On March 31st, Hornet tied up at Alameda NAS. On this same day, the Army B-25s were flown to Alameda from Sacramento. Hornet’s normal aircraft were stored below in the hangar deck since the B-25s would not fit in there. Within 24 hours, 16 of the Army bombers were loaded onto Hornet’s flight deck and tied down in the order of their expected launch position.

After their 5-man flight crews and various maintenance personnel had boarded (134 officers and enlisted men in all), Hornet cast off and moored in the middle of SF Bay. With an untested ship’s crew, Mitscher did not want to risk maneuvering the 19,800 ton carrier through the fog at night. According to Hornet’s deck log, she weighed anchor at 10:18 AM on April 2nd and began her top-secret voyage, steaming underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on a compass heading of 270 degrees.