Question about initial carrier sighting report of Kurita's forces, 24 October 1944
 

Carl Solberg and by extension Evan Thomas (since he copied Solberg here word for word) give credit for the initial sighting report of Kurita's fleet on 24 October to a Cabot fighter pilot, Bill Verity, received at 0820. The 3rd Fleet Ops message log does indicate 0820I, Channel A, From Cabot 3V11, a generalized sighting report a couple minutes before the more detailed report is received from the Intrepid search group at 0822.

I can find no mention of a "Bill" Verity anywhere with Cabot's VF-29, and the only ACA Rep I've found from Cabot that early in the morning is for a CAP flight, not a sector search. The 3rd Fleet War Diary for this event gives an 0810 receipt from a Cabot plane, but the details included therein match Intrepid's broadcast, not Cabot's, all the way down to the channel it was received on ('C' for Intrepid).

Does Solberg just get this entirely wrong and it's been repeated since then, or was there actually a Cabot plane in that sector that had the first sighting of Center Force, even if their report of the event was less significant than Intrepid's? Thanks!

Re: Question about initial carrier sighting report of Kurita's forces, 24 October 1944
 

Third Fleet searches were flown by SB2Cs, escorted by F6Fs, and so a CVL such as Cabot would not have been involved.
There is no mention of any such sighting in VF29's history, nor does the pilots' listing include anyone by the name of Verity.

Re: Question about initial carrier sighting report of Kurita's forces, 24 October 1944
 

Many thanks! This is what I suspected but it is always a good idea to find out from other knowledgeable folks what they think.

Cheers,
Mike

Re: Question about initial carrier sighting report of Kurita's forces, 24 October 1944
 

Thanks again everyone who took the time to help confirm this. I wrote a little piece about Donald L. Watts for the anniversary of this event. Watts was 5F Intrepid, "Five Fox Lucky," the VF-18 pilot whose detailed sighting report reached Halsey and kicked off the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea.

https://twoaday18.wordpress.com/2020...nald-watts-jr/