where were the air carriers during the pearl harbor attack?

They were NORTHWEST of Hawaii. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, the American carriers were sailing northwest of Hawaii.

The playboy sailors were thinking about their women...and then everything went BOOM!

They were out on maneouvers. Very lucky because they turned out to be a lot more valuable than battleships, especially as air tactics improved.

If the Germans had possessed significant numbers of long range aircraft things would have been much more difficult over there, to say the least.

Nowadays, the situation has changed DRASTICALLY once again.

We are now living in the MISSILE age. This includes air launched cruise missles, ALCM, and ship launched cruise missles, SLCM. Even the Iranians have been experimenting with extremely high speed antiship torpedoes. There are unbelievable electronic countermeasures....always evolving.

The new weapons are DEVASTATING, even in the hands of second and third rank nations and powers.

The vulnerability of supercarriers must be carefully assessed. In is not possible to minimize vulnerabilites. Defensive measures call for maximum effectiveness and constant vigilance.

In the Cold War late days there were nightmare scenarios of hundreds of ALCMs released over the North Polar Sea and snaking their way through the least inhabited parts of Canada.

During the Falklands War, the French Exocet missile, a weapon the Argentinians used, could incinerate a Royal Navy destroyer. Very Frightening.

Since then the missile capabilities have improved by leaps and bounds.

Any new Naval War will be VERY, VERY DIFFERENT from anything that has ever happened before.

When you think of supercarriers going down, one can see how expensive it would be as well.

Perhaps the Air Force would become the most important service in any MAJOR engagement. But you also need the Navy to protect sea access to forward bases.

Submarines seem to be a constantly increasing major factor too. Especially when you see that is where other nations are putting significant expenditures.

Many, many nations have submarines. These are improving constantly like the missiles.

All of this must be continally reevaluated in careful detail as well as in The Big Picture. With much less inter-service rivalry and much more real cooperation.

Wrong decisions tend to be very, very expensive. More so if there is a war.

All politicians of the world must be much less aggressive and warlike to insure the continuance of peaceful prospectus. Enhanced diplomacy and new diplomatic initiatives are of PRIME importance, also intergovernmental cooperation and good will.

To the extent that is not possible, to the extent there are renegade regimes, defensive capabilities are vital.

Lately this has taken on a TERRORIST dimension as well.

Not a good time to have sleeping sentries, nor an unaware public.

The two carriers then operating from Pearl Harbor, Enterprise and Lexington, were on missions to deliver fighters to Wake and Midway Islands. These assignments sent the carriers west, toward Japan and the Japanese Navy, lightly escorted. At the time of the attack, the Enterprise was about 200 miles west of Pearl Harbor, heading back. In fact, the Enterprise was scheduled to be back on December 6th, but was delayed by weather. A rescheduling had the Enterprise's estimated time of arrival as 7:00, almost an hour before the attack, but the ship was also unable to make this schedule. Also, at the time, aircraft carriers were classified as scouting elements for fleets, not capital ships; the most important vessels in naval planning even as late as Pearl Harbor were battleships. As the only large warships available in the Pacific fleet, carriers became the Navy's most important ships during the gap between Pearl Harbor and the return of several battleships to duty in early 1943.

Sounds like you should have stayed in school, as judged by your spelling and grammar.

There were no air carriers during the attack on Pearl Harbor. UPS and FedEx had not been invented yet... OH, you mean the AIRCRAFT carriers of the US Pacific fleet... they were out at sea, conveniently. Some conspiracy theorists say the US knew about the attack before it happened and positioned many of the older battle ships in Pearl Harbor so that the US would have an excuse to replace them with modern warships.

Only Lexington and Enterprise were assigned to the Pacific Fleet. The former was taking planes to Midway, and the latter returning from doing the same at Wake (VMF's, I think F4F3's, but that needs double-checking).

The USS Lexington was delivering fighters to Wake island. The USS Saratoga was in California. The USS Yorktown was in the Atlantic. The USS Enterprise was south of Pearl Harbor returning from Maneuvers. The USS Hornet was in the Atlantic as was USS Wasp and USS Ranger.

Most of them were returning to Pearl Harbour from Islands like Midway. Anther one was either being built of repaired on the mainland.

It's unclear. Some conspiracy theorists say FDR knew the attack was coming, and ordered the carriers out so that there'd still be American strength in the Pacific after there was pubic support for war.

I don't buy it, but it's an interesting theory.

Some were there the majority of them were out to sea

They were out to sea under the command of Admiral Nimitz. They were not close enough to intercept the Imperial fleet but Admiral Spruance made the Japanese Navy pay for that at Midway.