From the original reports.
The hero displays verbatim excerpts from declassified U.S. Navy aircraft action reports for USS Hornet (CV-12). Wording, spelling and punctuation are preserved; only spacing, line breaks and words hyphenated across line breaks are normalized. Dates, labels and bracketed excerpt markers are added for navigation.
These public-domain U.S. government records are held in the National Diet Library's U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey collection. The original scans below are mirrored on Wikimedia Commons.
12 JAN 1945 / Report 46
VB-11 · PDF scan page 6
HORNET planes therefore proceeded independently, VB leading, climbing en route. Sighted land in 10 minutes and commenced weaving back and forth along the coast climbing to 10,000' and awaiting further instructions. Upon advice of target coordinator, set course for target.
Section XII, opening narrative, sentences 3–5.
16 FEB 1945 / Report 3
VF-17 / VBF-17 · PDF scan page 4
Weather conditions were bad and flying conditions undesirable with low ceiling and numerous rain squalls, but the formation rendezvoused and set course for the target 101 miles away, bearing 226° T. Approach to the target was made from the NE at 1500' under the overcast and the attack made from NE to SW through the well defined defile in the center of the island between the two volcanic peaks rising 2800' to the north and 2300' to the south.
Section XII, paragraphs 3–4. The catalog title says report 9; the original report is numbered 3 on sheets 1 and 4.
28 MAR 1945 / Report 69
VF-17 · PDF scan page 4
Early in the afternoon of 28 March 1945 a report was received that Japanese Fleet Units were moving south along the eastern coast of Kyushu. A VF, VB, VT strike group was launched at 1430(I) to attack the warships, and a fighter sweep of 15 F6F-5s of VF-17 was despatched at 1515(I) to protect the striking force by knocking down airborne enemy aircraft, harass airfields and destroy enemy aircraft on the ground in the Southern Kyushu area.
Section XII, opening paragraph. Printed narrative page 1; PDF scan page 4.