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The message I got was diversity--loud and clear. It is good so long as you keep the perspective that it applies to the 4 stated towns and boys from those towns. As such, the taking of Guadalcanal, for example, was given totally to the marines and ultimately to the Navy. Absolutely no mention of the Air Force. So--this has to be viewed from a very narrow perspective. At least that is how I saw the 1st episode.

There was no Air Force, but just the Army Air Corps. But seriously, the Army actually came in and reinforced the Marines. The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II --GuadalcanalThese gains cost the Americans 1,592 killed in action and 4,183 wounded, with thousands more disabled for varying periods by disease. Entering the campaign after the amphibious phase, the two Army divisions lost 550 killed and 1,289 wounded.

Absolutely no mention of the Air Force. So--this has to be viewed from a very narrow perspective. At least that is how I saw the 1st episode.

Two points - some jumped on you for the Air Force comment - don't sweat it. My dad was in before it became the Air Force, and rarely do I run into anybody that refers to it at the Army Air Corps or Army Air Forces. I've never heard him call it Army Air Corps or Army Air Forces other than when it pertains to a particular point in whatever he is talking about (usually when talking about the Army).

It's the same as people saying Alaska or Hawaii as if they were states in the War. They may have been territories then, but everybody has known them for decades as states. It's been the US Air Force for 60 years as of last week, and the numbe of people who remember it as anything but the Air Force are rapidly dwindling.

Second point, I've seen some sneak peaks, and you'll get your fill of the Army Air Forces here very shortly. The clips I've seen were from later episodes, and since they are going in chronological order, the Navy (and Marines as well as US Army) deserve plenty of screen time in the early going, but as we get towards the middle and end of '43 and into '44, you'll see plenty of air action. I hope that Burns does a good job of conveying just how brutal the air war was, because unfortunately these days most people get their idea of the air war from the Memphis Bell movie (let me put it like this, the 8th Air Force alone had 5,000 - 6,000 more men killed in the skies over Europe than Marines that were killed in the Pacific).