As the Japanese fleet withdrew following the 4 June carrier battle, PBYs from Midway began searching for the dozens of downed U.S. aviators. Ensign George Gay, a Torpedo Squadron Eight pilot from USS Hornet and the only man to survive his group's heroic attack on the Japanese carriers, was rescued on 5 June, after spending a day and night floating, and hiding, near burning Japanese ships. The enemy picked up another three American fliers, and killed them all after interrogation.

During the succeeding days, other pilots and aircrewmen were rescued by patrol planes and U.S. warships, as were the survivors of USS Yorktown, USS Hammann and of two sunken Japanese ships, the carrier Hiryu and cruiser Mikuma. On 21 June, seventeen days after ditching their plane, a TBD crew was recovered some 360 miles from Midway, the last of the battle's survivors to be rescued at sea.

Other aviators, perhaps not rescued at sea but survivors all the same, were evacuated to Hawaii. Among them were the remaining Marine Fighting Squadron 221 pilots who had so valiantly defended Midway against overwhelming odds and the Midway airmen who had attacked the Japanese fleet on 4 June. Some of the survivors were in good condition and quickly returned to duty. Others, injured in many of the ways offered by modern war, spent months and years in hospitals, personally enduring the tragic aspects of a great triumph.