Friend to Sailor and Animal alike

This is a picture of a kinkajou (a nocturnal, tree living mammal from Mexico) that served as the mascot of the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1). The officer feeding the kinkajou is P.N.L. Bellinger, one of the Navy's greatest officers of the modern era. Bellinger was one of the Navy's leading innovators of naval aviation and spend twenty-five of his forty years of service in Hampton Roads. Bellinger was serving as Langley’s commanding officer while the ship was based in Norfolk.

In the next Daybook will be the second part of our story on P.N.L. Bellinger and his time in Hampton Roads during World War II.