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A dive bomber built for attacking ships—not fighting fighters—became Stanley “Swede” Vejtasa’s unlikely weapon against Japan’s Zeros. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, the SBD Dauntless pilot turned into repeated attacks and was credited with shooting down three enemy fighters. Months later, at the Battle of Santa Cruz, he destroyed seven Japanese aircraft in a single mission, helping disrupt an attack on USS Enterprise.
This military history documentary follows Vejtasa from the Pacific carrier battles of 1942 to the Medal of Honor recommendation that was downgraded to a third Navy Cross. Explore the tactics, aircraft, and high-stakes carrier warfare behind his remarkable combat record. For viewers searching for WWII aviation history, Pacific War stories, SBD Dauntless and Mitsubishi Zero encounters, or narrated military history about the Battle of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz.
This military history documentary follows Vejtasa from the Pacific carrier battles of 1942 to the Medal of Honor recommendation that was downgraded to a third Navy Cross. Explore the tactics, aircraft, and high-stakes carrier warfare behind his remarkable combat record. For viewers searching for WWII aviation history, Pacific War stories, SBD Dauntless and Mitsubishi Zero encounters, or narrated military history about the Battle of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz.
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LearningTranscript
00:00At 7.30 a.m. on May 8, 1942,
00:03Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley Vitassa strapped into his Douglas SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber
00:08on the flight deck of USS Yorktown,
00:11watching radar operators track incoming Japanese aircraft 70 miles to the northwest.
00:1727 years old, five months of combat flying, zero air-to-air kills.
00:23The Japanese had launched 69 aircraft from carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku.
00:2818 of them were Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters,
00:31the most lethal carrier-based aircraft in the world.
00:35Vitassa was about to fight them in a dive bomber.
00:37The SBD Dauntless was never designed for dogfighting.
00:41It weighed nearly 11,000 pounds fully loaded.
00:44Its maximum speed was 250 miles per hour.
00:48The Zero could reach 334.
00:50In a turning fight, the Japanese fighter could complete a full circle in under 6 seconds.
00:56The Dauntless needed twice that time.
00:59American pilots had a name for what Vitassa was about to attempt.
01:02They called it suicide.
01:04But USS Yorktown had a problem.
01:07The carrier had launched its strike force against the Japanese fleet the day before.
01:1153 dive bombers and 22 torpedo planes had attacked and sunk the light carrier Shoho.
01:17Vitassa himself had put a 1,000-pound bomb through her flight deck.
01:21Now those aircraft needed to recover, refuel, and rearm.
01:25The Yorktown was vulnerable.
01:27Fighter protection was almost non-existent.
01:30The carrier had only 18 F4F Wildcats.
01:33Nine were already airborne on combat air patrol.
01:36The remaining nine were being held in reserve.
01:39There simply were not enough fighters to intercept the incoming Japanese strike.
01:42Captain Frederick Sherman of USS Lexington had devised a desperate solution.
01:48He ordered SPD dive bombers to fly anti-torpedo plane patrol.
01:52The theory was simple.
01:54The Dauntless carried two forward-firing .50-caliber machine guns and one or two .30-caliber guns in the rear
02:00cockpit.
02:01If Japanese torpedo planes tried to attack at low altitude, the SPDs could dive on them from above.
02:07The dive bombers would become makeshift interceptors.
02:10The theory had never been tested in combat.
02:13At 7.30 that morning, Yorktown launched eight SPD Dauntlesses from Scouting Squadron 5.
02:20Vitassa was leading a four-plane section.
02:22Their orders were to orbit at low altitude, watch for torpedo planes, and shoot them down before they could release
02:28their weapons.
02:29No one mentioned what would happen if zero fighters found them first.
02:33The mathematics of carrier aviation in 1942 were brutal.
02:38Japanese pilots had been training for years.
02:40Many had combat experience over China.
02:43Their aircraft were purpose-built for the Pacific, with extraordinary range and maneuverability.
02:48American carrier pilots were learning on the job,
02:51flying machines designed before anyone understood what carrier warfare would actually require.
02:57The kill ratio told the story.
02:59In the first six months of the war, zero fighters had achieved a 12-to-1 advantage against allied aircraft.
03:06For every zero shot down, 12 American, British, Dutch, or Australian planes fell from the sky.
03:13Scouting Squadron 5 had already lost aircraft in the Coral Sea campaign.
03:17On May 4th, during strikes against Tulagi Harbor, Japanese float planes had engaged American dive bombers.
03:24On May 7th, anti-aircraft fire had claimed several SBDs during the attack on Shoho.
03:31The squadron was down to 17 operational aircraft from its original 18.
03:36Vaitasa understood the odds.
03:38His dive bomber was 60 miles per hour slower than a zero.
03:42It could not climb as fast.
03:44It could not turn as tight.
03:45It could not dive as steeply.
03:47In every measurable category except one, the Japanese fighter was superior.
03:52The exception was firepower.
03:54The SBD's twin .50 caliber machine guns fired heavier rounds than the Zero's twin 7.7 millimeter guns.
04:02And the Japanese fighter had a critical weakness that American intelligence was only beginning to understand.
04:08The Zero had no armor plating.
04:11No self-sealing fuel tanks.
04:14A single well-placed burst could turn it into a fireball.
04:18But placing that burst required getting a Zero into your gun sights.
04:22And getting a Zero into your gun sights meant surviving long enough to aim.
