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Republican Representative Bertrand W. Gearhart caused a slight flurry when he told newsmen that the cruiser Boise, en route to Manila from Pearl Harbor, had sighted a Jap task force but had not communicated its news because the skipper had been told to observe radio silence—and saw no reason for breaking the orders.
As the hearing wore on, political tension mounted. Democrats, who control the committee, let the first two witnesses—Admiral T. B. Inglis of Naval Intelligence and Colonel Bernard Thielen of the Army's General Staff—rehash old facts. Republicans, furious at the slow pace, cross-examined vigorously, but with little effect.