Chapter 26
1530 Hours
June 4, 1942
Scouting Six, Second Sortie
120 Nautical Miles West/Northwest of Midway Island
2,920 Miles West of San Francisco
Lieutenant (junior grade) Tim Sullivan pulled back on the joystick of his new scout ship. Scanning the horizon, he enriched the fuel mixture and tapped the throttle forward. Not satisfied, Tim continued to fiddle with the controls until he gained 80 feet in altitude and ten knots forward speed.
When the altimeter registered 15,000 feet, he kicked the rudder and crabbed to starboard. Sullivan battled to maintain his course of 305 degrees in the face of the shifting headwind, now blowing fitfully out the northwest.
Tim looked out of his cockpit to the northeast and then to the southwest, examining the configuration of the other three plan