04:27If you want to see how Vaitasa's slow dive bomber performed against the fastest fighters in the Pacific, please hit
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04:40Back to Vaitasa.
04:42At 10.55 a.m., Yorktown's radar detected the incoming Japanese strike at 68 nautical miles.
04:49Fighter direction officers vected the nine airborne Wildcats to intercept.
04:53But they positioned the fighters too low, expecting torpedo planes at wave top level.
05:00The Japanese were flying at 10,000 feet.
05:02The Wildcats missed them completely.
05:04That left eight SBD dauntlesses orbiting between the Japanese strike force and the American carriers.
05:11Eight slow, heavy, unmaneuverable dive bombers against 18 Zero fighters, 33 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo planes.
05:21Vaitasa saw them first.
05:22A swarm of aircraft descending through scattered clouds to the northwest.
05:27He counted at least 50 silhouettes, and eight of them were breaking formation, turning directly toward his four-plane section.
05:34Eight zeroes against four dauntlesses.
05:37The Japanese pilots must have thought it would be easy.
05:40They were about to discover that Stanley Vaitasa had learned something about the SBD dauntless that no training manual had
05:47ever taught, something that would keep him alive for the next 15 minutes while pilots around him died, something that
05:54would change his life forever and earn him a medal that most dive bomber pilots never received.
06:00The zeroes opened fire at 800 yards.
06:04Vaitasa pushed his stick forward and dove straight at them.
06:07The standard response to a zero attack was to run.
06:10Dive for the deck.
06:12Use the dauntlesses' weight to build speed in a descent.
06:15Try to reach the protective anti-aircraft fire of the fleet before the Japanese fighter caught you.
06:20Vaitasa did the opposite.
06:22He had learned something during training that his commanding officer had emphasized repeatedly.
06:27When a faster aircraft attacks from behind or above, the natural instinct is to turn away.
06:33To flee.
06:34But turning away gives the attacker a perfect deflection shot.
06:38The target moves predictably.
06:40The bullets find their mark.
06:42Turning into the attack changes everything.
06:45When a pilot turns toward an incoming fighter, the geometry becomes impossible.
06:50The attacker is closing at combined speeds of 500 miles per hour or more.
06:54The angle changes constantly.
06:56The target is no longer running in a straight line, but spiraling toward the shooter.
07:01A pilot has perhaps two seconds to adjust his aim, fire, and pull away before collision becomes inevitable.
07:08Most pilots cannot make that shot.
07:11The Tassa yanked his stick hard left and pulled back,
07:14bringing his dauntless around in a tight climbing turn directly into the lead zeroes path.
07:19The Japanese pilot had expected an easy tail chase.
07:22Instead, he found himself staring at the nose of an American dive bomber,
07:27growing larger in his windscreen at a closure rate that left no time for correction.
07:32The zero broke off, pulling up and away to avoid collision.
07:35The Tassa had survived the first pass.
07:39Seven more fighters were circling for position.
07:41The next 60 seconds became a blur of violent maneuvering.
07:45The Tassa repeated his tactic again and again.
07:48Each time a zero dove on him, he turned into the attack.
07:52Each time, the Japanese pilot had to choose between collision and breaking away.
07:57Each time, the geometry bought Vetassa another few seconds of life.
08:01His rear gunner was firing continuously.
08:04The twin .30 caliber machine guns swept across the sky,
08:08forcing attacking zeroes to break off or risk taking hits from an unexpected angle.
08:13The two-man crew was fighting as a unit, pilot and gunner covering each other's blind spots.
08:19Around them, the other SBDs were dying.
08:22The problem with Vetassa's tactic was that it only worked for one aircraft at a time.
08:27While he turned into one attacker, another zero could line up a clean shot from a different angle.
08:33The Japanese pilots were experienced.
08:36They had fought over China.
08:37They knew how to coordinate attacks against a single target.
08:41Within the first five minutes, four of the eight Dauntlesses went down.
08:45Pilots and gunners who had been flying formation with Vetassa moments earlier
08:49were now falling toward the Coral Sea in burning wreckage.
08:53Some managed to bail out.
08:55Others did not.
08:57Vetassa kept fighting.
08:59The zeroes' weakness became apparent as the battle continued.
09:02The Japanese fighter was fast and agile, but its 20-millimeter cannons carried only 60 rounds per gun.
09:09Its 7.7-millimeter machine guns were light, designed to damage fabric-covered biplanes,
09:16not the all-metal construction of American aircraft.
09:19The SBD Dauntless had armor plating behind the pilot's seat.
09:23It had self-sealing fuel tanks.
09:25It could absorb hits that would have destroyed a zero.
09:28And Vetassa was getting shots.
09:30Each time he turned into an attack, his nose briefly aligned with the incoming zero.
09:35Each time, he squeezed the trigger on his twin .50 caliber guns.
09:40The bursts were short, measured in fractions of a second.
09:43But the .50 caliber round was devastating.
09:46One hit to a fuel tank, one hit to an engine, one hit to a pilot.
09:51Any of these could end the fight instantly.
09:54His first confirmed kill came when a zero committed too deeply to a head-on pass.
09:59The Japanese pilot held his course a moment too long, trying to score hits on the American bomber.
10:06Vetassa's .50 caliber's found him first.
10:08The zero's engine exploded in a spray of oil and coolant.
10:12The fighter rolled inverted and fell.
10:15The second zero died in a similar manner.
10:18Another head-on pass.
10:20Another pilot who believed his speed advantage would allow him to fire and break away
10:24before the slow American bomber could respond.
