Marine Corps Aviation

This brief history of Marine aviation from 1912 to 1940 describes the efforts of Marines to secure their own air arm and recounts the early development of the Marine air-ground team. The story is drawn from official reports, documents, and personal correspondence, as well as from published historical works. It also draws heavily upon the transcribed reminiscences of notable Marine aviators collected and preserved by the Oral History Section of the History and Museums Division. From 1912, when First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham became the first Marine to fly, through 1940, a handful of dedicated Marines worked to keep their Corps abreast of the progress of military aviation and to create an air arm specifically dedicated to supporting Marines in their amphibious mission. From a few daring men and a handful of primitive aircraft in 1912, Marine aviation grew into a force which met the test of combat in World War I. During the 1920s and 1930s, Marine aviators gradually developed a permanent organization and acquired aircraft of increasing reliability and improving performance. In small wars and expeditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and China, Marine fliers devised new techniques for supporting Marine infantry in combat, and they demonstrated the value of aviation in reconnaissance and in the movement of men and supplies over rough and usually roadless terrain. With the creation of the F1eet Marine Force in 1933, Marine aviation received formal recognition as an element of the amphibious air-ground team, and in the fleet landing exercises of the late 1930s began developing the doctrines and tactics which would make close air support a reality in World War II. The traditions of excellence and versatility established by these early Marine fliers lived on in the skies of Korea and Vietnam and remain vital today. This study of the formative years of Marine aviation is based on official reports and documents in the archives and holdings of the History and Museums Division and on personal memoirs and correspondence, as well as published historical works. It draws heavily on the writings of such pioneers of Marine aviation history as Robert L. Sherrod and Major Edna Loftus Smith, USMCR, and has benefited significantly from the efforts of such organizations as the First Marine Aviation Force Association and the Marine Corps Aviation Association to preserve the memory and record of early Marine aviation.