1942-Contin ued

16 September Patrol Wing 12 was established at

Key West, Fla., Captain William G. Tomlinson com-

manding, for operations under the Gulf Sea Frontier.

19 September Commander, Patrol Wing 1 departed

Kaneohe, Hawaii, for the South Pacific to direct the

operations of patrol squadrons already in the area.

Headquarters were first established at Noumea, New

Caledonia, and subsequently at Espiritu Santo,

Guadalcanal, and Munda.

1 October Airship Patrol Group 3, Captain Scott E.

Peck commanding, was established at Moffett Field,

Calif., to serve as the administrative command for air-

ship squadrons operating on the west coast.

1 October Three functional training commands

were established for Air Technical Training, Air

Primary Training, and Air Intermediate Training, with

headquarters initially at Chicago, Ill., Kansas City, Mo.,

and Pensacola, Fla., respectively.

12 October Naval Air Centers Hampton Roads, Va.,

San Diego, Calif., Seattle, Wash., and Hawaiian Islands,

and Naval Air Training Centers Pensacola, Fla., and

Corpus Christi, Tex., were established to consolidate

under single commands the complex of Naval Aviation

facilities that had become operational in the vicinity of

certain large air stations.

15 October Patrol Wing 14, Captain William M.

McDade commanding, was established at San Diego,

Calif., for operations under the Western Sea Frontier

and for duties concerned with equipping, forming,

and establishing patrol squadrons.

17 October Inshore Patrol Squadrons (VS), engaged

in coastal antisubmarine reconnaissance and convoy

duty under the Sea Frontiers, were transferred to

Patrol Wings for administrative control.

19 October The initial installation and deployment of

the ASB-3 airborne search radar was reported. This

radar, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory for

carrier based aircraft, had been installed in five TBF-l s

by NAS New York, NY, and five SBD-3s by NAS San

Pedro, Calif. One aircraft of each type was assigned to

Air Group Eleven (Saratoga) and the others shipped to

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Remaining sets on the initial con-

tract for 25 were to be used for spare parts and training.

22 October Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing

Company, by amendment to a design study contract,

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

121

was authorized to construct two 19A axial flow turbojet

powerplants. Thereby, fabrication was initiated of the

first jet engine of wholly American design.

28 October Procurement of the expendable radio

sonobuoy for use in antisubmarine warfare was initiat-

ed as the Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet directed the

Bureau of Ships to procure 1,000 sonobuoys and 100

associated receivers.

31 October Air Transport Squadrons Pacific was

established over the NATS squadrons based in the

Pacific and those on the west coast flying the main-

land to Hawaii routes.

1 November Patrol Wings were redesignated Fleet

Air Wings, and to permit the organization of patrol

aviation on the task force principle, the practice of

assigning a standard number of squadrons to each

Wing was changed to provide for the assignment of

any and all types of aircraft required by the Wing to

perform its mission in its particular area.

1 November Airship Patrol Group 1 at NAS Lake-

hurst, N.J., was redesignated Fleet Airship Group 1.

2 November NAS Patuxent River, Md., was estab-

lished to serve as a facility for testing experimental air-

planes, equipment and material, and as a NATS base.

2 November Fleet Air Wing 6, Captain Douglas P.

Johnson commanding was established at NAS Seattle,

Wash.

8-11 November Invasion of North Africa-Carrier

aircraft from Ranger and escort carriers Sangamon,

Suwannee, and Santee of Task Group 34.2 (Rear

Admiral Ernest D. McWhorter) of the Western Naval

Task Force, covered the landings of Army troops near

Casablanca, Morocco, (8 Nov) and supported their

operation ashore until opposing French forces capitu-

lated (11 Nov). The escort carrier Chenango accompa-

nied assault forces to the area and launched her load

of 78 AAF P-40s (10-11 Nov) for operations from the

field at Port Lyautey, Morocco.

13 November Patrol Squadron 73 arrived at Port

Lyautey, Morocco, from Iceland via Bally Kelly,

Ireland, and Lyncham, England. Supported by the sea-

plane tender Barnegat, the squadron began antisub-

marine operations from French Morocco over the

western Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar, and its

approaches. Patrol Squadron 92 also arrived at Port

Lyautey on the same day via Cuba, Brazil, Ascension

Island, and West Africa.