10:27Another miscalculation.
10:30The third kill was different.
10:32Vetassa and a zero found themselves on a direct collision course.
10:36Neither pilot would give way.
10:38The closure rate exceeded 500 miles per hour.
10:42At the last possible moment, both aircraft banked slightly to avoid destruction.
10:47They passed within feet of each other.
10:49Some accounts suggest Vetassa's wingtip actually struck the zero's wing, shearing it off.
10:55The Japanese fighter spiraled into the sea.
10:58Three kills.
10:59In a dive bomber.
11:01Against the most feared fighter aircraft in the Pacific.
11:04But the battle was not over.
11:06The Japanese strike force was still inbound.
11:10Torpedo planes were lining up their attack runs on Yorktown and Lexington.
11:14And half of the SBD anti-torpedo patrol had been destroyed.
11:19Vetassa turned his battered dauntless toward the fleet.
11:22His aircraft had taken hits.
11:24His ammunition was running low.
11:25But the torpedo planes were still coming, flying low and fast toward the American carriers.
11:31He pushed his throttle forward and dove toward them.
11:35The Japanese torpedo planes were Nakajima B-5N Type 97 aircraft.
11:40American pilots called them Cates.
11:41They were faster than the dauntless, capable of 235 miles per hour in level flight.
11:47They carried the Type 91 aerial torpedo, a weapon that had already sunk or damaged dozens of allied warships since
11:54December 7th.
11:55Fourteen Cates were making their approach on USS Lexington.
11:59Four more targeted Yorktown.
12:01They flew at wavetop height, skimming the surface of the Coral Sea at barely 50 feet.
12:06At this altitude, anti-aircraft guns had difficulty tracking them.
12:10The torpedoes needed calm water and a straight approach to arm properly.
12:14Vetassa dove toward them from above.
12:17The anti-torpedo patrol had been designed for exactly this moment.
12:21SBDs carried enough firepower to damage or destroy a torpedo plane before it could release its weapon.
12:27The dive bomber's speed disadvantage disappeared when attacking from altitude.
12:31Gravity provided acceleration that engines could not match.
12:34But the Cates were too fast.
12:36The Yorktown Action Report later noted that the SBDs attempted to intercept the enemy torpedo planes,
12:42but they were too fast for them.
12:44The torpedo bombers were already in their final approach when the dive bombers reached attack position.
12:49Vetassa fired at the Cates as they street toward the carriers.
12:53His .50 calibers raked across one aircraft.
12:55He saw pieces fly off the fuselage.
12:58But the Cate kept flying.
12:59The Japanese pilots had committed to their attack runs.
13:03They would release their torpedoes or die trying.
13:05Most of them did both.
13:07At 11.20 a.m., two torpedoes struck USS Lexington on her port side.
13:12The massive carrier shuttered from the impacts.
13:15Flooding began immediately in her boiler rooms.
13:17But Lady Lex stayed afloat.
13:20Her damage control teams were among the best in the Navy.
13:23They contained the flooding and restored power to her engines within 30 minutes.
13:27USS Yorktown fared better.
13:29Her captain, Elliot Buckmaster, maneuvered the carrier through a forest of torpedo wakes.
13:34Japanese pilots released 11 torpedoes at Yorktown.
13:38Every single one missed.
13:41But the dive bombers found her.
13:42While Vetassa and the surviving SBDs engaged the low-flying torpedo planes,
13:4733 Aichi D-3A VAL dive bombers screamed down from 18,000 feet.
13:54Yorktown's combat air patrol was still out of position.
13:57The anti-aircraft guns opened fire, filling the sky with black bursts.
14:02Seven VALs fell before reaching their release points.
14:0526 continued their dives.
14:07At 11.27 a.m., a 500-pound bomb struck Yorktown's flight deck.
14:12The explosion penetrated three decks before detonating in an uptake compartment.
14:17Fires erupted throughout the ship's interior.
14:2066 men died in the blast.
14:22Another sailor would die later from wounds.
14:25Vetassa was still airborne when the bomb hit.
14:28His dauntless had taken significant damage during the zero engagement.
14:32Bullet holes peppered the fuselage and wings.
14:34His ammunition was nearly exhausted.
14:36The aircraft was handling sluggishly, likely from damage to control surfaces.
14:41But the engine still ran.
14:43The aircraft still flew.
14:45He nursed the SBD back toward Yorktown.
14:48The scene below him was chaos.
14:50Lexington was burning, black smoke pouring from her stack.
14:54Yorktown was also smoking, but her fires appeared smaller.
14:57Destroyers and cruisers circled the carriers,
15:00their guns still firing at retreating Japanese aircraft.
15:03The Vetassa landed on Yorktown at approximately noon.
15:07Ground crews counted the damage to his aircraft.
15:10Dozens of holes, shattered glass, damaged control cables.
15:14It was remarkable that the dauntless had remained airworthy.
15:17The battle results became clear over the following hours.
15:20The American strike on Shokaku had inflicted serious damage.
15:24Three bomb hits had wrecked her flight deck.
15:26She would spend months in repair at Kure Naval Arsenal.
15:30Her aircraft had diverted to Zuikaku, but both carriers were withdrawing northward.
15:35The American losses were worse.
15:37USS Lexington appeared to have survived her torpedo hits.
15:40But at 12.47 p.m., internal explosions began rocking the ship.
15:45Gasoline vapors from ruptured fuel lines had accumulated in her lower compartments.
