APPENDIX 1 The History of Naval Aviator and Naval Aviation ...

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910?1995 401

APPENDIX 1

The History of Naval Aviator and Naval Aviation Pilot Designations and

Numbers, The Training of Naval Aviators

and the Number Trained (Designated)

The evolution of the programs and policies regard-

ing the designation of Naval Aviators and Naval Aviation Pilots is one of confusion, ambiguities, inadequate centralized administration of record keeping and inconsistencies in the implementation of a new and young aviation organization into the Navy. During the early period, divergent views on aviation within the Navy and the onset of World War I brought a great influx of new people, programs, policies, aircraft and air stations into a fledgling Naval Aviation. When the U.S. entered World War I, Naval Aviation consisted of one operating air station, 48 aviators and student aviators, and 54 aircraft on hand. It was ill equipped to handle the huge growth precipitated by the U.S. entry into World War I.

Background on the Evolution of Naval Aviators

The Navy's aviation program had an aviator before it acquired its first aircraft. Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson was ordered to training in December 1910 at the Glenn Curtiss aviation camp in San Diego, Calif. The Navy received its first aircraft from the Curtiss Company in July 1911. Flight instruction at that time was informal and remained so for the next couple of years. Ellyson became a pilot when Curtiss agreed he

could fly an airplane. Subsequently Ellyson taught John Towers to fly. But flying the airplane was only part of the drill. The student also had to become totally familiar with the mechanics of his machine and be able to repair and rebuild it. Formality arrived when Captain Washington I. Chambers, the Navy's first Director of Naval Aeronautics, declared the requirements for becoming a Navy pilot to follow the same rules employed by the Aero Club of America (the American chapter of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale). Prior to the Navy establishing these standards, some Navy flyers held pilot certificates from the Aero Club of America.

Officers assigned to the "aviation element" of the Navy and who qualified as pilots were formally recognized for their duty as flyers on 4 March 1913 by the Navy Appropriations Act for fiscal year 1914. This act provided an increase of 35 percent in pay and allowances for officers detailed to duty as flyers of heavier-than-air craft. On 10 April 1913, the Secretary of the Navy approved performance standards for qualification and the issuance of a certificate as a "Navy Air Pilot" to qualified officers. Captain Chambers had requested the certificate in his letter of 4 April 1913 to the Chief of Bureau of Navigation. His letter of request states, "The requirements for a Navy Air Pilot are different from those of the land pilot and are purposely

401

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made more exacting than those of the `license' issued by the International Aeronautical Federation." To receive a Navy Air Pilot certificate an officer had to pass the advanced training course and become highly skilled as a flyer or pass an examination by a board of qualified officers. The Bureau of Navigation was identified as the Navy organization responsible for issuing the Navy Air Pilot certificate to qualified officers. The issuance of the Navy Air Pilot certificate was subject to a delay of almost two years from the date the Secretary of the Navy had approved issuing a Navy Air Pilot certificate.

Even though performance standards for qualification as a Navy Air Pilot were established in April 1913, it was not until a year later, on 22 April 1914, that the Bureau of Navigation, which was responsible for all Navy training, approved a course of instruction for student flyers and aviation mechanics. It is obvious that there were delays in establishing aviation programs and policies by the Bureau of Navigation. On 9 January 1915, Admiral Bradley A. Fiske pointed out to the Bureau of Navigation that unless some officers were recognized as qualified and were given certificates, no board of experts could be appointed to examine the qualifications of new applicants. He recommended that certificates be issued to Ellyson, Towers, Mustin, Bellinger, Herbster, Smith and Chevalier, and that they be numbered 1 through 7 and dated sequentially from 1 January 1914 for Ellyson to 1 July 1914 for Chevalier. The Bureau of Navigation followed up on Admiral Fiske's recommendation and, in accordance with what the Secretary of the Navy had approved almost two years before, sent out letters dated 21 January 1915 forwarding Navy Air Pilot Certificates to the seven offices mentioned above, numbering and dating them as Admiral Fiske had recommended. However, the Bureau of Navigation and NAS Pensacola, Fla., continued to follow the procedure of identifying those students completing the elementary flight course at Pensacola as "Naval Aviators" to differentiate them from pilots who had completed the advance course of requirements and qualified as Navy Air Pilots.

