Short answers, pulled from the story.
The United States Pacific Fleet is headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. It also maintains large secondary facilities at Naval Air Station North Island in California.
Admiral James O. Richardson was relieved of command because he personally traveled to Washington, D.C. to protest the government's decision to move the fleet to Pearl Harbor, arguing the position left it vulnerable to Japanese attack. Political considerations were deemed more important than his objections, and he was replaced by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel.
On the 7th of December 1941, the Japanese Combined Fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, destroying two battleships outright and damaging six more. All three U.S. aircraft carriers were absent from Pearl Harbor that day, which forced the Navy to rely primarily on carriers and submarines for many months afterward.
Pacific Fleet submarines sank 1,314 ships totalling approximately 5.3 million tons during World War II, according to the postwar assessment by the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC). The campaign began on the first day of the war and was a sustained effort against Japanese merchant shipping.
The Pacific Fleet was formally recreated on the 1st of February 1941, when General Order 143 divided the United States Fleet into separate Atlantic, Pacific, and Asiatic Fleets. A Pacific Fleet had originally been created in 1907 by combining the Asiatic Squadron and the Pacific Squadron.
Since 1950, the United States Pacific Fleet has been involved in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Taiwan Straits Crises, the Mayaguez Incident of 1975, and operations connected to the Somali Civil War and Philippine coup attempt of 1989. The fleet also participated in Operation Magic Carpet after World War II and the RIMPAC exercise series, which began in 1971.