Midway

Have you seen Midway yet?  It's been in theaters about a week and a half and is doing well.  We saw it about a week ago and thought it was terrific.  That is the reaction that I've heard from almost everyone who has seen it.  Of course, there are nits to pick and I thought some of the acting wasn't the greatest, but that is true of any movie.

In case you aren't attuned to history, Midway is the story of the six months between the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 and the culminating battle of Midway June 3-5, 1942.  Most Naval historians rank Midway as the most consequential battle in U.S. Navy history and a crucial event that turned the tide of war.

After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. was clearly on it's heels.  All the Pacific Fleet battleships had been trapped and sunk or severely damaged on that fateful Sunday.  Over 3000 people were killed.  The country was reeling.   And it was up to the U.S. Navy to provide a response.  We were immediately at war and since the theater of this battle was the Pacific, the Navy was clearly in the lead.  The problem was that they were down to 3 aircraft carriers, Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise.  Their pilots and crews were a long way from battle tested.  And yet they prevailed.  The movie documents the big events during that fateful 6 months.  It went from the fateful attack on Dec 7 to the Battle of Coral Sea to Col Jimmy Doolittle's launch in bombers from the deck of the Hornet on a one way mission to bomb the Japanese homeland (which by the way in my estimation is the biggest act of ingenuity coupled with bravery I've ever seen) and culminated in the Battle of Midway.  I won't ruin the story for you but suffice to say the outcome wasn't predetermined, the U.S. was blessed with a fair amount of luck, and the bravery of the pilots and crew was unmatched.

After Midway, the war could have been over.  The Japanese were severely damaged.  But their culture wouldn't permit acquiescence.  So we slogged across the Pacific island by island until the end in 1945.  Thank God we developed the the atomic bomb that would end the war in a few swift strokes.  Otherwise, millions more would have been killed.