The torpedo planes were old fire traps that were so slow—those old TBDs would go about 80 knots, with the nose down maybe 110—awkward and had no self-sealing tanks. They needed protection more than anyone else, so that governed our decision. The torpedo planes had to split in order to make an effective attack. We thought we were doing pretty well until they split. Then, of course, they were extremely vulnerable, all alone with no mutual protection. The Zeros were coming in on us, one after the other, and sometimes simultaneously from above and to the side. We couldn’t stay with the torpedo planes, except for one or two that happened to be under us. The torpedo planes went on in. I saw three or four of them that got in and made an attack. I believe that at least one torpedo hit was made. All the records, and the Japanese, and Sam Morison’s book said that no torpedoes hit.⁴ I’m not sure that the people on board a ship that is hit repeatedly really know whether they got hit by a torpedo or a bomb. These people hadn’t given their lives in vain, they’d done a magnificent job of attracting all the enemy combat air patrol, all the protection that the Japanese carriers had were engaged and were held down. So we did do something, and maybe far more than we thought at the time. We engaged the enemy that might have gotten into the dive bombers and prevented them from getting many hits. It is said they went in knowing that the probability of any of them making a successful run was poor, but they prayed that one of them would make it. 

As an aside, Lieutenant Patrick Hart was Posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for this action. Johnny Ralph Cole ARM1c earned his Purple Heart the hard way.