Blackmail

86 USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Captain Dolores Gonzalez monitored the Common Operational Picture on her console in CDC, wondering what her counterparts on the other four American carriers had endured. Bush and Eisenhower had been damaged severely enough to terminate flight operations, and it looked as if Truman and Reagan were limping along. The sky above the American task force was mostly clear, aside from the air battle to the east and several dozen Super Hornets circling above Truman and Reagan—about three squadrons — waiting to refuel and rearm.

Gonzalez knew the pilots aloft were exhausted by now, while Roosevelt’s were fresh, chomping at the bit since they’d left Pearl Harbor under the cover of darkness. Several weeks ago, with the aircraft carrier’s Island superstructure reduced to twisted and molten metal by a Russian Shipwreck missile, Roosevelt had arrived at Pearl Harbor for repairs. The initial damage assessment estimated it would take six months to return the carrier to service, but Captain Debra Driza, commander of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, had challenged her workforce, invoking USS Yorktown as inspiration.

USS Yorktown (CV-5), operating in the Pacific in May 1942, had participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea as the Allies tried to thwart Japan’s expansion across the Pacific. During the hectic battle, as dusk settled over the Pacific, six Japanese pilots incredibly mistook Yorktown for one of their own carriers and attempted to land, their mistake pointed out by Yorktown’s anti-aircraft gunners. Other Japanese pilots properly identified Yorktown, and the carrier was hit with a bomb that penetrated the Flight Deck and exploded belowdecks, causing extensive damage that experts estimated would take three months to repair.

When Allied intelligence decoded a Japanese message a few days later, learning of a major operation aimed at gaining a foothold at the northwestern tip of the Hawaiian Island chain, Admiral Chester Nimitz gathered his comparatively meager naval forces, rushing them toward Midway Island. With four Japanese heavy aircraft carriers approaching and having only Task Force 16—USS Enterprise and USS Hornet—at his disposal, Nimitz directed Yorktown be made ready to sail alongside Task Force 16. Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard workers labored around the clock, and three days later, Yorktown set sail with her sister carriers.

Captain Driza’s challenge had been met, and USS Roosevelt set sail a day behind Eisenhower and Bush as they passed Hawaii, westbound for the Indian Ocean. Roosevelt’s Island superstructure was still a molten mass of steel and her hangar bays scorched black from the fires that had raged inside. But her flight systems — catapults, arresting wires, and elevators — were operational. Shipyard tiger teams had remained aboard Roosevelt, continuing repairs as the carrier sailed across the Pacific, with the ship navigated from Secondary Control, located beneath the Flight Deck, instead of the mangled Bridge.

Roosevelt, along with several destroyer escorts exiting the repair yards, had traveled across the Pacific under darkened ship and complete EMCON — Emissions Controls; no radar or communication emissions — staying beyond visual range of other ships during the transit. Additionally, as they approached the American task force and their Indian opponents, Roosevelt and her destroyer escorts had activated their electronic countermeasure suites, emitting the radar signature of Chinese ships while the outbound aircraft kept their Identification-Friend-or-Foe transponders secured.

Gonzalez turned her attention to Flight Deck operations as Roosevelt began launching another thirty aircraft from her bow and waist catapults. Navy leadership knew the carrier would arrive late to the battle and replacement aircraft would be sorely needed, so Roosevelt had been outfitted with six Super Hornet squadrons instead of the standard four, plus two squadrons of MH-60Rs. The first wave of thirty F/A-18s would engage the Indian fighters tangling with the task force’s CAP, while the following wave of F/A-18s would attack the second wave of incoming Indian fighters.

Whatever survived those two battles would join forces with the three F/A-18 squadrons above Truman and Reagan, then deliver a warm welcome to the three Indian aircraft carriers.