First Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham became the first Marine to enter the world of aeronautics when he arrived at the aviation camp at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on May 22, 1912, with orders to learn how to fly. Today, Cunningham’s reporting date is marked as the anniversary of Marine Corps aviation. The Navy’s first three aviators, Lieutenants T.G. “Spuds” Ellyson, John Rodgers, and J.H. Towers, oversaw the camp’s three aircraft and Cunningham’s initial efforts.

In the minds of many, airplanes were still newfangled gadgets with questionable utility. Within the Marine Corps, leaders differed as to whether the flying machine offered value for money.

Cunningham had no doubt. He believed from the first moment and for the rest of his life that aircraft had an essential role and that aviation suited the unique, expeditionary mission of the Marines. Cunningham embodied traits that have been part and parcel of Marine aviation over the years – a receptiveness to fresh ideas, a willingness to innovate, and a compelling urge to support the rifleman on the battlefield.

Cunningham was dispatched to the Burgess and Curtiss factory at Marblehead, Mass. In those days, only a manufacturer could train a new military pilot. Cunningham completed his first solo flight after less than three hours of instruction on Aug. 20, 1912. Over the year that followed, he made 400 sorties in the Curtiss Model B-1, training others and testing tactics and capabilities.

Two more Marines were soon assigned to Annapolis: 1st Lt. Bernard L. Smith and 2nd Lt. William M. McIlvain that year. First Lt. Francis T. Evans joined them in June 1915.

Cunningham was “an imperfect figure” who was “in and out of the aviation picture,” said Dr. Rowland P. Gill, a former curator at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, in an interview. “He’d been a ground-pounder during the Spanish-American War and he was smitten by airplanes from the moment they appeared on the scene.” Cunningham “dropped out” briefly when his fiancée asked him to stop flying, said Gill, but when the United States entered the Great War in 1917, Cunningham went to France to help with an aviation buildup. He took with him an open mind, a spirit of innovation, and a kinship with Marines in combat on the ground.

 

Early Marine Flyers

It would be refreshing to think that everyone in the Marine Corps shared Cunningham’s vision from day one. In fact, it isn’t clear that most Marines initially saw aviation as an integral cog in a coordinated, well-oiled air-ground war machine. Early Marine flyers were swashbucklers and pioneers but not philosophers. They contributed little to any dialogue about strategy or doctrine. In 1917, the Pentagon building did not yet exist, the Marines were led by a two-star officer called the “major general commandant” – who did not sit with the Joint Chiefs of Staff – and the most powerful raison d’etre for Marine aircraft – aviation’s direct link to the Marines’ own troops on the ground – wasn’t yet being talked up in Washington deliberations. Despite their valor in the June 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood, Marines – intended to be light, fast, fleet amphibious troops – were beginning to look indistinguishable from Army soldiers. It was only two years after World War I that Cunningham uttered a famous quote. The “only excuse for aviation in any service,” Cunningham said, “is its usefulness in assisting the troops on the ground to successfully carry out their missions.” So it would be fair to say the vision took hold about 1920. For the rest of the 20th century, Marine leaders cited their need for organic air power when challenged not merely to keep their aviation branch but to justify the existence of the Marine Corps itself.

Even though they fell under the Department of the Navy, which purchased their equipment and shaped their budget, Marines sought to establish some distance from themselves and the Navy’s air component. When Smith went to Culebra, Puerto Rico, to establish the Marine section of the Navy Flying School, the facility became the first all-Marine airbase. In 1915, Maj. Gen. George Barnett, commandant of the Marine Corps, authorized creation of a Marine Corps aviation company of 10 officers and 40 enlisted men. The first Marine air squadron, called the Aviation Company, was formed on Feb. 17, 1917, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Wartime expansion saw the Aviation Company split into the First Aeronautic Company, which deployed to the Azores to hunt U-boats in January 1918, and the First Marine Air Squadron, which deployed to France as the newly renamed 1st Marine Aviation Force in July 1918 and employed bombers and fighters. By the end of the war, several Marine aviators had recorded air-to-air kills. Marine aviation boasted 282 officers and 2,180 enlisted men operating, now, in eight squadrons. Two Marine aviators earned the Medal of Honor: Alone in a furious air battle in October 1918, pilot 2nd Lt. Ralph Talbot and gunner Cpl. Robert Robinson were flying a two-man De Havilland D.H.4. They used Talbot’s forward-firing Vickers machine gun and Robinson’s Lewis Gun to shoot down German Fokker and Pfalz fighters, and Talbot then landed at a hospital to get treatment for the wounded Robinson.

