Barbers Point NAS

I’m getting pretty disgusted with this goddamned naval aviation. If it were possible, I’d transferred to the Army.

First of all, we’re led by a group of old-time “battleship” thinkers who have one foot in the grave and their heads buried in Mahan or the Navy Regulations.

Next, the Academy men who wield all the authority in the squadrons, are, in four out of five cases, “yellow.” Examples; Lt.Cmdr. “Greasy” Neale of VP101 in the East Indies, plus some of the other Academy men in the same outfit. Then, right here at Barbers Point, the Skipper and Exec of the Air Station, are both condemned as thoroughly “yellow” by the other Academy men, due to they’re both having “colds” during the Battle of Midway. Mead, the Exec, even went so far as to offer to “fix” it up so that Butch O’Hare wouldn’t have to fly either, at which O’Hare blew up. Again in the Aleutians, the Academy men, as in the East Indies, found a thousand excuses as to why they shouldn’t fly. The usual method is to grab off an “indispensable” ground job. Yet they are always more than willing to send out the Reserves on any haphazard sort of mission.

In my own squadron I can name Schoenweiss, the former Exec as “yellow.” Also Suydam and Heywood, flight officer and present Exec, respectively. In old VP82 both Greer, the Exec, and Wigelius, were not only yellow, but were scared stiff of airplanes. And these are the men who will be directing naval aviation policy in a few years. Our leaders!

Throughout the Navy the Reserves are discriminated against. This is bad enough in the fleet, but constitutes a major tragedy in the Air Corps, where about 97% of the pilots are reservists. The Army promotes at a reasonable rate, but the Navy has its pilots tied to fleet promotions. No separate promotion. Hence pilots up to three and four years experience find themselves outranked by Army pilots of less than half the time.

Army equipment is superior. Their planes are first-line. Even our B-24s are ours only because the Army realized they were getting out of date. The Army pilots have better equipment and don’t have to go through 2 miles of red tape to get it. They have flying coveralls, lightweight .380 pistols far superior to our heavy 45s, shoulder holsters, etc., etc. their first-aid and medical equipment is superior and better adapted to pilots use. Most Navy equipment is obviously designed for ship use and aviation use is probably purely incidental — AS ALWAYS!

When we want any Intelligence data on the South Pacific, where do we get it? The Army, of course. Theirs is up-to-date, while the Navy is extremely disagreeable about handing out their “latest” dope (usually anywhere from two months to 10 years behind the times).

All this reflects the basic fact of the Army’s thinking and planning is “air minded.” The Army Air Force is building for the future. The Navy is riding on its past!