Forgotten Air Pioneers: the Army's Rockwell Field at North Island
Forgotten Air Pioneers: The Army’s Rockwell Field at North Island Wallace R. Peck San Diego is a Navy town. Everyone knows that. Just look around. With one of the best harbors in the nation, coupled with unparalleled weather, it is home port for one-third of the U. S. Pacific Fleet, with mammoth nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, guided missile-equipped cruisers and destroyers, sleek attack submarines, loaded transports, and a vast array of other warships and various vessels, entering and leaving the bay regularly. All utilize facilities at the Naval Base, San Diego (the 32nd Street Naval Station) and at the Naval Base, Point Loma, while being supported by the Naval Weapons Station, the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, the Fleet Anti-Submarine Base, the Broadway Complex, and numerous other installations, plus the Marine Corps at Miramar and at Camp Pendleton. In the heart of these activities is the Naval Air Station, North Island, visible as the mooring site of the great carriers and the base for over 220 naval aircraft, with a population often reaching 36,000. Certainly prominent, perhaps even dominant, is the Navy—today and for a long time past. But these truths obscure the fact that North Island itself was once the center of Army aviation, and for a quarter of a century was the hub of the development of all United States military air power, not just the Navy’s, but the Army’s, too. Decades before North Island was honored as the “Birthplace of Naval Aviation,” it was known as the “Cradle of Army Aviation.”1 Both the Army and the Navy were midwives at the birth and nurturing of infant aviation, and North Island was their common incubator.
[Show full text]