"From military historian Gerald Astor comes Wings of Gold, the first account of how the airplane transformed the U.S. Navy and paved the way to victory in the Pacific in World War II. Astor tracks that fateful journey from its humble beginnings in 1910, when Eugene Ely flew the very first plane off the deck of a U.S. Navy ship, to the unprecedented air combat missions that helped defeat the Japanese." "While following the pilots' firsthand reports of air strikes and blazing dogfights across the islands and atolls of the Pacific, Astor explores the ways the U.S. Navy began its momentous transformation before the war. Later, the critical role of aircraft carriers in the stunning U.S. victory at Midway sounded the death knell for conventional naval warfare, yet the public, the press, the Army, and even the president's advisers refused to recognize the new reality. In fact, only a few in the Navy understood that a new era had begun that would change the face of war forever." "The young Americans who fought the deadly duels against Japanese forces high over the Pacific gave everything they had to the war effort, and many made the supreme sacrifice. Wings of Gold pays tribute to their courage, daring, and selfless dedication. Filled with accounts of the Pacific War's greatest air battles, Wings of Gold is an important addition to the annals of World War II aerial combat."--BOOK JACKET.