunately, the man that had fired the gun died shortly after arrival aboard the Hughes. He was buried at sea. |
