Charles A. Lindbergh, pictured at NAS San Diego (now known as NAS North Island) before taking off for St. Louis on May 10, 1927, on the first leg of what would become his history-making transatlantic trip. "Lindbergh would come back to the West a hero," wrote Naval Air Rework Facility North Island historian Elretta Sudsbury, "but in the early days of May, 1927, he was just another hopeful." (Naval History and Heritage Command image)
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Although Lindbergh was a captain in the Army Air Service Reserve Corps and the Missouri National Guard before his solo flight, he had been a civilian airmail pilot for the Robertson Aircraft Company in St. Louis. Besides earning worldwide fame, he also nabbed the Raymond Orteig Prize, a $25,000
award (about $365,000 today) for the first person to fly non-stop from
New York to Paris, not to mention the first Distinguished Flying Cross ever awarded, plus a promotion to colonel in the Army Reserve from President Calvin Coolidge himself.
The eight St. Louis businessmen who underwrote Lindbergh's
quest gave his specially modified Ryan M-2 its name, yet his journey across the Atlantic had actually begun at Naval Air Station San Diego (now known as NAS North Island) on May 9, not far from where the aircraft had been constructed by Ryan Airlines. There were many other Navy connections to Lindbergh's journey, not the least of which is that he and the Spirit of St. Louis returned to America aboard the Omaha-class light cruiser USS Memphis (CL 13), which left Southampton, England, on June 3.
Although commemorations of his feat center around his daring solo flight
across the Atlantic and his exultant welcome in Paris, lesser
remembered is the central role the U.S. Navy played in bringing the
American hero home to his first stateside welcome. Although professional press photographers captured his departure from Europe and his heroes' welcome at the Washington Navy Yard on June 11, it took the camera of a member of the Memphis crew, machinist's mate Irvin Blair Clarke, to capture these never-before-published images of Lindbergh coming aboard and mingling with the crew.
Charles Lindbergh is piped aboard the Omaha-class light cruiser Memphis (CL 13) before his journey back to America in June, 1927. (Clarke Photograph Collection, Hampton Roads Naval Museum)
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The World's correspondent continued:
Lindbergh eats dinner with the crew--Lindbergh climbs to the crow's nest--Lindbergh is trapped on the bow of the Memphis and a wave breaks over him. A conquering hero is returning home. The news keeps pace with him at every step. And it is apparent that the welcome which lies just ahead will outdo anything by way of welcomes that this country has seen for many years. in fact, it is doubtful whether we have ever had anything just like this before.And, of course, what else would you expect the world's most famous pilot do on his voyage other than fly?
After Lindbergh's triumphant return to America at the Washington Navy Yard, where an estimated 300,000 had converged upon the city to see him, the Spirit of St. Louis was unpacked and reassembled by local Sailors and put on temporary display upon a barge on the Potomac River (to deter the types of souvenir-taking that threatened to disintegrate the plane in Paris). It is estimated that one-third of the nation saw him during the nationwide tour that commenced afterward.
And he lived happily ever after (sort of).
If not for the fact that Charles Lindbergh was a man with a long and complicated public and private life, perhaps he would have simply lived happily ever after. The ups and downs of his later life are well-documented, yet it should never be forgotten that, amongst Lindbergh's many competitors that spring in 1927, two young naval aviators were also striving for the Orteig Prize. Not long before Lindbergh's attempt ended in triumph at Le Bourget Field, theirs ended in tragedy at Langley Field near Hampton Roads, before it even really began.
The Lost American Legion
Source: Langley Field: The Early Years (Langley AFB, Office of History, 4500th Base Wing, 1977), 78. |
We will never know how history might have been different had they lived, and possibly claimed the prize and the world's adulation for themselves. In any case, once it was proven that a single aircraft could cross the Atlantic nonstop, the aviation industry received a tremendous boost in public profile, not to mention investor confidence, and the world would never be the same.
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