In 1959, my Dad's VA had a couple of Ensigns assigned and the Midway cruise book shows a number of Ensigns in the various squadrons; In WW2, of course, your typical 1944 VF had 36 aircraft and 55 pilots, of whom over half were ENS. The trend line is for ever-longer initial training pipeline.
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Devotion (Ens. Jessie Brown)
- Thread starter hlg6016
- Start date
Flying Midshipmen
Almost a year to the day after V-J Day, the Navy faced a shortage of Naval Aviators as the thousands of men who answered the call during World War II returned to civilian life. The Naval Aviation College Program sought to fill that void, offering young men payment for four years of college and...
I thought when you were winged as a NAVCAD, you were commissioned same day.
In the early 1950's there was a end strength cap on AD Navy commissioned officers. A number of Naval Aviators were winged and sent to the fleet (and combat) as non-commisioned Midshipmen. When Senate approval came, all these Middies were commissioned - often in the middle of their first deployments!
Yes, Middies. I was aware of that. But not NAVCADs. I guess the same could have happened to NAVCADs for the same reason it happened to Midshipmen.
In the early 1980s ran across an active duty USMC Warrant Officer pilot who had been a flying Sgt. When they went away, he became a Warrant. Old as dirt. Fit as a fiddle.
VMO4
Well-Known Member
Just for reference, I have a relative who went through as a MARCAD in 1961. Among the other novelties of his career were 1) not having to attend TBS, and if you washed you went enlisted grunt at camp Geiger, 2) Getting to CARQUAL twice in primary, once in the T-28, then later in the single engine T2A and 3) winging in October 1962 and not actually commissioning until he had showed up at the A-4 FRS in the spring.
Jack Grinstead.
Might be him.
Am looking forward to seeing DEVOTION; a worthy telling of Naval Aviation, racial integration, and camaraderie during times of war. However, I am always kinda struck regarding the inaccuracy that ENS Jesse Brown was the first African-American designated a Naval Aviator; he was not. The first African-American designated Naval Aviator was Oscar Wayman Holmes who was sworn in as an ENS on 28 Sep 1941 (first African-American to be commissioned a Naval Officer) and designated and winged as a Naval Aviator on 30 June 1943; a full 5 years before Jesse Holmes was winged/designated on 21 October 1948. The biggest distinction here is that Jesse Holmes went through the full Navy primary flight training program (first African-American to do so) while Oscar Holmes joined the Navy with a pilot's license earned outside the Navy and was exempted from completing Navy primary training.
Oscar Holmes' story is as worthy of remembering for his contribution to Naval Aviation, the war effort, and the posterity of all Americans who patriotically served our Nation.
Link below provide more info on Oscar Holmes:
Oscar Holmes - history.navy.mil
Oscar Holmes' story is as worthy of remembering for his contribution to Naval Aviation, the war effort, and the posterity of all Americans who patriotically served our Nation.
Link below provide more info on Oscar Holmes:
Oscar Holmes - history.navy.mil
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