THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603110191
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 199 lines
AMY WATERS Yarsinske has spent countless hours during the last five years researching old documents, poring over faded photographs and interviewing hundreds of people to make sure that Hampton Roads gets its rightful due in the annals of naval aviation.
Now, as she embarks on a lecture series to tout the release this summer of her resulting book, ``Wings Over the Bay - Where U.S. Naval Aviation Really Began,'' Yarsinske admits she hit one brick wall after another in trying to tell the story.
After all, she was a female invading male-dominated territory. She was tackling a subject that never had been told before. And, ``surface-oriented Navy officials'' were hesitant to tell their secrets to an outsider determined to get to the human side of the story.
But Yarsinske would have none of that. Undaunted by staid news releases, canned squadron histories and patronizing pats on the head, this Norfolk-born researcher doggedly pursued the ``hidden'' story. She plowed through decades-old logs, dated newspaper accounts, private papers, diaries and unclassified military documents. She tracked down pioneering test pilots and their family members, and asked for recollections and mementos.
She also interviewed at least one representative from every existing aviation squadron in both the Navy and the Marine Corps.
What she has compiled is a fascinating history of the events, aircraft, milestones and technological advances in naval flight from 1861 to the present. And a good part of it took place in Norfolk and other parts of Hampton Roads.
``Everyone talks about the fact that Hampton Roads played and continues to play a significant role in the innovation of naval aviation, but no one has ever documented it,'' Yarsinske said while sitting among stacks of old photographs and manuscripts in her Colonial Place home.
``It's been recognized that San Diego trained the first naval aviator, that Annapolis purchased the first airplane and that Pensacola is the cradle of naval aviation.
``But Hampton Roads has never been acknowledged as the birthplace. This is really where it all began. As a center point, Hampton Roads has the highest number of `firsts' in naval aviation of any other locality.
``It's just so irritating that the Navy doesn't want to tell you anything they hadn't already sold to the public. They made it very hard for the story to be told.''
Eventually, Yarsinske won over many in the military, but she still had to contend with ``elitist historians'' who did not agree with the slant she gave to the material.
``I confronted a lot of roadblocks from elitists who said you couldn't tell the human side of the story,'' she said. ``They questioned my credentials and my background. If I'd been Joe Aviator, they'd have never looked at this twice.''
After leaving two publishers over various disagreements, Yarsinske has secured an agreement with Donning Productions of Norfolk.
The 450-page work of some 250 photographs begins with the earliest attempts at naval flight, including balloonist John La Mountain's liftoff from a naval vessel near Fortress Monroe in 1861.
``People were thinking of fixed-wing aircraft as early as the Civil War,'' Yarsinske explained. ``There was a lot of talk during the war of bombing Norfolk from a balloon.''
That never happened, but the seed began to ferment that this developing technology could be a major boon to national defense strategies.
By 1903, after the Wright Brothers made flying in fixed-wing aircraft a reality, aircraft manufacturers like Glenn Curtiss and some visionary naval officers like Washington Irving Chambers began to dream of new horizons and possibilities.
Without any funding from the Navy, Chambers talked the secretary of the Navy into letting one of Curtiss' most daring test pilots, Eugene Barton Ely, make a stab at flying off a naval vessel anchored in the Hampton Roads harbor, just off Willoughby. Flying a plane not much larger than an ultralight, Ely accomplished the feat Nov. 14, 1910, becoming the first man to fly a fixed-wing plane successfully off a ship.
Ely's flight off the USS Birmingham marked a new chapter in the Navy's history, Yarsinske explained. Before the historic flight, the U.S. Navy had been dominated by the battleship. But afterward, aircraft - and the floating carriers designed to accommodate them - reigned.
``At the time, most of the Navy leadership didn't want to have anything to do with Ely's flight,'' Yarsinske said. ``They didn't want to see Ely succeed because it would mean the death knell for the hydro-aeroplane. But after his success, it signaled a new era for the Navy.''
Not merely content to chronicle the historic events in her book, Yarsinske goes on to tell of all the hardships Ely faced during that fateful trip. She also delves into the personal side of the man. The romance between Ely and his wife, Mabel, for example, was particularly moving for Yarsinske, whose husband, Raymond, is a Naval flight officer attached to the carrier John C. Stennis.
``They were inseparable,'' Yarsinske says of the Elys. ``He didn't do anything without her consent; she was his spokesperson and constant companion. Their romance was legendary.''