After the Armistice, now-Maj. Cunningham appeared before the General Board of the Navy and wrote articles to sell skeptics on an organic Marine Corps aviation arm. Thus began an effort that continues today with Marines defending the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. Then as now, Marines combined serious military exercises with headline-hunting showmanship to make the case for Marine aviation. They conducted a large maneuver in 1922 from Quantico, Va. This war game included a march by 4,000 Marines from Quantico to Gettysburg, Pa. Three big Martin MBT bombers supported the troops on the march. The bombers logged 500 hours and 40,000 air miles, carrying passengers and freight and maintaining radio contact with the column while executing simulated attack missions. Similar exercises were held almost annually to keep the operational capabilities of Marine aviation in the public eye.

Between world wars, the Marines Corps, with its aviation component, was the only U.S. service branch to see combat. Marine aviators served in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1919-1924), Haiti (1919-1934), and Nicaragua (1927-1933).

Nicaragua became the Marines’ breeding ground for expeditionary warfare in dense topical jungle under primitive conditions. They struggled to “make do” with the tools available, a situation that looked ahead to Guadalcanal.

In Nicaragua, Marine D.H.4 pilots of squadron VO-1M led by Maj. Ross E. “Rusty” Rowell were first to use dive-bombing against an organized enemy – rebels led by Augusto C. Sandino.

Also in Nicaragua, then-1st Lt. Christian F. Schilt, piloting a Vought O2U-1 Corsair biplane Jan. 6-8, 1928, made 10 dramatic flights, under fire, touching down on a makeshift airfield in Quilali, to rescue 18 seriously wounded Marines who had been ambushed by the enemy. For his “almost superhuman skill,” Schilt was awarded the Medal of Honor. Many consider Nicaragua the foundation of the lean, make-do, expeditionary, air-ground way of life Marines have fine tuned and defended over the years.

 

World War Redux

Marine aviation established a presence in the Pacific beginning in 1921, when leathernecks flew seaplanes at Guam. These aviators moved to China, where civil strife threatened foreigners in Shanghai and other cities. Those in China became squadrons VMF-6M, VMF-10M and VS-6M.

Other Marine aviators, in scouting squadrons VS-14M and VS-15M, spent 1931 to 1935 embarked on the Navy’s first true aircraft carriers. On April 1, 1936, Marine aviation became an independent division within the Corps, led by a director of aviation. Following amphibious exercises in 1941, military leaders embarked on a plan to increase the number of Marine squadrons.

The 1st and 2nd Marine Aircraft Wings were established in July 1941 at Quantico and San Diego. The latter provided an air group at Ewa Field, Hawaii. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, of 48 aircraft at Ewa Field, 33 were totally destroyed and all but one of the others damaged. Although a handful of Army P-36 and P-40 fighters got into the air to challenge the attackers, not a single Marine fighter engaged the foe as the Pearl Harbor attack unfolded. The only intact survivor was a twin-engined R3D-2 (Douglas DC-5) that was repeatedly missed by bombing and strafing Japanese warplanes. One Marine fighter pilot, then-Capt. Robert E. Galer, looked up from Ewa and shook his head at the sight of the red “meatball” painted on the wings of the Japanese planes. “I could not believe this was happening,” Galer said in an interview.

