THIS IS AMAZING
For the past six hours, undersea explorer Robert Ballard’s team has been operating a remote controlled submersible, as they search for the wreck of the Japanese aircraft carrier “Akagi,” sunk on June 4, 1942, by my friend the late Richard H. “Dick” Best and his two wingmen during the Battle of Midway. That Dick was able to fly the most accurate dive-bombing attack in the entire war, hitting Akagi in her most vulnerable moment with her airplanes fully fueled and armed - with the ordnance they had loaded and unloaded that morning as their potential target kept changing surrounding each plane and turning the ship into a floating bomb - completely changed the course of history as regards the battle.
Anyway, here is a livestream of the event.
As of the last moment I looked, the RPV is 17,500 feet deep and appears to have spotted the wreck.
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Like the Duke of Wellington said of Quatre Bras (Waterloo), Midway was a near run thing. Mostly serendipity, pure dumb luck, changed the course of the war in the PTO. The pictures are amazing and the final results should be almost as revealing as the discovery of the Lexington some years ago.
Quite a view. And amazing to have nailed the Akagi at such a moment. Another genuine war hero!