15:50Sparts from damaged electrical systems ignited them.
15:52The explosions continued throughout the afternoon.
15:55At 5.00 p.m., Captain Frederick Sherman gave the order to abandon ship.
16:00Destroyers moved alongside to rescue her crew.
16:03By 7.32 p.m., Lexington slipped beneath the waves of the Coral Sea.
16:08216 men died with her.
16:10The Battle of the Coral Sea was over.
16:12Both sides had lost a carrier.
16:14Both sides claimed victory.
16:16In Tokyo, newspapers celebrated the destruction of American naval power.
16:20In Washington, admirals studied the results and found reasons for cautious optimism.
16:25In the ready room of USS Yorktown, Lieutenant Junior Grade Stanley Vaitassa sat with the other surviving pilots of Scouting
16:32Squadron 5.
16:33Four of the eight SBDs that launched on anti-torpedo patrol had not returned.
16:38Half the patrol was gone.
16:39But Vaitassa had shot down three Zeros in a dive bomber.
16:43Word spread through the air group.
16:45A pilot from the Scouting Squadron had outfought Japanese fighters in an aircraft that was supposed to be a sitting
16:50duck.
16:51He had used tactics that no manual had described.
16:54He had survived an engagement that should have killed him.
16:56Within days, orders arrived.
16:59Vaitassa was being transferred to fighters.
17:01The Navy needed fighter pilots.
17:03Desperately.
17:04In the five months since Pearl Harbor, American carrier aviation had suffered devastating losses.
17:10The attack on December 7th had destroyed or damaged dozens of aircraft on the ground.
17:14The carrier Saratoga had been torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in January, spending months in repair.
17:21Lexington was now at the bottom of the Coral Sea.
17:23Yorktown had limped back to Pearl Harbor with a bomb-damaged flight deck.
17:27Only three fleet carriers remained operational in the Pacific.
17:31Enterprise, Hornet, and the wounded Yorktown, undergoing emergency repairs that would take 72 hours instead of the estimated 90 days.
17:39The Battle of Midway was approaching.
17:42The Navy could not afford to waste pilots who had proven themselves in combat.
17:46Vaitassa received his transfer orders in late May 1942.
17:50He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 10, a newly formed unit based at Naval Air Station San Diego.
17:55The squadron was flying Grumman F-4F Wildcats, the same stubby fighters that had struggled against Zeros throughout the Pacific.
18:03The commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander James Henry Flatley Jr.
18:07Flatley was already a legend in naval aviation.
18:10He had fought at Coral Sea as executive officer of Fighting Squadron 42 aboard Lexington.
18:15He had engaged Zeros in combat and survived.
18:18More importantly, he had studied the Japanese fighter and developed tactics that gave Wildcat pilots a chance.
18:24The conventional wisdom in May 1942 held that the Zero was simply superior, faster, more maneuverable, better climbing.
18:33American pilots who tried to dogfight Zeros died.
18:36The standard advice was to avoid engagement entirely.
18:39Flatley rejected this thinking.
18:41He understood that the Zero had weaknesses that American pilots could exploit.
18:45The Japanese fighter lacked armor protection.
18:48A single burst from a Wildcat's 6.50 caliber machine guns could destroy it.
18:52The Zero's lightweight construction made it fragile in high-speed dives.
18:56Above 350 miles per hour, its controls stiffened.
19:00Its ailerons became sluggish.
19:02A Wildcat diving at full throttle could escape a Zero that could not follow.
19:07Flatley developed training programs that emphasized these advantages.
19:10His pilots practiced diving attacks.
19:12They learned to fight in pairs, each wingman covering the other's blind spots.
19:16They studied energy management, trading altitude for speed, and speed for position.
19:21He called his squadron the Grim Reapers.
19:24Vaitasa arrived at San Diego in June 1942.
19:28His reputation preceded him.
19:30The pilot who had shot down three Zeros in a dive bomber.
19:33The man who turned into attacks instead of running.
19:36Flatley recognized talent when he saw it.
19:38But Vaitasa was not content to simply adopt Flatley's tactics.
19:41He challenged them.
19:42Lieutenant Commander John Thatch had developed a famous defensive maneuver called the Beam
19:47Defense, later known as the Thatch Weave.
19:50Two aircraft flew parallel courses.
19:52When a Zero attacked one, it turned toward its partner.
19:55The partner turned toward the attacker.
19:57The Zero found itself caught between two Wildcats, each with guns pointed at its flanks.
20:03Vaitasa studied the Thatch Weave and found it insufficient.
20:06The maneuver was defensive.
20:08It kept pilots alive, but did not destroy the enemy.
20:10He argued for more aggressive tactics.
20:13Diving attacks from altitude, slashing runs through enemy formations, hit hard, break
20:18away, climb back to altitude, attack again.
20:21Flatley listened.
20:22He incorporated Vaitasa's ideas into squadron training.
20:26The Grim Reapers became one of the most aggressive fighter units in the Pacific Fleet.
20:30By September 1942, fighting Squadron 10 was ready for combat.
20:35The strategic situation in the Pacific had changed dramatically since Coral Sea.
20:39The Battle of Midway in June had destroyed four Japanese fleet carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu,
20:46Hiryu.
20:47The Imperial Japanese Navy had lost its best pilots, its most experienced deck crews, its
20:52irreplaceable aircraft.
20:54American forces had landed on Guadalcanal in August, seizing Henderson Field and establishing
20:59a foothold in the Solomon Islands.