Before the Bureau of Navigation could continue its follow up work and issue more Navy Air Pilot Certificates, Congress revised the law on flight pay, and, in a new bill approved 3 March 1915, used the term "Naval Aviator" in specifying those eligible for flight pay. This bill, the Naval Appropriations Act, fiscal year 1916, added enlisted men and student aviators to those eligible for increased pay and allowances while on duty involving flying. It also increased the amount previously provided for qualified aviators. The language of the act provided "flight pay" only for "Naval Aviators", those fliers completing the elemen-

tary flight course at Pensacola. It did not cover those who had qualified as the best pilots and received the Navy Air Pilots certificate. Hence, on 22 March 1915, in order to include those pilots designated Navy Air Pilots, a change was made to the Secretary of the Navy's performance standards certificate whereby the designation "Navy Air Pilot" was changed to "Naval Aviator". This was the beginning of the primary emphasis being placed on the designation Naval Aviator. However, the Navy continued to make references to Navy Air Pilots. In March and April 1915, qualified aviation boards, appointed to give exams at Pensacola, recommended designation of five men as follows: Saufley for a Naval Aviator Certificate dated 6 March, McIlvain for a Navy Air Pilot Certificate dated 10 March, Bronson for orders dated 6 April with the designation Navy Air Pilot, Whiting and Richardson for Naval Aviator Certificates dated 10 and 12 April. The reason for the different use of Naval Aviator and Navy Air Pilot terminology is not known, but the recommendations were approved with a modification as reported by the Bureau of Navigation on 25 May 1915, that all five men had been issued Navy Air Pilot Certificates, numbers 8 through 12. The use of the Navy Air Pilot Certificate and designation continued even after the Secretary of the Navy issued his order to change the designation to Naval Aviator.

Confusion over the issue of Naval Aviator or Navy Air Pilot designations continued within Navy organizations. On 5 May 1915, the Secretary of the Navy informed Whiting: "You are hereby designated as a Naval Aviator for duty involving flying in aircraft, including balloons, dirigibles and airplanes, in accordance with an Act of Congress approved March 3, 1915." The conflict or confusion seems to be in terminology. It was the opinion at that time that an official statement was legally necessary for an individual on flying duty (necessary only in the sense of receiving extra pay while assigned to a job involving actual flying in an aircraft) and that the "Certificates" were only evidence of qualification as an aviator. Thus, on 21 May 1915, the Secretary of the Navy signed a circular letter directing that commanding officers "issue orders detailing officers of the Navy and Marine Corps to Duty as Naval Aviators or Student Naval Aviators when they are required to actually fly or operate these machines." Therefore, regardless of the title on the "Certificates", these orders used the title associated with the law.

In January 1916, the Bureau of Navigation issued its "Course of Instructions and Required Qualifications of Personnel for the Air Service of the Navy." This syllabus mentions eleven classifications for personnel assigned to aeronautic duty. For officers they include: Student Naval Aviator, Naval Aviator, Navy Air Pilot,

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910?1995 403

aeroplane, Navy Air Pilot, dirigible and Military Aviator. The remaining groups were for enlisted personnel classifications. One of the major reasons for the confusion regarding designations was the involvement of several different organizations within the Navy making policy decisions on Naval Aviation without adequate coordination of terminology or standardizing its applications. Terminology was used for different purposes, such as identifying an individual qualified to pilot an aircraft and, for pay purposes, identifying an individual involved in flight but not necessarily as the pilot.

On 1 May 1917 a new course of instruction was presented as a revision without specifying what it revised, although it must have taken the place of the course dated January 1916. The new course stated that officers detailed to aeronautic duty will be classed as: Student Naval Aviator, Naval Aviator, and Navy Air Pilot, either for seaplanes or dirigibles. Completion of the course of instruction for Student Naval Aviator (Seaplane) qualified the student for advancement to elementary and solo flying. Upon completion of that stage the student took the exam for Naval Aviator (seaplane) and was then eligible for what appears to be the advanced course. For this course the instruction stated: "Upon successful completion of the examination the Naval Aviator (seaplane) will be designated Navy Air Pilot (seaplane) and issued a certificate numbered according to his standing in the class with which he qualified as a Navy Air Pilot (seaplane)." A revision to the May 1917 course of instruction was issued 1 January 1918, and the term Navy Air Pilot was not mentioned. In this revision, officers and men detailed for pilot duty were classed as student Naval Aviators and Naval Aviators, seaplane or dirigible. By this time the U.S. was fully engaged in World War I, the Naval Aviation training program had expanded, and the question of title finally seemed to be settled. It took almost three years, from 22 March 1915, when the SecNav order was issued to change Navy Air Pilot to Naval Aviator, to January 1918, before the terminology Navy Air Pilot was dropped from instructions issued by the Navy.

