I'm not sure the Air Wing needs to stay in the Hawaiians with the boat. It
might work as well for the Air Wing to stay on the mainland, with its
training opportunities like NAS Fallon not available in the Hawaiians.
This is different from being forward-deployed to Japan and having access
to Misawa, etc.

As for this option, it wouldn't make any sense. Basing a carrier in
Hawaii puts it outside the range of some of the aircraft it would be
carrying if they were based on the mainland. If the carrier would have to
backtrack, even if she could meet them half-way, what would be the point of
a having the carrier forward deployed in the first place? When traveling
with escorts (not at top speed) it takes a carrier approximately 5-7 days to
reach Hawaii from the west coast and vise versa, basing the aircraft on the
mainland would defeat the purpose of having her forward deployed and surge
ready.

Another option might be for the Air Wing to be forward-deployed elsewhere
in the Pacific basin: Japan or Guam, if space permits. They could pick up
the ship in transit from Hawaii to whatever hot spot she's headed.

This makes a lot of sense. You could even possibly spread the aircraft
squadrons throughout the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam, and possibly Japan). The
only issue with this becomes that of training. In order to do
pre-deployment workups, the aircraft need to be onboard. It may prove
difficult to make rounds out to Guam and Japan to pick everyone up.
Especially because most Hawaii based ships currently do pre-deployment
training between Hawaii and the West Coast. It would only make sense
then to base more escorts in Hawaii, Guam, and Japan and do training in the
Western Pacific instead. We wouldn't exactly be playing in our own backyard
anymore, but on the plus side this would provide greater opportunities to do
international training with our Pacific rim allies (Australia, Japan, s.
Korea, etc.) and provide a stronger "presence" in the Pacfic.