> and skilled pilots are a very limited resource. This gets under-appreciated. One of the big reasons the Battle of Midway was such a turning point, wasn't mai

> and skilled pilots are a very limited resource. This gets under-appreciated. One of the big reasons the Battle of Midway was such a turning point, wasn't mainly the destruction of ships, but the loss of so many well-trained Japanese carrier pilots. Over time, the American advantage in trained carrier pilots paid very huge dividends: 1) Because of better pilots, the American carriers were at an advantage over Japanese carriers. 2) Because there were already a large cadre of trained carrier pilots already, the US pilot schools could afford to spend more time training the student pilots before they ever got into combat. In Japan, the carrier pilots were rushed out as as fast as possible to meet the demand.