Designation List of Naval Aviators

Confusion in the designation list of Naval Aviators seems to have been tied with the precedence for the designation date of a Naval Aviator and its connection with the adoption of the gold wings insignia (Naval Aviator Wings). A 13 November 1917 Bureau of Navigation letter states, "The Bureau is now compiling a list of all officers and men who are qualified as Naval Aviators, in order that new pins may be delivered as shortly after they are received from the manu-

facturers as possible." This is followed by a BuNav report to Pensacola, Fla., stating, "The new Naval Aviator's pins have been delivered to the Bureau of Navigation and they will be sent out as soon as they can be engraved to show the Aviator's number, his name and branch of service."

There is some question as to whether BuNav produced a list of Naval Aviators at this time. However, the CNO's Aviation Office had a listing of 282 numbers that was forwarded to BuNav under a letter dated 19 January 1918 with the following:

"1. Enclosure (a) is a list of qualified Naval Aviators given in numerical sequence.

2. This list was compiled after careful examination of all the records of this office and numbers assigned according to the date of qualification as Naval Aviator in all cases where such date is shown by the records; but due to the fact that those officers of the regular service who were the first to enter aviation were not required to take a Naval Aviator's test but were merely designated `Naval Aviator' or `Navy Air Pilot' because of their recognized qualification as such, the numbers assigned in such cases were determined by the date upon which they were ordered to aviation duty and the length of such duty, full consideration being given each and every individual case so affected.

3. Additions to the attached list will be forwarded to the Bureau from time to time and as rapidly as the students now under instruction pass the necessary test for qualification as Naval Aviators."

The following list, except for the omission of fractional numbers and the differences in two names, is accepted as the precedence list of early Naval Aviators.

Naval Aviator Number

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Name

Ellyson, Theodore G. Rodgers, John Towers, John H. Herbster, Victor D. Cunningham, Alfred A. Smith, Bernard L. Chevalier, Godfrey deC Bellinger, Patrick N. L. Billingsley, William D. Murray, James M. Mustin, Henry C. McIlvain, William M. Richardson, Holden C. Saufley, Richard C. Bronson, Clarence K. Whiting, Kenneth Maxfield, Louis H. McDonnell, Edward O. Capehart, Wadleigh

Service

USN USN USN USN USMC USMC USN USN USN USN USN USMC USN USN USN USN USN USN USN

Navy Air Pilot Number

1

2 5 14 6 7 4

3 9 12 8 10 11 13

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Naval Aviator Number

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 521/2 53 54 55 551/2 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 651/2 66 67 68

Name

Spencer, Earl W., Jr. Bartlett, Harold T. Murray, George D. Corry, William M. Read, Albert C. Johnson, Earle F. Evans, Francis T. Paunack, Robert R. Scofield, Harold W. Child, Warren G. Dichman, Grattan C. Young, Robert T. Gillespie, George S. Mitscher, Marc A. Strickland, Glenn B. Monfort, James C. Cabaniss, Robert W. Chase, Nathan B. Stone, Elmer F. McKitterick, Edward H. Leighton, Bruce G. Griffin, Virgil C. Cecil, Henry B. Sugden, Charles E. Bressman, Augustus A. Ramsey, DeWitt C. Hull, Carl T. Peyton, Paul J. Kirkpatrick, Robert D. Geiger, Roy S. Bonner, Walter D. Murphy, Thomas H. Mason, Charles P. Salsman, James Simpson, Frank, Jr. Donahue, Robert Brewster, David L. S. Sunderman, John T. Barin, Louis T. Parker, Stanley V. Masek, William Coffin, Eugene A. Eaton, Phillip B. Enos, George Varini, Giochino Hawkins, Clarence A. Ruttan, Charles E. Gates, Artemus L. Laud-Brown, Wellesley Lovett, Robert A. Ames, Allan W. Gould, Erl C. B.

