For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
To conquer the command of the air means victory; to be beaten in the air means defeat and acceptance of whatever terms the enemy may be pleased to impose.
The first lesson is that you can't lose a war if you have command of the air, and you can't win a war if you haven't.
Good generalship is the realisation that you've got to figure out how to accomplish your mission with the minimum loss of human life.
If you want to go anywhere in modern war, in the air, on the sea, on the land, you must have command of the air.
Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.
It won't be a question of how well-trained or well-equipped the army is but one of the authority it serves.
Any commander who fails to exceed his authority is not of much use to his subordinates.
In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the highest condition of efficiency; and in furtherance of that object, the Military and Naval Schools, sustained by the liberality of Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive.
The one word you use in military flying is duty. It's your duty. You have no control over outcome, no control over pick-and-choose. It's duty.
The admiral, or commander in chief of a squadron, being frequently invested with a great charge, on which the fate of a kingdom may depend, ought certainly to be possessed of abilities equal to so important a station and so extensive a command.