Damage-control experience could have saved an early-war carrier

Could later-war damage-control standards have prevented early U.S. carrier losses?

Probably at least one, but the improved standards existed because navies learned from the very losses being reconsidered.

Applying later-war damage-control practice to early carrier actions could probably have saved one ship, although no certain candidate is named. The important qualification is that mature procedures were the product of wartime experience rather than knowledge commanders simply failed to use. Organizational learning contributed to survivability.