This page is devoted intirely to Marine corps Aviaton. From the first plane to the first ACM to the latest jet aircraft and tactics.
In 1911, twenty-seven-year-old Marine first Lieutenant Alfre A.Cunningham invested almost one-fifth of his monthly pay to rent a clamorous civilian-owned "aero-machine" and tried to fly it around the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Although "Noisy Nan" never got off the ground, Cunningham's enthusiasm won him orders to the new Navy flight school. The day Cunningham reported to Annapolis for flight tranning, 22 May 1912, is now celebrated as the birthday of the "Flying Leathernecks," adn he is considered the "father of Marine aviation." Since that time, flying Marines have proved themselves in combat during WWI, the Banana Wars in Latin America, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gernada, and the Persian Gulf. The machines they fly progressed from barely airworthy stick-and-canvas contraptions that made every flight a death-defying adventure to the sophisticated high-performance jets and helicopters of today. Marines pioneered the use of aircraft for dive boming, air transport, medical evacuation, close air support for ground troops, rotart wing operations(Helicopters), and short takeofs/vertical landings (VSTOL). Cunningham became the first Marine pilot-and the fifth naval aviator-after logging less than three hours in the air at Wright Field, Massachusettd, in August 1912. But he almost missed his rightful place in history when he was grounded because his skittish fiancee refused to marry a flier. It was not until 1915 that Cunningham was retroactively designated Marine Aviator Number 1. While Cunningham was grounded, First Lieutenant Bernard L. Smith of Richmond, Virginia, became the first Marine to command an aviation unit. His aviation section of the Advance Base Force-Two planes (a Curtiss E-1 "Owl" amphibian and a Curtiss C-3 floatplane), two officers, and seven enlisted men-went to the Caribbean to support fleet maneuvers in January 1914. This was the first Marine aviation deployment. The most daring act of those early days of naval aviation occurred when Marine Captain Francis T. "Cocky" Evans became the first man to loop a seaplane. He performed this dangerous maneuver twice in an ungainingly Burgess N-9 floatplane and discovered how to recover from potentially fatal spins- knowledge that saved many lives. When the United Staes entered WWI in April 1917, Marine aviation consisted of fifty men (sveen officers and forty-three enlisted men) and seven aircraft (two landplanes, two seaplanes, two kite-balloons, and one traning plane); they occupied a single hangar at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Six months later there were two squadrons, one for seaplanes and one for landplanes. The landplane detachment soonmoved to Miami where four squadrons under Captain Roy S. Geiger manned the first Marine-only flying field. The pilots trained in Curtiss Jennies, but would fly British-designed De Havillands (DH-4s) in combat. In April 1917, Capt. Cunningham was back flying after recovering from injuries suffered while trying to catapult a seaplane from an under-way warship. Demonstrating a unique mix of vision and practicality, he went to France, observed combat operations, selected airfield sites, and formulated a mission for Marine aviation. Returning home he oversaw a fifty-fold expansion of Marine aviation, and recruited prospective fliers. The Marines who made up the frist American aviation unit sent overseas went with Capt. Evans, who took a dozen seaplanes and 145 men to the Azores. They searched in vain for German submarines from January 1918 until the armistice. The commandant's recommendation that Marine planes support the Marine brigade in France was scuttled because both the Army and Navt opposed an independant Marine Corps air arm. Capt. Cunningham was finally able to get his Marines posted to the Day Wing of the Navy's Northern Bombing Group. The resourceful Cunnningham finagled airdrome space near Calais, called in favors to get his men to France, and arranged for some of them to fly with the Royal Air Force while waiting for American-built DH-4s to arrive. Whem the frist mass-produced American aircraft proved unsatisfactory, Cunningham was able to swap Liberty engines for British airframes, and tthree of the four Marine squadrons saw action. The 1st Marine Aviation Force, commanded by Maj Cunningham, entered combat only one month before the armistice. Most assignmentswere deep interdiction bombing; others were observation and suply runs. In the Marines' brief exposure to aerial combat, they flew fifty-seven missions, dropped more than twenty-seven thousand pounds of bombs and accounted for four confirmed and eight probable aerial victories. They suffered forty-seven casualties, including four killed in action and sixteen influenza deaths. The most spectacular single action occured on 14 October 1918, when a plane manned byb Second Lieutenant Ralph Talbot and Corporal Robert G. Robinson took on a dozen German fighters and brought down two. Talbot and Robinson became the first Marine aviators awarded Medals of Honor. Robinson became a Gunnery Sergeant and survived the was, but Talbot was killed before he recived his medal. The period after WWI broght reducton, reorganization, and refurbishment. Shoestring budgets hampered naval aviation during America;s return to "normalcy." By 1920, the number of Marine pilots had fallen form almost four hundred to less than fifty. The Marines flew was surplus aircraft until a few new aircraft, notably Curtiss fighters , joined the weary DH-4s in the late1920s. Marine pilots showcased their skills in air races, air shows, and a series of well-publicized maneuvers. At that time, flying continued to be a dangeous profession that claimed the lives of many Marines. After being told the pilot casualty rate was one in four, one brash prospective flier replied: "Sign me up for five years. I can't be 125 percent dead." Marine aviation was the only American service that saw combat between 1918 and 1941. United States interventions in Latin America, collectively called "the Banana wars," allowed Marines to develope advanced avation tactics and techiques under combat conditins. Among their innovatins were dive bombing, aerial resupply, medical evacuation, and the use of air panels for ground-to-air communicatins. MajorRoss E "Rusty" Rowell's air group played an important role in the pacification of Nicaragua. Two seat bombers and scout planes kept Sandanista redles off balance while tri-motor transports supplied U.S. forward bases.In a spectacular episode in 1928, First Lieutenant Christian F.Schilt, a daring flier who earlier shattered world speed records, made ten trips into the besieged garrinsonat Qualali in a Vought O2U-the original "Corsair"- biplane, brought in supplies, and flew out wounded. Major Thomas C. Turner replaced Cunningham as chief of Marine aviation in 1920. While on detached duty with an Army Signal Corps during WWI, Turner had earned his wings and then commanded an Army aviation unit. A strict disciplinarian and a demanding leader, he was an exellent flier who left a permanent stampof professionalism on Marine aviation. In 1931, during his second tour as director, Colonel Turner walked into a spinning propeller and was killed. He became the first Marine flier to reach flag rank when he was promoted to Brigadier General-Posthumously. Maj. Geiger, who had commandeda squadron in France, succeeded Turner. Col. Rowell, an outspoken aviation proponent and a popular public speaker, took over in 1935. The main tactical aircraft of the 1930s continued to be biplanes; the Vought O3U (also called "Corsair") scout, the Boeing F4B fighter, and the Great Lakes BG-1 and Curtiss O2C "Helldiver" dive bombers. When the Fleet Marine Force (F.M.F.) was formed in 1933, Marine aircraft groups (MAGs) were assigned to of the east and west coast expeditionary forces. Overseas detachments served in the Caribbean, Nicaragua , China, and Gwam. That the primary mission of Marine air was to support the landing force was finnaly recognized in a mission statment issued by the Navy General Board in 1939:
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