Memoir Summary
An eventful career spanning the early years of naval aviation comes to life in this reminiscence by Captain Knefler McGinnis. In January 1934, as a lieutenant commander, he led six Consolidated P2Y-1s on a nonstop flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor in a time of 24 hours, 35 minutes, thereby exceeding the distance record for mass flights and bettering the best previous time for the crossing. Other highlights of his story include having a certain Marc A. Mitscher as a co-pilot, and vivid memories of the events of 7 December 1941. McGinnis’ account is from a never-before-published series of interviews with early naval aviators conducted by the U.S. Naval Institute in the 1960s and 1970s, capturing these irreplaceable memories while these men were still alive. McGinnis spoke with U.S. Naval Institute interviewer Commander Etta-Belle Kitchen, USN (Ret.), in Pensacola, Florida, on 23 January 1971.
