Nice article, thank you. Never heard of the admiral, but then again, I’m a fungus, not a history buff.
Vice-Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher brought the USS Yorktown back from the Coral Sea to Pearl Harbor where the damage from the Battle of the Coral Sea was repaired. Vice-Admiral William Halsey was to lead the aircraft carrier force to Midway Island but he was hospitalized with a skin rash.
The actual idea to have Midway Island folks to send an in the clear radio message to Pearl Harbor that their salt to fresh water converter was broken came from the LT Cmdr Joseph Rochefort, head of the Navy’s intelligence and Japanese code breaking operation at Pearl. He sold the idea to Admiral Nimitz and Nimitz approved. Soon after the ‘in the clear’ message was sent, the Japanese transmitted the report that AF was without fresh water, thus setting the stage for the ambush of Yamamoto’s carrier force and the US sinking all 4 Japanese carriers.
And: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rochefort