21:01But the Japanese were not finished.
21:02Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto assembled a massive fleet to retake Guadalcanal.
21:08Four carriers, four battleships, 14 cruisers, 44 destroyers.
21:13Thousands of Japanese soldiers prepared to land and overwhelm the Marines defending Henderson
21:18Field.
21:19The American response was desperate improvisation.
21:22Enterprise had returned from repairs.
21:25Hornet was operational.
21:26The new battleship South Dakota provided anti-aircraft protection.
21:31Rear Admiral Thomas Kincaid commanded Task Force 61 with orders to stop the Japanese advance.
21:38Fighting Squadron 10, the Grim Reapers, embarked aboard Enterprise in early October.
21:44Vatassa was now a full lieutenant.
21:45He served as operations officer for the squadron, third in command behind Flatley and the executive
21:51officer.
21:51He had transitioned completely from dive bombers to fighters.
21:55His days of flying the slow, heavy Dauntless were over.
21:59On October 25, 1942, a PBY Catalina Patrol aircraft spotted the Japanese carrier force 360 miles
22:08northwest of the Santa Cruz Islands.
22:10Four carriers, dozens of escorts, hundreds of aircraft.
22:14The enemy was coming.
22:16That evening, Admiral William Halsey sent a message to Task Force 61.
22:20Two words that would define the next 24 hours.
22:24Attack.
22:25Repeat.
22:26Attack.
22:27Vatassa sat in the ready room of Enterprise, studying reconnaissance photographs of Japanese
22:32carriers.
22:33Shokaku and Zuikaku were there, the same ships he had fought at Coral Sea.
22:38They had been hunting each other for six months.
22:40Tomorrow, one of them would die.
22:42The day before the battle nearly ended in disaster.
22:46On October 25, a PBY Catalina reported the Japanese carrier force 355 miles northwest of
22:54Task Force 61.
22:56Admiral Kincaid faced a decision.
22:59The enemy was at the extreme edge of carrier aircraft range.
23:02A strike launched immediately might catch the Japanese before they could launch their own
23:07aircraft.
23:08But the returning pilots would have to land in darkness, a dangerous proposition on a pitching
23:13carrier deck.
23:15Kincaid ordered the strike.
23:17Hornets Air Group was designated the primary attack force.
23:20Enterprise would serve as duty carrier, keeping her fighters aboard to protect the task force.
23:25It was standard doctrine.
23:27One carrier attacks.
23:29One carrier defends.
23:30Then Kincaid changed his mind.
23:33At 2.25 p.m., he ordered Enterprise to launch 12 SBD Dauntless dive bombers on a search mission
23:40to locate the exact position of the Japanese fleet.
23:44Thirty minutes later, he ordered the rest of Enterprise's air group to follow.
23:48Fighters.
23:49Torpedo planes.
23:50Everything.
23:51Vichassa was incredulous.
23:53The search vectors assigned to the Enterprise pilots pointed away from the last known Japanese
23:59position.
23:59They were flying into empty ocean.
24:02Worse, the launch time meant they would be returning after sunset.
24:06Finding a carrier at night, in radio silence, with fuel running low, was nearly impossible.
24:12The pilots of Fighting Squadron 10 protested through the chain of command.
24:17The orders made no tactical sense.
24:19Enterprise was stripping herself of aircraft while the Japanese fleet was within striking
24:24distance.
24:24If enemy scouts found the American carriers, there would be no fighters to defend them.
24:29The order stood.
24:31Vichassa launched with the rest of the Grim Reapers at approximately 3 p.m.
24:35They flew their assigned search vectors for hours, finding nothing but empty sea and scattered
24:41clouds.
24:41As the sun dropped toward the horizon, fuel gauges began showing the ugly truth.
24:47Some aircraft would not have enough to reach the designated recovery point.
24:51At dusk, the Enterprise air group turned back toward Point Option, the calculated position
24:56where their carrier should be waiting.
24:58Enterprise was not there.
25:01Kincaid had maneuvered the task force throughout the afternoon, responding to submarine contacts
25:06and course changes.
25:07The carrier was now miles from where her pilots expected to find her.
25:11Radio silence prevented communication.
25:14The air group was scattered across hundreds of square miles of darkening ocean, searching
25:18for a ship that had moved.
25:20Pilots began running out of fuel.
25:22Some ditched in the open water, hoping destroyers would find them before sharks did.
25:28Others circled desperately, watching their gauges drop toward empty.
25:32Vatassa remembered something from the morning combat air patrol.
25:36Enterprise had been leaking oil.
25:38A thin slick trailed behind the carrier, visible on the surface of the sea.
25:42In the fading light, he dropped low and began searching for that slick.
25:47He found it.
25:48Following the oil trail through the darkness, Vatassa located Enterprise.
25:52And led other aircraft back to the carrier.
25:55Deck crews worked frantically, recovering aircraft in conditions that would have been considered
26:00too dangerous for daylight operations.
26:02Some pilots crashed on landing.
26:05Others ran out of fuel in the landing pattern and ditched alongside the ship.
26:09By midnight, the air group had been recovered.
26:12Barely.
26:14Vatassa had saved aircraft and pilots through quick thinking and observation.
26:18But the experience left him shaken.
26:20Admiral Kincaid's orders had nearly destroyed Enterprise's air group before the battle even
26:26began.
26:27If the Japanese attacked at dawn, the American pilots would be exhausted, their aircraft
26:32damaged, their confidence rattled.
