Throughout the day on 19 June 1944, TF 58 repelled Japanese air attacks and slaughtered their aircraft in what Navy pilots dubbed the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” "Kitkun Bay" operated with her cohorts to the eastward of Saipan when American radar detected multiple Japanese strike groups about ten miles out and heading toward the fleet early that morning, and at 0624, "Kitkun Bay" launched a pair of Wildcats for CAP, joined a minute later by the first of five from Gambier Bay.