USS Hornet

USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy vessel of that name, was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier. Commissioned a month before the Pearl Harbor attack, the ship spent three months in the waters around Norfolk, training and acquiring modern aircraft, before being dispatched to the Pacific in March 1942.
In April 1942, the ship, part of a task force that also included her sister ship USS Enterprise, launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, then sortied in mid-May toward the South Pacific, before being abruptly recalled to Hawaii to participate in the Battle of Midway in June. After the victory at Midway, while the Pacific Fleet's other three carriers went south to support the early August invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands, Hornet was retained in Hawaii in reserve. This did not last; in late August, she was sent to join the other carriers, a move that proved necessary, as the other vessels, one by one, were disabled. By late September, Hornet was the only American fleet carrier active in the Pacific.
Hornet spent most of her time in the South Pacific patrolling the waters east of Guadalcanal, to help keep sea lanes open and offer general support. On 15 September...