26:34The Japanese did attack at dawn.
26:36At 6.45 a.m. on October 26th, both sides launched search aircraft.
26:42At 7.40, a Japanese scout reported the American carriers.
26:46At 7.50, Enterprise radar detected incoming aircraft.
26:51Minutes later, American scouts found the Japanese fleet.
26:54Both sides launched full strikes simultaneously.
26:57The mathematics of carrier warfare meant that both fleets would be attacking each other at
27:02the same time.
27:04Japanese aircraft would arrive over the American carriers, while American aircraft were over
27:09the Japanese carriers.
27:10Defense would depend entirely on combat air patrol fighters and anti-aircraft guns.
27:16Fighting Squadron 10 had eight Wildcats airborne on combat air patrol.
27:21Vachassa was among them.
27:23At 8.22 a.m., radar operators on Enterprise reported a massive formation approaching from
27:29the northwest.
27:31Over 60 aircraft, fighters, dive bombers, torpedo planes.
27:36The entire striking power of the Japanese carrier fleet was inbound.
27:41Vachassa checked his ammunition.
27:43Full load.
27:44He checked his fuel.
27:46Enough for 40 minutes of combat.
27:49He scanned the horizon to the northwest.
27:51The sky was filling with enemy aircraft.
27:54The first wave struck USS Hornet.
27:5727 aircraft from carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku descended on the American task force at 8.50 a.m.
28:0415 Aichi D-3A Val dive bombers, 12 Nakajima B-5N Kate torpedo planes.
28:12A screen of zero fighters flew top cover.
28:15Vachassa was part of the combat air patrol assigned to protect both carriers, but fighter
28:20direction was chaotic.
28:22Radio channels were clogged with overlapping transmissions.
28:26Radar operators struggled to track multiple formations approaching from different altitudes
28:30and directions.
28:31The eight Wildcats of Fighting Squadron 10 were scattered across the sky, each pilot fighting
28:38his own desperate battle.
28:40Vachassa spotted two Val's beginning their dive on Hornet from 18,000 feet.
28:44He pushed his throttle forward and climbed toward them.
28:47The Wildcats' Pratt and Whitney engine strained at full power, clawing for altitude.
28:52The Val's were already committed to their dives, screaming downward at nearly 300 miles per
28:58hour, their fixed landing gear creating the distinctive whistling sound that gave them
29:03their reputation.
29:05Vachassa intercepted them at 12,000 feet.
29:07His first burst caught the lead Val in the engine cowling.
29:10The Japanese dive bomber staggered, trailing smoke.
29:14The pilot tried to continue his attack run, but the aircraft was dying.
29:18It rolled slowly to the left and fell away, splashing into the ocean without releasing its
29:23bomb.
29:24The second Val was already past him, diving toward Hornet.
29:28Vachassa rolled inverted and pulled through, reversing his direction to pursue.
29:33But the angle was wrong.
29:34The Japanese pilot was too far ahead, too committed to his dive.
29:39Vachassa fired a long burst at extreme range.
29:42He saw hits spark along the fuselage.
29:44The Val continued downward.
29:46At 8.54 a.m., a 250-kilogram bomb struck Hornet's flight deck near the island structure.
29:53The explosion killed seven men instantly.
29:56Fires erupted across the deck.
29:59Seconds later, a burning Val, possibly the one Vachassa had damaged, crashed directly.
30:04into the carrier stack.
30:06Aviation gasoline sprayed across the signal bridge.
30:09More fires.
30:10Two torpedoes struck Hornet's starboard side within the next three minutes.
30:15The carrier lost power.
30:17Dead in the water, she became a stationary target.
30:20More bombs found her.
30:22By 9.15 a.m., Hornet was burning from bow to stern.
30:27Vachassa had no time to watch.
30:29Enterprise was next.
30:30The second wave appeared on radar at 9.30 a.m.
30:34This formation was larger.
30:3644 aircraft.
30:37And leading the attack were 20 CATE torpedo bombers, flying low and fast toward the surviving American carrier.
30:45Enterprise was the last operational fleet carrier in the Pacific.
30:48If she sank, the Guadalcanal campaign would collapse.
30:52Henderson Field would fall.
30:54The strategic initiative would shift entirely to Japan.
30:57Everything depended on stopping those torpedo planes.
31:00Vachassa dove toward them.
31:02The Cates were approaching from multiple directions,
31:05a coordinated attack designed to overwhelm the carrier's ability to maneuver.
31:09Turn to avoid torpedoes from one group, and you present a perfect target to another.
31:14The only defense was to destroy the attackers before they could release their weapons.
31:18Vachassa selected a group of 11 Cates boring in from the port side of Enterprise.
31:23He came at them from above and behind, using altitude to build speed.
31:27His six .50 caliber machine guns opened fire at 400 yards.
31:31The first Cate exploded.
31:33The formations scattered.
31:35Japanese pilots broke in different directions,
31:37trying to escape the American fighter that had appeared among them.
31:40Three Cates jettisoned their torpedoes immediately.
31:43The weapons tumbling uselessly into the sea.
31:46The carefully planned attack was disintegrating.
31:49Vachassa stayed with them.
31:50He shot down a second Cate.
31:52Then a third.
31:53His Wildcat was taking hits from Japanese rear gunners,
31:57but the bullets could not stop him.
31:59A fourth Cate fell.
32:00Then a fifth.
32:01Five torpedo bombers destroyed in approximately four minutes.
