 Task Force 17 (TF 17), commanded by Rear Admiral Fletcher and consisting of the carrier , escorted by three cruisers and four destroyers and supported by a replenishment group of two oilers and two destroyers, was already in the South Pacific, having departed Tongatabu on 27 April en route to the Coral Sea.TF 11, commanded by Rear Admiral Aubrey Fitch and consisting of the carrier with two cruisers and five destroyers, was between Fiji and New Caledonia.TF 16, commanded by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey and including the carriers and , had just returned to Pearl Harbor from the Doolittle Raid in the central Pacific.