The Air Force Thanks The Navy and Marine Corps for Their Help

As flattering as it was, Air Force was also astounding in its accurate portrayal of how the Army Air Force won the Japanese side of WWII almost by ourselves. We thank the Navy and Marine Corps for the little things that they did, such as carrying Gen. Doolittle's group within range of Tokyo and snagging Iwo Jima. Even the ground component of the US Army helped a bit. But this movie makes it clear that the real heroes of the Pacific War were the members of the Far East Air Forces. It would take another four years before 20th Century Fox did the same thing for the European War with 12 O'clock High.

Now, before my Army, Navy, and Marine Corps comrades explode in rage, I am being outrageously facetious. You probably already figured that out, but I may have spun you up so fast you didn't notice.

Even as a teenager I had a love/hate relationship with this movie. Me and my friends love the subject matter and the action, but we were distracted to frustration with the historic inaccuracy. Over the years since I have learned to find peace with the film and enjoy it on its own level. For those of you equally conflicted, please let me point some things out.

The movie was released in March 1943. Ted W. Lawson's first hand and carefully censored account of the Doolittle Raid, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," will be published this same year. The Raid occurred only 11 months ago and the public knows only that the planes were launched from "Shangri La." We stopped the Japanese Navy at Coral Sea and turned them back at Midway, but Guadalcanal has only just been secured in a series of land and sea battles that have worn out the 1st Marine Division and cost us several cruisers, two aircraft carriers, and a battle ship badly damaged. Our Army with Britain's able assistance has only recently forced the Axis out of Africa, but the battle for Sicily has not yet started. We don't know how the war will progress. We are confident of eventual victory, but fearful of how long it will take.

Is it propaganda? Yes, but more in the sense that Miracle (Kurt Russell) is propaganda than in the sense that Triumph of the Will is propaganda. That is, it was produced as entertainment that people enjoyed (#1 box office 1943) not as government written or directed mind control. Does it show war as the evil it is? Yes, the viewer watches people die. Although it is also true that the viewer is encouraged to believe that it is more evil when the enemy kills Americans than the other way around. Being American I wholeheartedly agree with that premise. Are Americans equivalent to the Japanese because we kill them and they kill us? This movie makes reference to the difference in dialogue, but we don't see it, except in the early scenes. The Japanese started the war and intended to fight to the last person, including the innocent. We responded in self-defense, and offered the opportunity for surrender.

I love Air Force for three reasons:

1) I'm a retired Air Force officer and it glorifies the historical roots of my service.

2) It is rousing, unapologetic entertainment extolling American virtues and our right to survive. It's like Independence Day with the Japanese instead of the unidentified aliens.

3) It gives us a snapshot of the culture that my parents grew up in.