32:05Combined with his two Val kills earlier in the battle,
32:08Vachassa had shot down seven Japanese aircraft in a single mission.
32:11No American pilot had ever achieved such a score in one engagement.
32:16Not at Pearl Harbor.
32:17Not at Midway.
32:18Not at Coral Sea.
32:20Enterprise survived.
32:22Barely.
32:23Two bombs struck the carrier during the battle.
32:26Three near misses caused additional damage.
32:28But the torpedo attack had been broken.
32:30The coordinated assault that should have sunk her
32:33had fallen apart under Vachassa's guns.
32:35Lieutenant Commander Jimmy Flatley watched the engagement from his own cockpit.
32:40He understood immediately what had happened.
32:42His pilot had saved the carrier.
32:44His pilot had possibly saved the entire Guadalcanal campaign.
32:48That evening, Flatley wrote in Vachassa's flight log,
32:52seven words that would follow the pilot for the rest of his life.
32:55Greatest single combat fight record in history.
32:57Then, Flatley did something unusual for a squadron commander
33:01who rarely recommended medals.
33:03He began drafting a nomination for the Medal of Honor.
33:06The Medal of Honor nomination traveled up the chain of command.
33:10Flatley documented everything.
33:12The seven confirmed kills.
33:14The broken torpedo attack.
33:16The survival of Enterprise.
33:18He compared Vachassa's achievement
33:19to Lieutenant Edward O'Hare's famous engagement in February
33:23when O'Hare had shot down five Japanese bombers
33:26attacking USS Lexington.
33:28O'Hare received the Medal of Honor for that action.
33:31Vachassa had shot down seven aircraft.
33:34Two more than O'Hare.
33:36In circumstances equally desperate.
33:38The nomination reached Rear Admiral Thomas Kincaid,
33:41commander of Task Force 61.
33:43Kincaid had problems.
33:45The Battle of Santa Cruz was technically an American defeat.
33:48Hornet was gone,
33:50sumped by Japanese destroyers
33:52after her own escorts failed to scuttle her.
33:55Enterprise had survived, but was badly damaged.
33:57Her forward elevator jammed in the up position,
34:00her flight deck scarred by bomb hits.
34:03The American carrier force in the Pacific
34:05had been reduced to a single operational ship.
34:08Questions were being asked about Kincaid's decisions.
34:10The disastrous search mission on October 25th
34:13that nearly destroyed Enterprise's air group before the battle.
34:16The positioning of combat air patrol
34:18that allowed Japanese strikes to reach the carriers
34:21with minimal interception.
34:23The failure to coordinate fighter direction effectively.
34:26Kincaid needed the narrative of Santa Cruz
34:28to focus on Japanese losses,
34:31not American mistakes.
34:32A Medal of Honor would draw attention.
34:35Reporters would investigate.
34:37Questions would be asked about why such heroism was necessary.
34:40Why were eight Wildcats defending two carriers
34:43against 60 aircraft?
34:45Why was fighter direction so chaotic?
34:48Why had the air group been scattered across empty ocean
34:51the night before the battle?
34:52Kincaid downgraded the nomination.
34:55Instead of the Medal of Honor,
34:56Vatassa received his third Navy Cross.
34:59The citation praised his extraordinary heroism
35:02and indomitable fighting spirit.
35:03It acknowledged the seven aircraft destroyed.
35:06It made no mention of the Medal of Honor recommendation
35:09that Flatley had submitted.
35:11The decision stunned the pilots of Fighting Squadron 10.
35:15Hal Buell, a dive bomber pilot
35:17who had flown with Vatassa at Coral Sea,
35:19later wrote that Vatassa deserved the Medal of Honor
35:22for his flying at Coral Sea alone,
35:24let alone what he accomplished at Santa Cruz.
35:27Other pilots agreed.
35:29The downgrade became a source of quiet bitterness
35:31within the air group.
35:32Vatassa said nothing publicly.
35:35He accepted the Navy Cross and continued flying.
35:38The strategic impact of Santa Cruz
35:40became clear in the following weeks.
35:43The Japanese had won a tactical victory.
35:45They sank Hornet and damaged Enterprise,
35:48but they lost 99 aircraft
35:51and dozens of irreplaceable pilots.
35:53The veteran aviators who had attacked Pearl Harbor,
35:56who had sunk Prince of Wales and Repulse,
35:58who had devastated Allied air power across the Pacific,
36:02were dying faster than Japan could train replacements.
36:06Enterprise returned to service within weeks.
36:09Her repair crews worked around the clock at Numea,
36:12patching bomb damage and restoring her flight deck.
36:15By mid-November, she was operational again,
36:18the only American carrier defending Guadalcanal
36:21during the crucial naval battles that decided the campaign.
36:24The Japanese carriers never recovered from Santa Cruz.
36:28Shokaku and Zuikaku had lost so many aircraft and pilots
36:32that they could not mount offensive operations for months.
36:36The light carriers Junyo and Hiyo
36:38lacked the trained air crews to fill the gap.
36:41When American forces pushed up the Solomon Islands chain in 1943,
36:45Japanese naval aviation was a shadow of its former strength.
36:50Vitassa's combat tour ended in early 1943.
36:53He was transferred stateside to train new fighter pilots
36:56at Naval Air Station Atlantic City.
36:59The skills he had learned, the tactics he had developed,
37:02the instincts that had kept him alive through two carrier battles,
37:05were now being passed to the next generation of naval aviators.
