January 1981, was a momentous month in the United States, with hostages long held in Iran returning home and Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as President of the United States. On the last day of the month, the new Commander in Chief counted one less member of the Navy when Master Chief Air Controlman Robert K. Jones retired, a momentous event in the history of naval aviation in that he was the last enlisted pilot on active duty in the U.S. Navy. The legacy of which Jones was the final link began during World War I, when the first enlisted men were detailed to flight training at Naval Aeronautic Station (NAS) Pensacola, Florida, during 1916. Other enlisted personnel deploying overseas following America’s entry into the Great War received flight instruction from foreign air forces, notably France, and flew operationally under wartime conditions. An example was Joseph Cline, who enrolled as a Landsman for Quartermaster in April 1917, and two months later found himself aboard the collier Jupiter (AC 3) as part of the First Aeronautic Detachment, which landed in France in June 1917. After ground and flight training at Tours, Hourtin, and St. Raphael, in France, Cline flew from air stations along the French coast. On the last day of the war, 11 November 1918, he received a commission as an ensign and designation as naval aviator number 1832, though his flying experience predated many of those designated with lower numbers.
The massive demobilization of personnel following the end of the Great War prompted officials in the Navy’s Bureau of Navigation, which during that time managed the service’s personnel, to evaluate the possibility of conducting flight training for a certain number of enlisted personnel, the first classes in this postwar initiative initiated in 1919. The Bureau also formulated a new name for these sailors of the sky, who upon earning their wings were designated naval aviation pilots (NAP). On 22 January 1920, Chief Quartermaster (Aviation) Harold Karr became the first designated naval aviation pilot, launching a program that ended with “NAP” Jones over six decades later. In the interim, NAPs contributed to virtually every dimension of naval aviation. Floyd Bennett became famous for his flight with Richard Byrd over the North Pole region in 1926, for which he received the Medal of Honor. Fighting Squadron (VF) 2B, an interwar unit, became famous as the “Fighting Chiefs” because the majority of its pilots were enlisted men, their performance earning accolades throughout the fleet. During World War II, naval aviation pilots served in every theater of war, heroically flying some of the ill-fated TBD Devastator torpedo-bombers during the Battle of Midway and becoming fighter aces in Pacific skies. Among the latter were Wilbur Webb (6 kills in one day over Guam), John Wirth (14 kills), and Kenneth Walsh, who shot down twenty-one enemy aircraft while flying as a Marine Corps pilot and received the Medal of Honor. In Europe, naval aviation pilots were credited with sinking German U-boats and the co-pilot killed in the aircraft explosion that also took the life of Joseph P. Kennedy, brother of future President of the United States John F. Kennedy, was naval aviation pilot Wilford Willy.
In the years following World War II, the need for continuing classes of enlisted pilots was deemed unnecessary, and the last sailors to receive their wings did so in 1947. In subsequent years, many enlisted naval aviation pilots received commissions and naval aviator designations, rising to high levels of command. Others remained on enlisted status throughout their careers, serving in the ranks of chiefs, senior chiefs, and master chiefs that represent the heart and soul of the Navy. Among them was Robert K. Jones, who enlisted in the Navy in March 1943 and completed flight training in August 1947. Typical of the life of a sailor, he lived and flew at bases scattered around the United States and overseas, the latter including Spain, England, and Saigon, Republic of Vietnam. Serving in the latter location during 1967-1968, Jones logged hours in fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, a flight in an H-34 helicopter on the first day of the Tet offensive in 1968 ending with he and a passenger being shot down and crashing on a downtown building. When he retired on 31 January 1981, Jones’ flight hours numbered 11,000 and he was qualified in more than twenty-five aircraft. In an interview before he left active duty, he captured the unique capabilities of the some 3,700 enlisted pilots trained by the Navy. “The old NAPs I knew took off their flight suits when they landed, put on dungarees and the work on the aircraft…Living with the aircraft the way we did and working on it ourselves, we knew what the penalties were.”
While the era of the NAP has passed, the Navy recently revived the legacy of the enlisted pilots in a different form. A new program identifies a select number of enlisted sailors for training as warrant officers, after which they undergo flight training and serve as naval aviators and naval flight officers in the fleet.
Pictured in this article is the certificate designating Aviation Machinist’s Mate Third Class James Durham a naval aviation pilot, the rating badge of a Chief Aviation Pilot, and Master Chief Air Controlman Robert K. Jones on the roof of a building in Saigon next to the wreckage of a helicopter in which he was shot down on the first day of the Tet Offensive in 1968.
2008 Features
2007 Features