US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

CHAPTER III
Early Years of a Decade of Service
in the Naval Aeronautical
Organization
1927–1932
AN OLD MAN IN A YOUTH ORGANIZATION
When Commander Turner left Pensacola in November 1927, he headed
for one of the more difficult assignments in the mushrooming Naval Aero-
nautical Organization. He was 42, a newly found naval aviator and his first
flying billet was to be in command of the Aircraft Squadrons of one of the
three major subdivisions of the United States Fleet, the United States Asiatic
Fleet.
Not that Air Squadrons, Asiatic Fleet was a large organization. It distinctly
was not. But the Department *+s planning on its marked expansion, and it
was highly desirable that this expansion take place from a sound base.i
A more cautious handling of Commander Turner’s limited aviation abilities
would have been to billet him in some part of the Naval Aeronautical
Organization where, for the first few months, he might exercise his wings
under senior aviators who could be expected to offer a word of counsel from
time to time. There were five Flag officers, and a dozen captains and commanders
senior to him, qualified as naval aviators or naval observers at
this time.’
In these days when the Naval Aeronautical Organization encompasses
eight or nine thousand aircraft, depending upon the Administration’s assess-
‘ (a) CINC Asiatic, Annual Repofts, 1928 and 1929 with departmental endorsements thereon.
Hereafter referred to as Asiatic AR.; (b) COMAIRONS, Asiatic, Annuuf Reports, 1928 and
1929. Hereafter referred to as COMAIRONS A. R.; (c) BUAER, Endorsement to Asiatic, AR.,
192$).
2Register oj Commissioned and Warrant Oficers of the United Siates Navy and Marine Corps,
January 1928. Hereafter referred to as Natial Regi.r/er.
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