37:09His final combat score stood at ten and one-quarter confirmed aerial victories.
37:15Three zeros at Coral Sea.
37:17Seven aircraft at Santa Cruz.
37:19A shared kill from earlier in the war.
37:22By the standards of the Pacific Air War,
37:24he was an ace twice over.
37:27He never flew in combat again.
37:29The war continued without him.
37:31New carriers joined the fleet.
37:33Essex.
37:34Yorktown.
37:35Lexington.
37:36Names resurrected from ships that had been sunk.
37:39New fighters arrived.
37:41The F-6F Hellcat.
37:43The F-4U Corsair.
37:45Aircraft designed with the lessons of 1942 built into their airframes.
37:50Vitassa watched from training squadrons
37:52as pilots he had instructed flew these new aircraft into battle.
37:56The desperate days of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz faded into memory.
38:00The Navy was winning now.
38:01The question was no longer survival, but victory.
38:04But for Stanley Vitassa, there was still one more chapter to write.
38:09A career that would span three decades.
38:12Commands that would take him from training squadrons to aircraft carriers.
38:15And a question that would follow him for the rest of his life.
38:19Why had the Navy denied him the Medal of Honor?
38:22Stanley Vitassa stayed in the Navy.
38:24The war ended in August 1945, but Vitassa's career was just beginning.
38:30He commanded fighter squadrons.
38:32He served as air officer aboard USS Essex during the Korean War, coordinating strikes against
38:37North Korean and Chinese positions.
38:39He attended the Naval War College.
38:42He rose steadily through the ranks.
38:43In November 1962, Captain Stanley Vitassa assumed command of USS Constellation.
38:50The irony was not lost on him.
38:53Twenty years earlier, he had been a junior lieutenant fighting desperately to save Enterprise from Japanese torpedo planes.
38:59Now, he commanded one of the most powerful warships ever built.
39:04Constellation was a supercarrier, over a thousand feet long, carrying 80 aircraft, capable of projecting American power anywhere in the
39:12world.
39:13Vitassa commanded Constellation for one year.
39:16He ran the ship with the same precision and aggression that had defined his flying.
39:20Officers who served under him remembered a captain who demanded excellence and led by example.
39:24The lessons of Coral Sea and Santa Cruz had shaped him.
39:27He understood that preparation and training were the difference between victory and disaster.
39:32He retired from the Navy on July 1, 1970, with the rank of Captain.
39:37Thirty-two years of service, three Navy crosses, two bronze stars, the Legion of Merit, countless other decorations, but not
39:45the Medal of Honor.
39:46The question resurfaced periodically throughout Vitassa's retirement.
39:50In 1987, he was inducted into the Carrier Aviation Hall of Fame, recognition of his place among the greatest naval
39:57aviators in American history.
39:59Journalists who interviewed him inevitably asked about Santa Cruz, about the seven kills, about the medal that never came.
40:06Vitassa deflected the questions.
40:08He spoke about his fellow pilots, about the men who did not come back,
40:12about Jimmy Flatley, who had believed in him and trained him and recommended him for the highest honor the nation
40:18could bestow.
40:18Flatley had died in 1958, a vice-admiral, never knowing that his Medal of Honor recommendation had been quietly buried.
40:26In 2012, author Ted Edwards began researching Vitassa's life for a biography.
40:32He interviewed the aging pilot extensively, recording hours of conversation about Coral Sea, Santa Cruz, and the decades that followed.
40:40Edwards documented the Medal of Honor controversy in detail, tracing the paperwork through naval archives.
40:45The evidence was clear.
40:47Flatley had submitted the recommendation.
40:50Kincaid had downgraded it.
40:51The decision had been made for reasons that had nothing to do with Vitassa's performance in combat.
40:56Edwards titled his book, Seven at Santa Cruz.
41:00Stanley Winfield.
41:01Vitassa died on January 23, 2013.
41:05He was 98 years old.
41:07In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.
41:11The ocean that had witnessed his greatest triumphs received him one final time.
41:17The Medal of Honor question remains unresolved.
41:20Some military historians have argued that the award could still be granted posthumously.
41:25Congress has the authority to waive time limitations for Medal of Honor nominations.
41:30Presidents have occasionally approved such waivers for World War II veterans whose heroism was overlooked or suppressed.
41:37But Stanley Vitassa never asked for reconsideration.
41:41He never lobbied for the medal.
41:43He never complained publicly about Kincaid's decision.
41:46He simply lived his life, served his country, and let his record speak for itself.
41:51That record speaks loudly.
41:53Three zeroes shot down in a dive bomber.
41:56Seven aircraft destroyed in a single mission.
41:59A carrier saved from destruction.
42:01A campaign preserved.
42:02All accomplished by a pilot who was told his aircraft could not fight, who faced odds that should have killed
42:08him, who refused to accept the limitations that others imposed.
42:12The SBD dauntless that Vitassa flew at Coral Sea was never designed for dogfighting.
42:18The Navy sent him against zeroes in an aircraft 60 miles per hour slower, with half the maneuverability, expecting him
42:25to die.
42:26He turned into the attacks instead.
42:28The lesson of Stanley Vitassa is simple.
42:31The weapon matters less than the warrior.
42:33The aircraft matters less than the pilot.
42:36Courage and skill can overcome any disadvantage, if the person wielding them refuses to quit.
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42:58Stories about dive bomber pilots who fought zeros with impossible odds.
43:03Real people.
43:04Real heroism.
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