A Navy AB-3 piloted by LTJG Patrick Bellinger from the USS Mississippi‘s aviation unit at Veracruz, Mexico, on this date in 1914, conducted military reconnaissance of Veracruz and a preliminary search for mines in the harbor. This is the first operational use of United States naval aircraft in a combat situation. LTJG Patrick Bellinger was [...]
On 21 April 1914, United States naval forces under Rear Admiral Frank F. Fletcher pushed ashore at Veracruz, Mexico, during a crisis precipitated by Mexican strongman Victoriano Huerta. Huerta had taken power in a coup d’etat in 1913. President Wilson attempted to prevent him from getting arms during the following Mexican Civil War, but Huerta [...]
it is in memory that keeps telling us, some of the old story about us W. S. Merwin In early April, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto wrote to Niwa Michi at her geisha house in Tokyo, “The first stage of operations has been a kind of children’s hour, and will soon be over; now comes the adults’ [...]
On 15 April 1923 the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) made known its early work in the development of the first UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) for the Navy. A specially equipped F5L seaplane was controlled by radio signals up to a range of 10 miles from the transmitter. The NRL also reported that radio control of [...]
Confederate forces under Brigadier General Beauregard began the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor this morning at 4:30 AM. Confederate guns fired from Fort Johnson and several batteries on James Island, batteries on Morris Island, Fort Moultrie and batteries on Sullivan’s Island, a floating battery off the end of the island and a [...]
The United States Navy standardized the issuance of flight gear when the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, approved a recommendation of the Board on Flying Equipment on standard flight clothing for the Navy Flying Service on 06 April 1917. Flight gear in 1917 authorized was a tan, sheepskin long coat, short coat and trousers, [...]
In April 1861, war clouds gathered over Charleston Harbor as Major Robert Anderson, commanding the United States garrison at Fort Sumter, waited to be resupplied or evacuated. Charleston Harbor had been heavily fortified by Confederate Brigadier-General Pierre Beauregard and he had been ordered by the Confederate War Department in Montgomery, Alabama, to allow no resupply [...]
The Father of Naval Aviation, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, boarded USS Akron on the evening of 03 April 1933 along with his aide, Commander Henry Cecil, the commanding officer of NAS Lakehurst Commander Fred T. Berry, and Lieutenant Colonel Alfred F. Masury, USAR, a guest of Moffett’s, who was also vice-president of the Mack [...]
When the cannons begin booming at Patriots Point during its planned “Day One: April 1861” events in April commemorating the sesquicentennial of America’s bloodiest war, the sounds will elicit memories long removed from Mount Pleasant residents’ consciousness. Come and relive Mount Pleasant’s Civil War history from April 9th until April 14th when the sounds of [...]
Before 22 March 1915, a pilot in the Navy was known as a “Navy Air Pilot,” after that date the term became Naval Aviator. As the World War II poster above asks, “Have you got it?” The Blue Angel pilot below demonstrates that he has got it! So where does the term “aviator” originate? The [...]