 

World War II

During World War II, most Marines fought in the Pacific, beginning with a futile defense of Wake Island, where the vaunted Japanese Zero fighter outfought F4F Wildcat fighters. During the heated defense of Wake, Marines kept their Wildcats flying by cannibalizing wrecked aircraft, improvising tools, and hand-making some parts. When the Japanese attempted their first landings on Dec. 11, 1941, four Wildcats attacked the invasion force with bombs and machine gun fire. Capt. Henry T. “Hammerin’ Hank” Elrod achieved a direct hit on the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi, apparently sinking the ship and forcing the Japanese invaders to retire temporarily.

When Elrod no longer had a Wildcat to fly, he demonstrated a concept that was new, then, to aviators but is taken for granted today – that all Marines are, first and foremost,

riflemen. Elrod took command of a flank of the line set up to make a last stand against the Japanese landing, enabling his fellow Marines to hold position and repulse waves of attacking Japanese. Elrod seized a discarded automatic weapon, gave his own firearm to one of his men, and fought on – losing his life, but earning the Medal of Honor, plus a posthumous promotion to major.

Aerial duels with the Zero fighter at Wake, Coral Sea, and Midway became the stuff of legend. The Wildcat became the standard fighter amid the heat, stench, and muck at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.

Maj. John L. Smith’s VMF-223, or “Rainbow” squadron, launched from the USS Long Island (CVE 1) on Aug. 20, 1942, and landed at Henderson. The next day, Smith’s squadron was strafing Japanese troops along the Tenaru River. On Aug. 24, accompanied by five Army Bell P-400 Airacobras, Smith intercepted a Japanese flight of 15 bombers and 12 fighters. VMF-223 pilots shot down 10 bombers and six fighters, with Capt. (later Maj. Gen.) Marion Carl scoring three of the kills. Soon, Carl became the first Marine air ace of the war, while Smith became the second Marine Wildcat pilot to rate the Medal of Honor. Another Marine, Capt. Joe Foss, racked up 26 aerial victories and received the nation’s highest award, too: So did then-Maj. Galer, who’d been at Ewa during the Pearl Harbor attack, now commanded squadron VMF-224, and scored 13 aerial victories.

As the Pacific war evolved, Marines found new ways to deliver close air support. By the time of fierce fighting at Iwo Jima in February 1945, F4U Corsairs, F6F Hellcats, and TBM Avengers were unleashing air-to-ground rocket projectiles. Marines were well ahead of the Army Air Forces in employing these early air-to-ground missiles.

In the immediate postwar era, Marines joined the gradual conversion from propeller-driven to jet aircraft. Marine test pilots like Carl set speed and altitude records and wrung out the early jets.

 

Korea

When North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, and the United States committed its forces to the Korean peninsula, Marines were on the scene starting with Marine Air Group 33, which moved planes and people from Japan.

Innovation was still the hallmark as Marines fought a difficult, ugly war that was turned around in its early days by the September 1950 amphibious invasion at Inchon. Composite Marine air groups were now flying a mix of propeller- and jet-powered aircraft, including the jet F9F Panther. Operating from both land bases and carrier decks, Marine pilots found new methods and equipment to enhance air-to-ground communication and – although often stymied by weather – made close air support closer than ever. Seeing rotary-wing aviation as a new key to amphibious warfare and battlefield mobility, the Marines were well ahead of the Army in introducing practical helicopters to combat.

The first use of helicopters to carry combat troops was recorded on Sept. 13, 1951, when HRS-1s of squadron HMR-161 hauled Marines across a 7-mile contested zone to a Korean hilltop being assaulted by the Chinese. HRS-1s flew 28 sorties and evacuated 84 casualties. The Army did not introduce its version of this rotary-wing transport until 15 months later in January 1953.

On  Nov. 10, 1951, Marines marked the 176th anniversary of the Corps with a combat sortie by an F7F-3N Tigercat piloted by then-Maj. Gen. Schilt, who’d first made his mark in Nicaragua a quarter-century earlier. Schilt, commander of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, took the Tigercat into North Korea with Master Sgt. Austin Gandy as his back-seater.