Service

USN USN USN USN USN USN USMC USN USN USN USN USN USN USN USN USN USN USN USCG USN USN USN USN USCG USN USN USN USN USN USMC USN USN USN USN NNV USCG USMC USN NNV USCG USN USCG USCG USN USN USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF

Navy Air Pilot Number

Naval Aviator Number

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 831/2 84 85 86 87 88 89 891/2 90 91 92 93 94 95 95a 95b 95c 96 961/2 97 98 99 100 1001/2 1003/4 101 102 103 104 1041/2 105 1051/2 106 107 108 109 110

Name

Walker, Guy A. Kilmer, Oliver P. Talbot, Peter Davison, Henry P. Vorys, John M. MacLeish, Kenneth A. Beach, Charles F. Farwell, John D. Sturtevant, Albert D. Read, Russell B. Brush, Graham M. James, Oliver B. Rockefeller, William McIlwaine, Archibald G. Read, Curtis S. Gartz, Richard C. Ireland, Robert L. Ingalls, David S. Walker, Samuel S. Smith, Kenneth R. Lynch, Francis R. V. Lawrence, George F. Merrill, Norman E. McLaughlin, Guy McCrary, Frank R. Coombe, Reginald G. Landon, Henry H., Jr. Culbert, Frederic P. Feher, Anthony Fitzsimon, Ricardo Pouchan, Ceferino M. Zar, Marcos A. Coil, Emory W. Chamberlain, Edmund G. Strader, Ralph M. Talbot, Andrew B. Whitehouse, William P. Crompton, George Pennoyer, Ralph G. Presley, Russell A. Hamlen, Warner Little, Charles G. Brewer, Arthur D. Delano, Merrill P. Kiely, Ralph Lansdowne, Zachary Douglas, Gilbert W. Bell, Colley W. Chadwick, Noel Ditman, Albert J. Donnelly, Thorne Carter, R. C.

Service

Navy Air Pilot Number

USN USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF NNV USN USN USNRF USNRF USN USN Argentine Navy Argentine Navy Argentine Navy USN USMC USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USN USMC USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF NNV USNRF

Naval Aviator Number

1101/2 111 1111/2 112 1121/2 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 1341/2 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158

Name

Allen, Charles L. Stone, George W. Bradford, Doyle Atwater, William B. Webster, Clifford L. Fallon, Nugent Williams, Arthur S. Dietrich, Arthur F. Palmer, Carlton D. Murray, Cecil D. Taylor, Moseley Townsend, Richard S. Walton, Mark W. Depew, Ganson G. Goodyear, Frank McCormick, Alexander A. Schieffelin, John J. Rodman, Thomas C. Smith, Edward T. Otis, James S. Hawkins, Ashton W. Lufkin, Chauncey F. Potter, Stephen Fuller, Percival S. Decernea, Edward Ott, George A. Geary, John W. Wetherald, Royal W. Hinton, Walter Willcox, Westmore Lee, Benjamin II Stone, Emory A. Fuller, Charles F. Hutchins, Hurd Stocker, Robert M. Foster, John C. Allen, Frederic S. Amory, Francis I. Read, Duncan H. Goldthwaite, Duval R. McCann, Richard H. Wright, Arthur H. Swift, Henry Butler, Stuart M. Gordon, Harry B. Zunino, Frank A. Shea, Edward L. Forrestal, James V. Brackenridge, Gavin Gibson, Harold F. Mudge, William F. Clarkson, William F.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910?1995 405

Service

USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USN USNRF USNRF USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF

Navy Air Pilot Number

Naval Aviator Number

159 160 161 162 163 1631/2 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 1751/2 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208

Name

McCoid, Paul H. Halstead, Jacob S. Randolph, Robert D. Matter, Robert Warburton, William J. Peterson, Herman A. Rutherford, John Laughlin, George M. III Evans, George B. Johnson, Albert R. McCulloch, David H. Peirce, Thomas J. H. Page, Phillips W. Shaw, George W. Peck, Lyman S. Humphreys, William Y., Jr. Berger, Frederick G. B. Boyd, Theodore P. Alexander, William H. White, Lawrence G. Coddington, Dave H. Kerr, Robert H. Whitted, James A. Haskell, Armory L. Hyde, Russell N. Keyes, Kenneth B. Warren, Alfred K. Eaton, Joseph A. Peterson, William L. Stanley, Henry T. Remey, John T. Palmedo, Roland Forbes, Duncan P. Allen, Francis G. Baker, Charles S. Greenough, Charles W. Ames, Charles B. Hofer, Myron A. Ives, Paul F. Clark, Robert F. Brewer, Edward S. Dumas, Gardner D. McNamara, John F. Rowen, Harold J. Compo, George L. Perrin, John Hutchinson, Lester B. MacCaulay, Donald M. Lochman, Dean E. Moore, Lloyd Ray Thomas, Reginald de Noyes Clements, James R.

Service

USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF NNV NNV NNV NNV NNV USNRF NNV USNRF USNRF USNRF NNV NNV NNV USN NNV NNV USN USN USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USNRF USN USNRF USNRF

Navy Air Pilot Number

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