[mbossman2]

Early on in the war, the only "seasoned" combat pilots we had were a small group who fought in China as mercenaries (altho they were snactioned by FDR) in mid 1941(the American Volunteer Group, under the command of Claire Lee Chennault, better known as the Flying Tigers).

While in China prior to Pearl Harbor, the superior tactics they developed by General Chennault allowed them to hand the Japanese several stunning air losses (The AVG had several early losses as well until the pilots were able to "unlearn" their US combat training). Unfortunately their experience was not made available to the Air Corps until several months after Pearl Harbor as the existing USA commanders viewed these pilots as piriahs.

Very quickly after early air losses (caused mainly be inexperienced pilots and the focus on the weakness of the aircraft), the command structure of the Army Air Corps and Navy "saw the light" and swiftly included these pilots in their training and shortened up the learning curve and allowed the US to produce pilots who used the strengths of their aircraft, namely the heavier weight and increased diving speeds to their decisive advantage rather than view other flight characteristics as disadvantages.

Now of course, as the war progressed, the USA was able to develop planes that were more than a match for the Zeros, which effectively stopped any additional improvements just after the 2nd year of the war. At the end of the war, it was not only technical and numerical superiority, but also the overall quality of the pilots, that won the day.