Four days before the Navy announced the sinking of the Wasp, the small-town Plymouth (Ind.) Pilot scooped the world by casually breaking the news in a front-page interview with a home-town survivor of the lost carrier. The sailor was abruptly whisked away by Naval authorities. Elderly Pilot Editor Samuel E. Boys got a blistering Navy rebuke. Possibly Sam Boys's slip expedited Navy's official communiqué admitting the loss of the Wasp. But the hopeful impression got around that Navy's relatively fresh report about the Wasp (coming only 41 days after its loss) marked a...
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