From its earliest beginnings United States naval aviation made progress far out of proportion to the small amount of money appropriated by the Government. But it was a young and eager organization with a constant desire to do things—to stretch its wings. An aËrial world remained unexplored and naval aviators were an inquisitive lot.

The first carrier, the Langley, with a complement of six airplanes, became the training ground for the young naval aviators who were to lay the foundation for the world’s greatest seagoing aËrial task force. While the Langley was primitive by today’s standards, experiments with it pointed the way for the development of improved types of carrier-based fighting planes. However, the enthusiasm of the young naval aviators was not shared entirely by other Navy men based on surface craft. To them airplanes were just something to be fished out of the sea when an engine failed. It was some time before the aviators were able to convince these others of the exceptional value of planes in spotting gunfire and scouting for an enemy.

Regardless of the fact that they were the Navy’s orphans, the young pioneers kept at it. They flew the crude machines available and developed tactics for carrier-based airplanes. They improved the arresting gear and solved many technical problems in ways that enabled aircraft builders to design airplanes especially suitable for use on carriers. At the same time, it was natural that flying boats should appeal to Navy men. The flight of the NC flying boats inspired the development of long-range patrol boats. Naval aviators also went ahead with experiments which were to lead to the creation of flying boats with a range of 2,000 miles and more.

While the naval aviators were busy with their early experiments on the Langley, the Disarmament Conference of 1922 had changed this country’s plans for the construction of new battleships. However, the United States and Great Britain were permitted, by the terms of the conference agreement, each to have 135,000 tons of airplane carriers. Two of the big cruisers under construction at that time were converted into carriers. These two, our first specifically designed-aircraft carriers, were the Lexington and the Saratoga. When commissioned in 1927, the Lexington and the Saratoga were the biggest and best aircraft carriers in the world. Weighing about 35,000 tons and capable of carrying sixty to eighty airplanes,

they were the fastest ships of their type afloat. The ships—the “Lex” and the “Sara,” as airmen called them—became the twin mothers of carrier fighter tactics and operational techniques.

The U. S. Navy pioneered in the development of aircraft as a military weapon and spared no effort to develop it and fit it into naval organization. The Lexington and the Saratoga were the proving grounds for the ideas of our imaginative leaders of naval aviation. The lessons learned in maneuvers with the Lexington and Saratoga were well embedded in the minds of the men who were someday to command the greatest carrier task force the world has ever seen. The old Lexington and Saratoga were in the thick of the fight in the Pacific from the day after Pearl Harbor. The “Lex” went down in the gallant fight that stopped the Japs in the Coral Sea. Within two years a new and more powerful Lexington was hammering the Japs in the Pacific. The Saratoga, damaged severely several times, lived through the heroic struggle to see victory. The “Lex” and the “Sara” will always live in the hearts of the Navy’s veteran airmen.