Marine Aviation started on May 22, 1912, when First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, USMC, reported to the Naval Aviation Camp at Annapolis. The Navy's first three aviators, Lieutenants T. G. Ellyson, John Rodgers, and J. H. Towers oversaw the camp's three aircraft.

Two more Marines were soon assigned to the school: First Lieutenant Bernard L. Smith and Second Lieutenant William M. McIlvain that year. First Lieutenant Francis T. Evans joined them in June 1915.

Along with Roy Geiger, who started flying at Pensacola in 1916, these four were the early nucleus of Marine Aviation.

Early Marine Aviators                  Marine Aviator    Naval Aviator
First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham          #1               #5
First Lieutenant B. L. Smith                   #2               #6
Second Lieutenant William M. McIlvain          #3              #12
First Lieutenant Francis T. Evans              #4              #26
First Lieutenant Roy S. Geiger                 #5              #49
David L. S. Brewster                           #6              #55
Edmund G. Chamberlain                          #7              #96 1/2
Russell A. Presley                             #8             #100 3/4

Cunningham went to the Burgess Company and Curtiss factory at Marblehead, Mass. for flying lessons. With less than three hours of instruction, he soloed on August 20. When the fuel stick showed empty, Cunningham "got up my nerve and made a good landing, how I don't know. This was my first solo."

Lt. Smith and Aerial Scouting

One of the first contributions by Marine aviators came in 1914 during a combined forces exercise in Puerto Rico. Lieutenants Smith and McIlvain flew scouting and reconnaissance missions in a C-3 Curtiss flying boat. Throughout the exercise, the two pilots took officers over the island to "show the ease and speed of aerial reconnaissance and range of vision open to the eyes of the aerial scout." Based on this experience, Lt. Smith later recommended that an advance base Marine air unit be composed of five aviators and 20 enlisted ground crew.

Smith was ordered to the U.S. Embassy in Paris by the Secretary of the Navy in 1914, where he served as aviation observer and as an intelligence officer. During this tour, he visited French aviation units and occasionally flew in combat with them. After being ordered back from France in 1917, he directed much of the design and procurement of naval aircraft, and also organized the aerial gunnery and bombing school at Miami. In 1918, Smith was ordered back to Europe to organize the Intelligence and Planning Section for Naval Aviation at Navy Headquarters in Paris. After the war, he had charge of assembling material and equipment for the famous transatlantic flight of the Navy's NC-4 in 1919.

Second Lieutenant McIlvain reported to Annapolis for flight instruction in December 1912, becoming Marine Aviator No. 3 and officially designated Naval Aviator No. 12. In January 1915, McIlvain was the only Marine left at the Navy Flying School, and it was at this time that the "Marine Section, Navy Flying School" was officially formed. In August as the war in Europe escalated, an agreement was reached between the Navy and the Army for the training of Navy and Marine pilots in land planes at the Signal Corps Aviation School in San Diego. Secretary of the Navy Daniels believed that defense of advance bases and, in the case of Marines, possible joint operations with the Army, required an aviation force able to operate from either land or water. McIlvain was one of the first two Naval Aviators sent to the Army flight school. During his training there, McIlvain flew for the first time in a cockpit inside a fuselage instead of from a seat in the open, in front of the wings of a primitive "pusher." He stated later that he never would forget "the feeling of security I felt to have a fuselage around me."

Lt. Evans' Spin Recovery

In 1917, First Lieutenant Francis T. Evans became one of the first aviators to recover a seaplane from a spin, a basic element of aviation safety. Up to that time if one got into a spin, there was no known recovery technique and both the aircraft and pilot were lost. Many had debated whether or not a seaplane, with its heavy pontoons, could be looped successfully. Early in 1917, flying over Pensacola Bay in a new N-9 seaplane, Evans decided to resolve the debate. At 3,500 feet, he dived, trying to pick up enough speed to get "over the top" of the loop. Curtiss N-9 seaplane He lost too much speed on the way up. The plane stalled and went into a spin. Evans pushed his control wheel forward to regain air speed and controlled the turning motion of the spin with the rudder. Recovering from the spin, he climbed back up and tried again: stalling, spinning and recovering, until he managed to complete the loop without stalling. To make sure he had witnesses, Evans then flew over the hangars and repeated his performance. Pensacola incorporated his spin-recovery technique into its training. In 1936 he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross retroactively for his extraordinary discovery, almost twenty years earlier.

First Lieutenant Roy S. Geiger reported to Pensacola March 31, 1916, as Marine Aviator No. 5. He was formally designated a Naval Aviator on June 9, 1917, becoming the 49th naval pilot to win his wings. During his training Geiger made 107 heavier-than-air flights, totaling 73 hours of flight time, plus 14 free balloon ascents, totaling 28 hours and 45 minutes. Geiger was undoubtedly the most distinguished aviator in Marine Aviation history and one of its greatest pilots. His distinction stems primarily from his early entry into aviation, his participation in every significant Marine Corps action from WW I through WW II, and his continued and constant leadership role in Marine Aviation over a period of almost 30 developmental and action-packed years. Geiger became a career model for both aviation and ground Marines in WW II, serving with superior distinction as both the commanding general of the First Marine Air Wing in the hardest days of the battle for Guadalcanal, and later as commander of the Third Marine Amphibious Corps at Bougainville, Guam, Peleliu and Okinawa. As the war in Europe increased in intensity and the United States came closer to becoming involved, these five - Cunningham, Smith, McIlvain, Evans and Geiger - were the foundation on which Marine Aviation was built.

History of Marine Corps Aviation

The Early Years

Lt. Smith and Aerial Scouting

Lt. Evans' Spin Recovery

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