Unfortunately, less than a year after his historic flight in Hampton Roads and on one of the rare occasions when his wife didn't accompany him, Ely was killed in Macon, Ga., during an air show while performing in a test plane for a crowd of spectators.
``He was only in his early 30s,'' Yarsinske said. ``Life expectancy for these young, daring pilots who took such risks was very short.
``They had no radio control, no tested technology. They didn't even have lights until 1928. They really took their lives in their hands, flying these planes.''
In addition to Ely's story, in her book Yarsinske chronicles:
Events from 1917 that led to the establishment of what is today known as the Norfolk Naval Air Station.
Yarsinske highlights Curtiss Aeroplane Co.'s operation at the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station in Newport News, where combat pilots were trained, early aircraft was tested and daredevil instructors reigned. Particularly gripping are the stories about scarf-flying aces like Frank Ault, Rear Adm. James H. Flately III, Capt. David McCampbell, Cmdr. Alexander Vraciu and others.
One of the most interesting tales is of Al Williams, called the greatest naval aviator of all time by many fliers. A concert pianist, professional baseball player, lawyer, test pilot and flight instructor, Williams set many speed, time and distance records, and established flight safety policies for military pilots that are still in existence. He also is the one who developed the concept of sustained inverted flight, or flying upside down.
The evolution of the flight line and depot-level maintenance operations, including the establishment of the country's oldest naval aviation depot at Norfolk.
After visiting the depot and going through its archives, Yarsinske discovered many original Walt Disney-designed decals, called ``cells,'' for early squadrons. Some are reproduced in her book.
The birth of the flattop.
Yarsinske traces events leading to the creation of the country's first aircraft carrier at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1922, the converted collier, the USS Langley; and the first carrier designed from the keel up to be a carrier, the USS Ranger, built in the late '20s at Newport News Shipbuilding.
She also writes of famous carrier combat engagements, pilots and squadrons, as well as some of the technology behind constructing these ``floating cities.''
In subsequent chapters, Yarsinske relates the story of the command of the Atlantic Fleet, 50 years of Marine Corps aviation in Norfolk, and the history of the squadrons - including the roles of wives - at NAS Oceana.
Yarsinske says she believes she is the first to tackle the subject matter because, ``It's a complex story and one that puts the attention on an area that is now - after Tailhook - still politically sensitive.''
Many historians, she added, have not yet had sufficient ``distance'' to tell the story.
``Technology was occurring at such a rapid pace,'' she explained. ``You're looking at 42 years from the Civil War to Ely's flight, and then from Ely's flight to the next significant event was less than two years. By 1915, one event after another was happening very rapidly. The story just started to snowball on itself.''
It's a story, however, that Yarsinske has been itching to tell since childhood.
``I've always loved planes,'' she admitted. ``My father had planes, and I spent a lot of time around airfields and around pilots. I even married one. When I realized no one had done this history before, I jumped at the chance to do it.
``To me, it's a fascinating untold part of our heritage.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY C. KNAPP
Amy Yarsinske is holding lectures on her book, ``Wings Over the Bay
- Where U.S. Naval Aviation Really Began.''
These two Curtiss H12 flying boats were photographed in 1917 at what
became Naval Air Station Hampton Roads. Only 19 of these aircraft
were built.
This is what the Curtiss Air Field in Newport News looked like in
about 1916. This is where many young pilots tested the latest flight
inventions.
Neta Snook, who taught Amelia Earhart to fly, was a familiar face in
Hampton Roads between 1915 and 1917.
This is what naval aviators looked like at Norfolk Naval Air Station
in about 1917.
Graphics
ON THE COVER
The cover photo, taken by staff photographer Lawrence Jackson,
shows Amy Yarsinske aboard the carrier Stennis.
LECTURE SERIES
Amy Yarsinske is presenting lectures on material discovered
during the research of her book, ``Wings Over the Bay: Where U.S.
Naval Aviation Really Began.''
Upcoming lectures will be held at:
Noon, March 25, at Norfolk Live, NAS Norfolk.
A dinner April 11 at the Oceana NAS Officers Club. A time has not
yet been determined.
The lectures are free and open to the public, but there is a
charge for the meals, and seating is limited. Those interested in
attending any part of the event must make reservations by calling
the Hampton Roads Naval Museum at 444-8971.
The museum and the commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet, are
the sponsors of the lecture series.
by CNB