Vice Adm. William Halsey is determined to bring Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s in range of Japan. A deckhand retrieves the bag and the message, which says an enemy patrol vessel has been sighted 50 miles ahead, and doubtless it has seen the Americans. Halsey maintains westward course for 30 minutes, eating up 11 miles, when the carrier's lookouts spot the enemy patrol ship. Nashville moves in to dispose of the picket, and Halsey orders Doolittle to launch. As Nashville sinks the enemy ship, and the carriers turn into the wind, Doolittle attaches prewar Japanese medals given to American officers to the bombs in the B-25s' bays.
Mechanics chalk a few choice comments on the bombs as well for the benefit of newsreel cameras.
Then they rock the planes' gas tanks to eliminate bubbles, so they can add a few more drops of 100 octane. The Japanese have indeed spotted the American task force, and are taking action. Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo's carriers are nearly home from the Indian Ocean, and they are ordered to find Enterprise and Hornet. Japanese patrol bombers and submarines also head for the Americans. As the B-25s stagger into the air, their wings touch the ocean, but in an hour, all 16 bombers are airborne and stretched out in ragged single file, bound for Japan.