 Some authors have stated heavy losses in carriers and veteran aircrews at Midway permanently weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy . Parshall and Tully have stated that the heavy losses in veteran aircrew ( 110 , just under 25 % of the aircrew embarked on the four carriers ) , were not crippling to the Japanese naval air corps as a whole ; the Japanese navy had 2 @,@ 000 carrier @-@ qualified aircrew at the start of the Pacific war . The loss of four large fleet carriers and over 40 % of the carriers ' highly trained aircraft mechanics and technicians , plus the essential flight @-@ deck crews and armorers , and the loss of organizational knowledge embodied in such highly trained crew , were still heavy blows to the Japanese carrier fleet . A few months after Midway , the <unk> sustained similar casualty rates in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and Battle of Santa Cruz , and it was these battles , combined with the constant attrition of veterans during the Solomons campaign , which were the catalyst for the sharp downward spiral in operational capability . 
