Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher (January 26, 1887 – February 3, 1947) was a pioneer in naval aviation who became an admiral in the United States Navy, and served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific during World War II.

[citation needed] Mitscher attended elementary and secondary schools in Washington, D.C.[3] He received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1904 through Bird Segle McGuire, then U.S. Representative from Oklahoma.

[4] An indifferent student with a lackluster sense of military deportment, Mitscher's career at the naval academy did not portend the accomplishments he would achieve later in life.

Nicknamed after Annapolis's first midshipman from Oklahoma, Peter Cassius Marcellus Cade, who had "bilged-out" in 1903, upperclassmen compelled young Mitscher to recite the entire name as a hazing.

In February 1919, he transferred from NAS Dinner Key to the Aviation Section in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, before reporting to Seaplane Division 1.

Taking off from Newfoundland, he nearly reached the Azores before heavy fog caused loss of the horizon, making flying in the early aircraft extremely dangerous.

For his part in the effort Mitscher received the Navy Cross, the citation reading: "For distinguished service in the line of his profession as a member of the crew of the Seaplane NC-1, which made a long overseas flight from New Foundland to the vicinity of the Azores, in May 1919".

[12] On October 14, 1919, Mitscher reported for duty aboard Aroostook, a minelayer refitted as an "aircraft tender" that had been used as a support ship for the "Nancys' " transatlantic flight.

A converted collier, she could only make 14 knots (26 km/h), thus limiting her ability to generate wind over her flight deck and lift under the wings of her aircraft for launching and recovery.

The key lesson learned by the naval aviation officers during these exercises was the importance to locate and destroy the other side's flight decks as early as possible, while still preserving your own.

Though failing to inflict any damage, the torpedo attacks did pull the Japanese CAP down and northeast of the carrier force, leaving the approach from other angles unhindered.

SBD dive bombers from Enterprise arriving from the south flew over the Japanese carrier force to reach their tipping points almost unopposed.

They delivered a devastating blow to Kaga and managed to put a bomb into Akagi as well, while SBDs coming from the east from Yorktown dove down upon Sōryū and shattered her flight deck.

[22] The battle was a great victory and Mitscher congratulated his crew for their efforts, but Hornet's performance had not lived up to his expectations and he felt he had failed to deliver the results he should have.

[28] A further controversy exists in that the only official report from Hornet states that the strike took a course heading of 239 degrees and missed the Japanese task force because it had turned north.

Four months later in April 1943, Halsey moved Mitscher up to Guadalcanal, assigning him to the thick of the fight as Commander Air, Solomon Islands (COMAIRSOLS).

To that point in the conflict carriers had been able to bring enough airpower to bear to inflict significant damage on opposing naval forces, but they always acted as a raiding group against land bases.

The airmen brought devastation to the heavily defended base, destroying 72 aircraft on the ground and another 56 in the air, while a great number of auxiliary vessels and three warships were sunk in the lagoon.

In the ensuing year Mitscher's aviators devastated Japanese carrier forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea—also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot"—during June 1944.

One of the most unfortunate events of the Pacific war occurred on the morning of 21 September 1944, when spotter planes from one of TF 38's carriers came across the MATA-27 convoy and a full scale attack soon was launched.

To provide essential air support to the intense ground operations, Mitscher was obliged to keep then-Task Force 58 sailing in a box on station some 60 miles (97 km) east of Okinawa, often in stormy weather and heavy seas, for the next two months.

Mitscher won his second Navy Cross[41] for the critical success of TF 38 over the period of October 22–30, 1944, both away from and also in direct support of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

At the conclusion of World War II, and in the face of markedly reduced U.S. military spending, a political battle ensued in America over the need for, and the nature of, a post-war military, with advocates from the Army Air Forces insisting that with the development of the atomic bomb the nation could be defended by the devastating power that strategic bombers could deliver, thereby doing away with the need for Army or Navy forces.

In the face of such proposals Mitscher remained a staunch advocate for naval aviation, and went so far as to release the following statement to the press: Japan is beaten, and carrier supremacy defeated her.

In a typical Mitscher-style air attack, fighter aircraft would come at the targets first, strafing the enemy ships to suppress their defensive anti-aircraft fire.

Nevertheless, late in the war, Mitscher did preempt U.S. Fifth Fleet commander Admiral Raymond Spruance in stopping a Japanese naval sortie, centered on the super-battleship Yamato, from reaching Okinawa.

Upon receiving contact reports from submarines Threadfin and Hackleback early on 7 April 1945, Spruance ordered Task Force 54, which consisted of older Standard-type battleships under the command of Rear Admiral Morton Deyo (and which were then engaged in shore bombardment of Okinawa), to prepare to intercept and destroy the Japanese sortie.

[55] As a senior naval aviation officer, "Mitscher had spent a career fighting the battleship admirals who had steered the navy's thinking for most of [that] century.

Mitscher's air strikes sank Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and four destroyers (the other four fled back to Japanese ports), at the cost of ten aircraft and twelve aircrew lost.

[60] The words of Admiral Arleigh Burke, his wartime chief of staff, provide the greatest tribute and recognition of his leadership: The character Pete Richards, played by Walter Brennan, in the 1949 film Task Force is loosely based on Mitscher.