US Marine Corps - The Black Vault

Naval Aviation, 1932-1940 119
being sought for duty on their staff by two Flag officers, each a qualified
aviation observer, rather than a qualified naval aviator. The two were Rear
Admiral Henry V. Butler, a rear admiral of the upper half, and currently
away from aviation and commanding Battleship Division Three, Battle
Force, and Rear Admiral Alfred W. Johnson, a rear admiral of the lower
half and currently commanding Aircraft, Base Force. Aircraft, Base Force,
contained all the aircraft patrol squadrons of the major Fleet air bases.
However, Rear Admiral Butler was slated to fleet up to vice admiral and
take over Aircraft, Battle Force, containing the two largest carriers of the
Fleet, and their healthy contingents of fighting aircraft. The problem was
further complicated by the desire of the Department to do its own detailing.
As described by Mrs. Turner:
Kelly is still at sea about his job. Admiral Butler wants him for his Chief
of Staff, and, of course he is crazy for the job. The Bureau wants another man,
and the thing is still hanging fire.
His relief has been ordered. The Butler job will keep him away until
December. If he goes to Admiral Johnson’s Staff, he will be back in Coronado
for six weeks, and then go to Alaska for three months. I am afraid there will
be so much fuss they will just order him to some shore job.7
But feminine intuition proved wrong and on 11 May 1934, the Bureau
of Navigation ordered Commander Turner detached from the Saratoga in
June and assigned him as Chief of Staff to Commander Aircraft, Battle Force.
The orders were delivered in Gonaives, Haiti, on 17 May and executed in
New York City on II June 1934.
THE FEMININE FRONT
The problems in 1934 of the childless Navy wife with a seagoing hus-
band are timeless, as indicated by the following abstracts from Mrs. Turner’s
letter:
It is so dead here [Long Beach], and everyone is so blue, it is awful.
I can’t seem to fill up the days.
I started taking steam baths and massage at the club, and it made a new
woman of me. Lost eight pounds. . . . Must go to the dressmaker. I lost so
much weight, all my clothes are falling off.
Ming [the dog] expects her puppies any day now. I am hoping they will come
so that I can go to the Riverside Dog Show Sunday.8
‘ Mrs. Turner to Miss L. Turner, letter, 12 Apr. 1934,
8Ibid,