Miles Browning

Miles Rutherford Browning (April 10, 1897 – September 29, 1954) was an officer in the United States Navy in the Atlantic during World War I and in the Pacific during World War II. An early test pilot in the development of carrier-based Navy aircraft and a pioneer in the development of aircraft carrier combat operations concepts, he is noted for his aggressive aerial warfare tactics as a Navy captain on the Admiral's staff aboard USS Enterprise and at Nouméa during World War II. His citation for the Distinguished Service Medal states: "His judicious planning and brilliant execution was largely responsible for the rout of the enemy Japanese fleet in the Battle of Midway." Naval historian Craig Symonds disagrees, however, writing that "the citation claim that Browning was 'largely responsible' for the American victory at Midway, an assertion that some historians have taken seriously . . . is manifestly untrue."

Browning served as Admiral William Halsey's chief of staff aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6) as it launched air attacks on Japanese-held islands across the Pacific in February and March 1942, helped plan and execute the Doolittle Raid that launched 16 Army twin-engine B-25 bombers from USS Hornet (CV-8) to bomb Tokyo in April 1942, served as Admiral Raymond Spruance's chief of staff aboard USS Enterprise during the Battle of Midway in June 1942, served as Admiral Halsey's chief of staff at Nouméa during the Guadalcanal campaign in October-November 1942, and commanded the recently built new aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-12) during the early weeks of the Western New Guinea campaign in April-May 1944. He was removed from command in May 1944, after a shipboard incident in which a Hornet sailor drowned. For the rest of the war, he taught aircraft carrier tactics at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He retired in 1947.