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Truk: The “Gibraltar of the Pacific”
The crews of the two modified PB4Y-1 Liberators steeled themselves for what lay ahead as they flew towards the island fortress on the horizon. Unlike the low level attacks being carried out by naval...
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Doolittle Raid Inspires Aircraft Carrier Name
An HOS helicopter flies over the aircraft carrier Shangri-La (CV 38) in the late 1940s. Traditionally, the Navy has named its aircraft carriers after famous warships in naval history (Enterprise and...
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Ready Room Chair Has Link to Carrier Enterprise
The ready room chair removed from the carrier Enterprise (CV 6) that was recently donated to the museum. When you think of artifacts at the museum, airplanes and flight jackets come to mind, but...
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George Medal Honored Guadalcanal Service
George Medal Number 12 awarded to Pharmacist’s Mate First Class Farris Franklin Conner for service on Guadalcanal. In the summer and fall of 1942, Pharmacist’s Mate First Class Farris Franklin Conner...
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Air Attacks Began and Ended USS Curtiss’ Wartime Service
Flying boats operated as an important element of naval aviation during its early history. This necessitated seaplane tenders and the Navy procured a number of these type vessels. Curtiss (AV 4),...
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The N-9 Trainer
When the United States entered World War I, the Navy’s aviation resources included 300 officers and enlisted men on duty and just 58 aircraft of all types. Among the assortment of flying machines was...
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Pearl Harbor Foretold
The famous message that announced the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. For military personnel stationed at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the first thought upon seeing aircraft...
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Vought’s Vindicator
A view of SB2U Vindicators of Scouting Squadron (VS) 72 off the carrier Wasp (CV 7) in formation in 1940. One of the most important evolutions in aircraft design that occurred during the interwar...
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Wiliam Hall: Hero at Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea marked a seminal moment in the evolution of naval warfare as aircraft carriers and their escorting ships of both the U.S. Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy never came within...
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Captain Marion Carl’s Log Book Details Guadalcanal Combat
While tens of thousands of words have been written about the Guadalcanal campaign, one of the pivotal battles of the Pacific War, the few notations scrawled on the paged of the Aviators Flight Log Book...
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The Sinking of USS Wasp
The aircraft carrier Wasp (CV 7) pictured burning after being struck by torpedoes launched from the Japanese submarine I-19. In January 1942, Chaplain M.M. Witherspoon on board the aircraft carrier...
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The Battle of Santa Cruz
The campaign for Guadalcanal was one of the most intensely fought battles in World War II, where all the elements of modern warfare—land, sea, and air—played important roles in the eventual outcome....
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Baptism of Fire at Marcus Island
Triangular in shape, Marcus Island has an area of just 329 acres, far smaller than other territories controlled by the Japanese during World War II. Yet, small islands sometimes assumed great...
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Museum’s A-1H Skyraider Made History Over Vietnam
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of Operation Rolling Thunder, the intense Vietnam War air campaign in which naval aviation played an important role operating from aircraft carriers...
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Nimitz Ouija Board Joins Collection
View of the Ouija Board in Flight Deck Control on board the aircraft carrier Nimitz (CVN 68). Watching a carrier flight deck in action quickly reveals the challenges that are inherent in naval...
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USS Langley Joins the Fleet
USS Langley (CV 1) pictured at anchor near U.S. Fleet battleships. The commissioning of the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV 1) in March 1922 proved momentous. It marked the occasion of the first...
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LT Theodore Ellyson: The Right Place at the Right Time
LT Theodore Ellyson, the Navy’s first aviator, pictured in the cockpit of a Curtiss pusher airplane. His classmates in the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1905 wrote that Midshipman Theodore G. Ellyson...
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Tomcats Battle Floggers
F-14 Tomcats assigned to the VF-32 Swordsmen pictured in flight in 1990. Thirty years ago, just weeks away from the inauguration of his successor (and Vice President), President Ronald Reagan...
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Naval Aircrewman Heads to War
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the officers and enlisted personnel assigned to the aircraft carrier Yorktown (CV 5) and her embarked air group received the news while the...
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The Other D-Day of June 1944
When anyone with even a passing interest in World War II history thinks of June 1944, the day that automatically comes to mind is June 6th, D-Day. On that day Allied forces landed in Normandy. Yet,...
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