Comments by "Kenneth Dean Miller" (@kennethdeanmiller7324) on "'Billy' Mitchell - Insufferably Right or just Insufferable?" video.

@VultureSausage No, actually the Japanese still had carriers after Midway. Two of their best carriers had NOT BEEN at Midway due to damage at Coral Sea. It was the attritional losses of trained air crews & pilots & their inability to successfully train new pilots because they kept their most experienced pilots fighting until they were killed. When training new pilots you need skilled pilots to teach them. But the Japanese instead just decreased their hours of training time. Which, if they had taken 20 pilots that were highly skilled from years of combat to pass on their tactical knowledge the new pilots would have been much deadlier!
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Billy Mitchell, in my personal opinion, was only proven right by time, meaning that by the constant evolution of aircraft & aircraft carriers that EVENTUALLY battleships would become obsolete. However, at the time,(again) in my personal opinion, Billy Mitchell was incorrect that battleships were obsolete because of the aircraft at that time. And basically anti-aircraft fire power by the USA during WW2 PROVED that battleships were still very capable of dealing with large amounts of aircraft and that it was the invention of the jet engine being married with aircraft & rocket fueled missilles that spelled the doom of the modern battleships. Which made the aircraft too fast for anti-aircraft fire between horizon(line of sight) & the ship. And although the USA may have taken down the great Musashi & Yamato with aircraft, that would have been a much more difficult task if the Japanese had possessed the same types of anti-aircraft fire power as the USA at that time.
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This reminds of the saying "Even a broken clock is right twice a day!" And Mitchell couldn't even manage to be correct twice. And it can very easily be argued that by his actions, he proved causes he was trying to promote were a bad idea. That the "Air Service" should be it's own "Military Service", by his insubordination during the "Navy tests" he knew he could do what he wanted because he wouldn't be "disobeying a direct order by a superior officer." Which, of course, is a major offense in any service, as long as that superior is in the same branch of the service. Therefore showing that each Branch of the Military should have it's own planes & aviators designed & trained to carry out specific tasks. And, one thing that the Navy should have learned but didn't is to always use Navy pilots when conducting Naval tests. However, the Navy pilots were not "trained" to drop atomic weapons at the time that "Able" was dropped on Bikini Atoll, so I guess the Navy & Earnest King get a pass on that one. And two things that tests confirmed yet again is one, level bombing against war ships is relatively unaffective & two, after 4 years of war the USAAF can't hit the broad side of barn with only one bomb. And because of all of Mitchell's wild claims, airpower & promoters of airpower & anti-aircraft firepower as well was directly affected negatively by his actions as well. And I personally believe that he also had a negative impact on the USA Military in general. One crackpot makes intelligent minded military aviators & those people who need to defend against those aviators get ignored & not taken seriously.
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