Block Island (CVE 106) - Naval Cruise Book

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FIRST ANTI-Xllltllf Xl 'l' lfllili IGNCHI N'I'l'lIil'1Il Two planes with eoiupletv equipment wen- si-ul alnoard the USS MlSSlSSll'l'l vvhii-In was ordered to Vera Cruz and another was allau-lied lo the USS IillilNllNGll,iXlNl en route to Talnpico. all llircc planes to be used in cou- nection with the occupation of Vera Cruz in April l9l-14. Although not equipped for landing operations, these planes made scouting lliglus over the trenches in and around the city of Vera Cruz on 43 consecutive days. The plane piloted by Lieutenant l'. N. L. Bellinger during these flights was struck by bullets, the first fired at U. S. Navy aircraft. WORLD WAR I On the date war was declared, tl1e Navy had only one air station, Pensacola, Florida, a total of 38 naval avia- tors, and 163 enlisted men. At the Armistice, 11 Novem- ber 1918, 21 schools and stations were in operation in the United States, and 2,835 officers with 30,683 enlisted men were attached to the aviation program. This num- ber does not include nearly four thousand student offi- cers undergoing aviation training. Of this number 1,237 officers and 16,287 enlisted men were sent overseas during the war. Although air operations were exclu- sively land based and for the most part limited to con- voy protection, submarine patrol, and in the case of the North Bombing Group, to bombing raids on submarine bases, the Navy learned much and contributed a great deal to the advancement of aviation. The war demon- strated clearly that the airplane was an essential com- ponent of military armament. During the uneasy period between the two world wars, the most important accomplishment was the develop- ment of a mobile airdrome. The carrier, a floating. moveable, well-armed flying field was the result. The first step in this development was made in 1922 and the naval collier JUPITER was converted into a float- ing airfield and renamed the USS LANGLEY. Six years later, after the USS LANGLEY had undergone many alterations, two practically completed battle cruisers, apparently destined for the scrap heap by the Washington Treaty for the Limitation of Armament, were completed as aircraft carriers and joined the fleet as the USS LEXINGTON and the USS SARATOGA. The USS RANGER, built in 1934, only six years before the dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor, was the first car- rier designed and built from the bottom up as such. It was during these same years that the Bureau of Aeronautics experimented with, and finally adopted the air-cooled engine, now found in every type of naval ser- vice plane. There were many other advances, the substi- tution of metal alloys for wood in plane construction, the installation of self-starters, of de-icers, retractable landing gears, and complete radio equipment. There were steady improvements in material, in performance of planes and armament, in experimentation with new l weapons, new methods of attack, new fields of researc 1, new and efficient methods of training personnel. i r E fly having flu doch of the fumnylllnia on his return fllglll In Ill clan. gi a. 'Ll' i Ulla Q Q W it 4 -lui A. L ,I ia , , y Ea. it V g ! a i ljll. Q J 1 6 . Q- 1 I, I jg! . --mv ... N4 --f'- '-5 5.5, . ss H ,.- .a --- 1 - .-.ff .K 4-..,,1. . - . 1. ' HM.- .. ,gu- v,,, ,rr -'A-gl, x... -. ' gn re 1 .1 Q:---' . a-H' :.- - -- -' ..-,....-......,.,,.uggg-uf A , , N, . -4 . - ..-u-.-15... . .i...-, -4, ,..., ...,,.. ,J in

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,S .,,, it x lk., IA -nf f l A 21, Men have always wut-had to fly. The balloon provided the first successful Veflicle for going aloft. Leonardo daVinci conceived thilii distinct devices for carrying men in the air. FIRST llljtgigned two pairs of wings which a man irniglaf' Bl. using his arms and legs to flap them. His SCCOUQLQSQIGII wigs. a heliocopter with an aerial screw 96 feet kiwi. 30,0 fiibe turned by a strong and nimble operatot.. H15 fu-vm. lf?-561116 of flight was a framed sail on which g .Mau ylauld glide. For nearly four centuries there was no vw-Urficant advance- VGAMEZXKITTT' HAWK 17 December 1903 Wilbur and Ofaville Waragent achieved the first powered flight of a heavier tlzaiirair machine. Naval authorities showed their fmstfinteresgt in aviation by sending official ,observers io 'kgportfff on Orville Vfrightis deznonstration of his airplane at' Fort Myen Virginia, in September 11908. Captain W. 1. Chambers, USN, determined to 'interest the Navy in aviation, arranged with the Curtiss Company, after the Wrights had shown an unwillingness to cooperate, to have Mr. Eugene Ely, a skilled pilot, fly from a platform con- structed on the bow of the USS BIRMINGHAM at Hampton Roads, Virginia. . 7.11. , The vy oar ith ing Mr. Curtiss, taking advantage of the profound impres- sion which this flight made, offered to teach a naval officer to fly free of charge. Lieutenant T. G. Ellyson, USN, was ordered to the Curtiss camp at San Diego on 23 December 1910. The potential value of aviation to the Navy was brought out more forcibly the following month 18 January 1911 when Mr. Ely landed on a plat- form built on the stern of the USS PENNSYLVANIA, anchored in San Francisco Harbor, and a few minutes later took off from the platform and returned to his base. In addition to learning to fly, a difficult task at that time, Lieutenant Ellyson was assisting Glenn Curtiss in ex- periments on a hydroplane attachment. 17 February 1911 a plane thus equipped landed in the water along- side the USS PENNSYLVANIA and was hoisted aboard, then hoisted out on the water again making a take-off and flying back to the air field. From 1911 on, naval aviators contributed much to the world history of aviation. Wind tunnels were built, model seaplane basins established, endurance and flight records achieved. 12 November 1912 Lieutenant Elly- son piloted the plane in the first successful catapult launching. 'B I Ili -5 25. ' ' ' 'fmrfx 1 ' -- f ' . , , ' af. S.. . V V f .: L - ' ' ' 1- ' is ' 1- . ' -12' ' -I : s ng -,II ..a- Q 9 -- ' , -Vliiflt if f my ,,,.-- A J ei , 44. F .1 . N Ltx' .f , , at ' f i ' ' --- a. . I 1 .:.:fr.i:fmmw ' , . Mr. Ely flies from deck of USS BIRMINGHAM 14 November 1910

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THE -IGHTI G -L0 K ,S AN GET RE DY CVE 21 IN THE ATLANTIC CVE-21 was built on a R13 hull in Seattle-Tacoma Shipyards at Tacoma, Washixigtcan and commissioned at Bremerton on 8 March 1943. At an impressive ceremony the ship was accepted by the Navy and Captain Logan C. Ramsey, USN, was placed in command. The ship was named for Blmgk island, a small island off the Rhode Island shore. After a shakedown cruise in the lyacilie the ship made two trips from New York to the United Kingdom travelling through submarine infested waters to deliver essential aircraft to the European front. Q . Ya if fi A? 6 ! 5 i. , ,fm ri l t E I