[MikeFink]

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!