re: "Midway" is expected to be a surprise #1 at the box office this weekend...

Very cool that you have been able to get autographs of some of the important personnel. I don't have any of the American pilots, but I do have Mitsuo Fuchida's autograph. As I'm sure you know, after the war he became a Christian missionary and when I was about 13, he came to Pensacola (my hometown) and spoke at the First Baptist Church. (This would have been in '64, I believe.) I had recently finished reading his book on Midway, so my father took me to hear him speak. After his talk I approached him and got his autograph. As he was signing I mentioned that I had read his book on Midway. For a moment, he stopped writing and then said quietly, while still looking down at the paper, "Ah yes, Midway." The mention of the battle obviously brought back some painful memories. He signed his name in Japanese characters and English ("Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida") and underneath added a bible verse. When I got home I looked it up. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Let me know what you find out about Best's pullout after the Hiryu attack. Obviously not a huge point, but it just seemed to me one more example of the way the film makers got carried away with dramatic, and not quite realistic, CGI effects.