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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1942-Contin ued

16 November Naval Aviation's first night fighter

squadron, VMF(N)-531, was established at MCAS

Cherry Point, N.C., with Lieutenant Colonel Frank H.

Schwable in command. After initial training with SNJs

and SB2A-4s, the squadron was assigned twin-

engined PV-l aircraft equipped with British Mark IV

type radar.

23 November The VS-173, a full-scale model of a

fighter aircraft with an almost circular wing, made its

first flight at the Vought-Sikorsky plant, Stratford,

Conn. A military version of this aircraft, the XF5U-l,

was constructed later but never flown.

1 December Fleet Air Wing 15, Captain George A.

Seitz commanding, was established at Norfolk, Va., for

operations under the Moroccan Sea Frontier.

1 December Fleet Airship Wing 30, Captain George

H. Mills commanding, was established at NAS

Lakehurst, N.J., to administer Atlantic Fleet Airship

Groups and their component squadrons.

1 December Airship Patrol Group 3 at NAS Moffett

Field, Calif., was redesignated Fleet Airship Wing 31.

26 December The Chief of Naval Operations

approved the merger of the Service Force Aviation

Repair Unit and Advanced Cruiser Aircraft Training

Unit, established in October 1941 and June 1942

respectively, to form a Scout Observation Service Unit

(SOSU) with a mission to maintain battleship and

cruiser aircraft and to indoctrinate pilots in their spe-

cialized operations. This SOSU, the first of three estab-

lished during World War II was established 1 January

1943.

27 December Santee, first of 11 escort carriers

assigned to Hunter-Killer duty, sortied Norfolk with Air

Group 29 on board for free-roving antisubmarine and

anti-raider operations in the South Atlantic.

31 December After pointing out that the need for

airborne radar was so apparent and urgent that

peacetime methods of procurement and fleet intro-

duction could not be followed, the Chief of the

Bureau of Aeronautics requested the Naval Research

Laboratory to continue to provide personnel capable

of assisting fleet units in the operation and mainte-

nance of radar equipment until a special group of

trained personnel could be assembled for that pur-

pose. This special group developed within a few

months into the Airborne Coordination Group which

provided trained civilian electronics specialists to

fleet units throughout the war and into the postwar

period.

31 December Essex, Captain Donald B. Duncan

commanding, was placed in operating status at

Norfolk, Va.; the first of 17 ships of her class commis-

sioned during World War II.

1943

1 January Naval Reserve Aviation Bases (NRAB)

engaged in Primary Flight Training in all parts of the

country were redesignated Naval Air Stations (NAS)

without change of mission. This was the end of the

NRABs except for Anacostia, D.C., which was abol-

ished on 7 July 1943, and Squantum, Mass., which

became an NAS on 1 September 1943.

1 January Air Force, Atlantic Fleet, was established,

Rear Admiral Alva D. Bernhard commanding, to pro-

vide administrative, material, and logistic services for

Atlantic Fleet aviation in place of the former separate

commands Fleet Air Wings, Atlantic, and Carriers,

Atlantic, which were abolished. By the same order

Fleet Air, Quonset, was established as a subordinate

command.

1 January Ground Controlled Approach equipment

(GCA) was called into emergency use for the first time

when a snowstorm closed down the field at NAS

Quonset Point, R.1., a half hour before a flight of PBYs

was due to arrive. The GCA crew located the incom-

ing aircraft on their search radar, and using the control

tower as a relay station, "talked" one of them into

position for a contact landing. This recovery was made

only 9 days after the first successful experimental

demonstration of GCA.

5 January The first combat use of a proximity fuzed

projectile occurred when Helena (CL 50) off the south

coast of Guadalcanal, destroyed an attacking Japanese

dive bomber with the second salvo from her 5-inch

guns.

7 January A change in the pilot training program

was implemented by the opening of Flight Preparatory

Schools in 20 colleges and universities in all parts of

the country. Under the new program, students began

their training at these schools with three months of

academic work fundamental to ground school sub-

jects, then proceeded to War Training Service courses

conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Administration at

universities for two months training in ground subjects

and elementary flight under civilian instructors; then to