Not every brilliant idea for the Marine Corps achieved results. The AU-1 ground attack version of the F4U Corsair seemed like a good idea but was heavy and performed sluggishly. “It was a dog,” said Pearl Harbor veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Galer in an interview. On Aug. 5, 1952, then-Col. Galer was leading 31 warplanes over North Korea when gunfire ripped into his AU-1. Galer bailed out of his Corsair-on-steroids and was rescued. It was the fifth time he’d been shot down, he said, making him an “enemy ace.” The lesson of the AU-1: Heavier was not always better.

 

Space

For one brief moment in 1962, the most famous Marine aviator who ever lived was Col. John Glenn, Jr., veteran of Corsair combat in World War II who scored three aerial victories in Korea in the F-86 Sabre. He became the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20 when an Atlas rocket boosted his Friendship 7 space capsule, developed in the Mercury program, into its three-orbit flight.

Marine Col. Gerald P. “Jerry” Carr commanded Skylab SL-4, a space mission in 1973-74, then the longest manned spaceflight ever made at 84 days. Another Marine, shuttle astronaut (and Vietnam A-6A Intruder pilot) Maj. Gen. Charles F. “Charlie” Bolden, Jr., became NASA administrator. According to the space agency, of 320 Americans selected as astronauts between 1959 and 2011, 22 were active-duty Marines at the time of their spaceflights. Other astronauts like Walter Cunningham and Story Musgrave were retired Marines when they went into orbit.

 

Vietnam

Marines went to war in Southeast Asia on carrier decks, from bases in Thailand and South Vietnam, and – as was now their accepted method – on the battlefield alongside ground troops. They flew everything from the Intruder to the UH-1E Huey helicopter. Their UH-34D helicopters and F-4 Phantom IIs were ubiquitous. New communications technology enabled Marine flyers in Vietnam to be closer than ever to their mud-slogging brethren.

The Marine Corps was the driving force behind the CH-53A Stallion transport helicopter, with first deliveries in May 1966. The CH-53A went immediately to South Vietnam.

 

Having introduced helicopters to the battlefield earlier than other military service branches, the Marines took a giant leap into the world of new ideas in the post-Vietnam era when they embraced short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft able to operate from Navy assault ships or from forward operating bases without runways. Some Marines see this as the ultimate example of innovation in their aeronautical history, the brand of original thinking that gave us today’s AV-8B Harrier II, MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, and F-35B, as well as the soon-to-come CH-53K Super Sea Stallion transport helicopter.

In 1957, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Randolph M. Pate wrote a letter to the chief of naval operations advocating procurement of an all-STOVL force that “meets operational mission capabilities” as soon as technically feasible. That year, a British company designed a directed-thrust engine. Britain’s P.1127, the predecessor of the Kestrel and Harrier “jump jets,” first flew in 1960.

The Marines – among them, Col. (later Lt. Gen.) Thomas H. Miller, who flew F4U Corsairs in World War II and set a 1960 speed record in the F4H-1F Phantom II – embraced the Harrier. “They wanted to come up with a new capability to remain a viable landing force,” said Lon Nordeen, author of Harrier II: Validating V/STOL, in a telephone interview. “They saw an opportunity to free themselves from fixed runways as the key to the Corps’ future.”

As a test pilot, Miller became the first Marine to pilot a Harrier shortly before the American AV-8A version entered service in 1971. While they demonstrated successful weapons delivery from both assault ships and land bases, AV-8As were afflicted with a high accident rate over twice that of other tactical warplanes – some 50 aircraft destroyed and dozens of lives lost in 213,000 flying hours. The follow-on AV-8B Harrier II manufactured in the United States was somewhat lighter because of extensive use of composite material and turned out to be an effective warplane with a better safety record. Still, during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, it achieved only about the same combat results as land-based F/A-18C/D Hornets.

In the first decade of a new century, in battles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, Marines continue to introduce new ideas and to rely on aviation to maintain their role as America’s first-to-fight, expeditionary battle team.

This article first appeared in Marine Corps Outlook: 2011-2012 Edition.