Moving the USS Enterprise within striking distance of the Japanese fleet at Pearl Harbor would have only resulted in the loss of the Enterprise and probably her entire battle group in exchange for probably nothing. The 6 Japanese carriers had around 145 Kate's, and over a hundred Val's and over a hundred Zeros, all pilots were highly trained and the Kate's were equipped with the best torpedo in the world at the time. . The Enterprise had 14 Wildcats.At 1:20 a.m. on 7 December, Admiral Nagumo received a message sent to him by Takeo Yoshikawa, an IJN officer working undercover at the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu.
The message read:
"Vessels moored in harbor: 9 battleships; 3 class B cruisers; 3 seaplane tenders, 17 destroyers. Entering harbor are 4 class B cruisers; 3 destroyers. All aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers have departed harbor….No indication of any changes in U.S. Fleet or anything unusual."
So Nagumo knew the carriers weren't there - which is why he made the decision to cancel the third strike, because he knew the carriers were out there somewhere. And rightly so, the Enterprise, which was approaching Oahu, was perhaps the closest and could have been easily moved into striking range.had the USN known the location of the Japanese fleet.
At best the Enterprise could have flown her entire air wing to Hawaii and then run at best speed away from the Japanese and turning for California when possible. Anything else would have been catastrophic