pearl harbor, why no usn a/c in the air?

"Henry J Cobb" wrote in message

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, this ship, acting as squadron leader for
the Commander Destroyer Squadron THREE, was at the Navy Yard, Pearl
Harbor, in a restricted availability status undergoing preliminary
radar installation work.

How many radar equiped ships did the Navy have sitting at Pearl Harbor?

Damned if I know.

Why don't you take a look at Vol. 3, "History of U.S. Naval Operations in
WWII" by CAPT Samuel Elliot Morrison, USNR. IIRC he has a complete order of
battle for PACFLT in December, 1941 that includes some information on the
technical capabilites and availability of U.S. vessels.

Your tone suggests some hostility toward strategic and tactical decisions
made at the time. Placing the Fleet forward at Pearl (instead of back at
Dago) was controversial when it was made. It was a political decision made
at the highest levels of government.

Much has been made of the "proof" of Pearl Harbor vulnerablity given a
successful raid during naval exercises a few years before and the successful
British attack at Taranto. In truth those operations don't really show the
basing decision, or the specific defense decisions, to be inherently
unsound. They only show that any base is vulnerable to attack under some
conditions.

Toland has written a couple of books, IIRC, on the subject of December, 7,
1941. I comment them to you.

Bill Kambic