b'U . S .M i l i t a r yThis Image: Change of Chief of Naval Aviation Command event aboard NAS Corpus Christi; Right: Unmanned drone aircraft of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at NASCC on the first USS Lexington (CV-2) at the Battle of the Coral Sea, 216 were lost. OverWhen that most famous NAS Corpus Christi cadet, George H.W. Bush, served as the course of World War II, 12 British Royal Navy aircraft carriers were lost, killingPresident of the United States more than four decades after earning his wings as the 3,133; the Imperial Japanese Navy lost 22 carriers to enemy fire, with 18,430 dead. Navys youngest pilot, he planned the post-Cold War downsizing of the military, which Since the post-war dawn of Navy jet aviation, U.S. carriers have remained untouch- included the closure of two Coastal Bend naval bases, NAS Chase Field in Beeville and able by enemy fire, from land, sea, below sea, or air. Gone were the days of nosedivingNaval Station Ingleside. The objective was to reduce size of force and budget, which torpedo bombers dodging anti-aircraft fire from carriers, or wild dogfights in theoccurred throughout the 1990s, up until 9/11/2001, while investing in advanced tech-skies above open oceans. The great tactical advantage of carrier warfare since thosenologies that would act as the ultimate force multipliers. Nowhere in the military has days is distanceas in, no enemy has been capable of closing the distance necessarythat strategy worked better than with the carrier fleet. Todays media-driven anxiety to launch a successful attack on a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the last of which was theover foreign military threats ignores the power of the U.S. Navys capacity to deploy sinking of the Bismarck Sea at Iwo Jima. Not another, not once, since. These days,unmatched firepower anywhere, within days, from an untouchable fleet that no ene-none of the worlds militaries has a serious plan to engage a U.S. carrier group. my dare attack. That is The Difference that ensures our freedom.110THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'