Since the USS Northhampton was sunk on December 1, 1942, they probably moved their planes from VCS-64 ashore before the battle. It appears they were moved to the seaplane base "near" Tulagi .
https://pacificwrecks.com/airfields/...utu/index.html
Certainly pilots that had been on the Northhampton were operating from there, e.g:
https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/soc/9911.html
There is a long writeup on Reichel here:
https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.p...ICHEL,_LT,_USN
The Silver Star writeup is interesting (which can also be seen here and can be viewed without disabling any adblockers):
https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/309240
It may be that Reichel went missing during one of the night "illuminating" missions for the PT boats.
I found this link to a book about PT boats at Guadalcanal. "At Close Quarters" by Bulkley. The PTs were based on Tulagi. This is part 3 of the book:
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN...ters/PT-3.html
On book page 95 is this:
About the first of December (1942) the PT's received welcome assistance from half a dozen SOC's -- Navy scout observation planes. The SOC's had been carried aboard cruisers damaged in the many actions around Guadalcanal, and were left behind with orders to work with the PT's when their cruisers left the area for repairs. Every night the PT's expected action, one or two SOC's flew up the Slot to spot enemy ships and report their position.
It was a hazardous assignment for the SOC's, because the Japanese ships usually made their runs under cover of bad weather, and several were lost.