SUBASE Celebrates 102 Years of Naval Airpower

GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- May 8 marked the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Naval aviation, which traces its origin to the Navy's purchase of its first airplane, the Curtiss A-1.

Shortly thereafter Naval Submarine Base New London (SUBASE), the home of the submarine force, was instrumental in its role in the early stages of the Navy's air power.

Today's Virginia-class submarines have pilots and co-pilots, rather than helmsmen and plainsmen who drive and steer the ship. For those familiar with Navy history, its as if the service has come full circle from the time when the submarine force had a significant impact on the services' aviation arm.

According to Dr. Marc Wortman, author of "The Millionaires' Unit", a book describing the birth of the Naval Air Reserve at Yale University and keynote speaker at the Southeast Connecticut 237th Navy Birthday celebration, the Navy's air service and submarine force share a close relationship.

"The early years of aviation took great courage and some might say a daredevil's outlook-to get into one of those flying cloth and wood box kits with warping wings and underpowered engines," said Wortman. "Which is why the Navy looked to a submarine crewman to serve as its very first pilot."

Jan. 28, 1911, Lt. Theodore G. "Spuds" Ellyson, an aviator and officer detached to Naval Submarine Base New London (SUBASE) during WW I, became the first naval pilot.

Wortman explains the joint role that the Navy Air Reserve unit from Yale and the SUBASE shared in helping the United States and her allies win the First World War.

"Thirty students from Yale were sworn into the Navy as Ensigns at SUBASE by Cmdr. Stirling [the first commanding officer of the newly redesignated Navy Yard to submarine base] Mar. 24, 1917, in the First Yale Unit," said Wortman. "Two weeks later when President Woodrow Wilson declared war, the new Ensigns trained and went to their new stations as pilots."

Wortman later said that throughout WW II, those same pilots from Yale served the nation in defeating tyranny abroad.

"Every civilian head of the Navy and the Army Air Services through WW II came from this small group of Yale students who'd come here [SUBASE] to fly with the subs," said Wortman.

Not 40 years later, Naval Aviation revolutionized naval warfare. The days of the battleship were numbered following the Battle of Coral Sea, where opposing U.S. and Japanese navies fought without sight of each other for the first time as sea planes launched from aircraft carriers fought in the skies above the South Pacific Ocean.

Many notable people served as naval aviators such as Presidents John F. Kennedy and President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain and others such as Jesse Brown, who became the first African-American Naval Aviator and Neil Armstrong, first man to land on the moon.

Today, the Navy's Airpower- whether FA-18 fighter jets launching from the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier in rolling seas; P-8A Poseidon airplanes hunting for enemy submarines; or, MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters performing anti-mine operations- has evolved into a vital point of the trident as the nation's sea service patrols the globe above, on, and under the sea.

"When we look with well earned pride on all that our officers, Sailors, civilians and vessels of SUBASE have done on and below the surface of the sea, we should look to the sky," said Wortman. "There, too, we have a proud legacy."

For more news from Naval Submarine Base New London, visit www.navy.mil/local/subasenlon/.