US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

90 Amphibians Came To Covquev
continued between conservative leaders and radical leaders, the “followers
and students of the Soviet Russian advisors who came to China to assist the
revolution.” 13 Added to this turbulence was the Japanese-generated conflict
at Tsinan in Shantung Province, in May 1928. A partial Japanese re-occupa-
tion of Shantung Province along the Tsingtao-Tsinan railroad followed.
The situation was turbulent enough so that the Commander in Chief of the
Asiatic Fleet thought it fit to report to the Department:
Concentration, protection, and evacuation plans have been worked out for
all Chinese cities where any numbers of Americans reside, at the various
ports along the Chinese Coasts, and up the Yangtze River.”
Acts and threatened acts against foreigners had thrown all foreigners into
a state of panic from which most of them have not yet recovered. 15
To state the matter conservatively, 1928 and 1929 were interesting years
for a naval officer with a deep interat in world politics to be on the China
Station.
AIRCRAFT SQUADRONS ASIATIC 1928-1929
Aircraft Squadrons, U. S. Asiatic Fleet had formed in February of 1924,
when the Secretary of the Navy’s General Order 533 of 12 July 1920, pro-
viding for an Air Foice, as one of the type of commands within each of the
three major Fleets, was finally effectuated for the Asiatic Fleet.’c
The Naval Aeronautical Arm of the Navy had been extended organiza-
tionally into the two continental based Fleets beginning in January 1919,
when the USS Sbawnrut (CM-4) was designated as flagship of the Air
Detachment, U. S. Atlantic Fleet.” This organization had been activated on
3 February 1919 when 39-year-old Captain George W. Steele, U. S. Navy,
Class of 1900, assumed command. Captain Steele, although not a graduate
of Pensacola, had been an assistant to the Director of Naval Aviation in
Naval Operations before taking over this sea detail. He was an intelligent
supporter of naval aviation and showed his continuing interest in its development
by qualifying as a lighter-than-air pilot in 1923.’8
‘=Asiatic, A. R., 1929, p. 6.
‘4Ibid., 192S, p. 33.
= Ibid., 1929, p. 11.
‘e (a) Navy Directory, May 1924; (b) General Orders of Navy Department; (c) Interview
with Vice Admiral M. R, Greer, USN (Ret.), 12 Dec. 1961, Hereafter Greer.
‘7NAVWEPSOO-80P-1, p. 30.
M(a) Archibald D, Trumbull and Clifford L. Lnrd, Ifistory oj Uni/ed States NurJul A.iution
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949), p. 150. Hereafter Trumbull and Lord; (b) Oficiul
Navul Biogru~by, of officer concerned. Hereafter Oficiul Bio.grapby.