Instructions For Eagles
The sun was hardly a faint band of yellow white light on the eastern horizon when the speeding destroyer came within sight of the waiting task force. Despite the bucking and pitching of the craft during the dark hours of night, a good many of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots aboard had managed to curl up somehow on the deck and go to sleep. It was not the case with Dave and Freddy, however. They remained awake the whole time talking of this and that, or just staring thoughtfully out across the vast stretches of night-shrouded water.
And so they were among the first to see the faint shapes of the task force low down on the horizon. As usual, Freddy spotted them first and nudged Dave excitedly.
"There they are, Dave!" he cried, and pointed. "Right up ahead, there. Lord! A mess of them, what? Looks like the whole blasted Navy. I can count two carriers, half a dozen cruisers, and twelve destroyers!"
"Thanks, that saves me the trouble," Dave grunted, and squinted ahead. "Yup! That's a task force sure enough. And, boy, look at those destroyers skipping around! Fat chance Jap subs would have getting close to those flat-tops. I wonder which is the Carson? They both look the same to me."
"I don't care which is which," Freddy replied, and kept his gaze riveted on the flotilla of battle craft drawing closer and closer. "I'd much rather know where they are headed. After we've been put aboard, I mean."
"Well, keep your shirt on, sweetheart," Dave choked him off. "You'll find out soon enough, and—Oh yeah! There they are. I was wondering if either of those flat-tops had any planes up. Didn't think they'd leave it all to the destroyers. The whole works is hardly making any headway."
Freddy Farmer didn't make any comment. He had followed the direction of Dave's pointing hand with his eyes, and was watching the three sections of Navy scout-patrol planes circling about high in the air above the coasting task force. And a moment or two later, as though the task force commander had heard Dave's comment and decided to do something about it, every ship picked up speed and swung from a southeasterly course to one due south.
"What the deuce, now?" Freddy Farmer breathed to nobody in particular. "Why are they heading south? Have the Jap rats put a landing party ashore on Admiral Byrd's Little America?"
"Well, they've sure got a long ways to go to reach it!" Dave said with a laugh. "But if you use your head and your eyes, little man, you'll soon catch on to the idea that the carriers are about to take their planes aboard. So they've headed into the wind, which happens to be from the south. Now, anything else you'd like explained?"