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October 1921 Proceedings—If Goethe was right and man must be ‘ ‘either anvil or hammer,” Garland Fulton began as a hammer (second in the 156- man Naval Academy class of 1912) but when he retired in January 1941, he had become more a poundee than a pounder. The first hint that he might have hitched his wagon to the wrong star comes this month with publication of his seminal, two-part Proceedings article, “Rigid Airships.” With geometric precision, Naval Constructor Fulton uses charts, graphs, tables, and diagrams to describe the bright future of the skyships both Germany and England had been building since 1900, when Count Ferdinand Zeppelin gave his name to—and poured his fortune into—-rigid (as opposed to nonrigid) airships.
Every word and every graphic seem pointed toward the latest, greatest, biggest-in-every-dimension R-38, built this year for the United States by the British. But the article that might have been hailed as the definitive work on the subject becomes, in effect, a latter-day “Fulton’s Folly” when it is preceded by an editor’s disclaimer: “This article was submitted before the unfortunate R-38 disaster.”
October 1941 Proceedings—Less than a year away from commanding the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, Brigadier General A. A. Vandegrift, the lone Marine on the Naval Institute Board of Control, must have smiled when he read ‘‘The Halls of Montezuma,” by Ensign William D. Lanier, USNR. Lanier hadn’t told the story of Marine Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie (1812-1873) exactly right, but neither had anyone else. Years later, historians Bob Heinl and Bob Moskin would draw on the diaries of President Polk and Gillespie to correct some of Lanier’s minor errors. But neither came close to young Lanier’s vivid imagery of the red-haired, fork-bearded firebrand—and his secret mission as Polk’s emissary to bring California into the union.
Before his 16-month odyssey ended, Gillespie had crossed Mexico posing as a whisky salesman, hacked his way through Indians and Mexicans, declined the offer of a fresh scalp from Kit Carson, delivered Polk’s message to John Fremont, became military governor of Los Angeles, and—with Fremont and a ragtag army of 1,100 Americans—defeated 2,000 mounted Californians (Mexicans) at La Mesa. “From such men as Gillespie,” Ensign Lanier closes, “doing his job and then quietly walking off the pages of history into oblivion, the Marine Corps draws its motto 'Semper Fidelis.’”
October 1961 Proceedings—The last remaining military airship operation in the world ends this month. The “Gas Bags” that Lieutenant Colonel Bob Rankin is saying a wistful goodbye to are the non-rigids (rigids had streamlined metal frames covered with fabric; non-rigids had no framework). When the rigid R-38 broke in half in 1921 and fell in flames, killing 45 of her 50- man crew, the Director of Naval Aviation, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, pressed on to build the Shenandoah (ZR-1) and her huge sister ships Akron (ZRS-4) and Macon (ZRS-5). The loss of all three—Admiral Moffett was among the 73 who perished when the Akron crashed at sea in April 1933—ended the Navy’s rigid-ship program.
But there was still plenty of gas in the non-rigids. In World War II,
89,000 surface ships were escorted by non-rigids in 55,000 operational flights and not a single vessel was lost. Remarkably, only one airship was lost to enemy action—when its bomb release failed to operate, leaving it helpless over a surfaced submarine.
When the end came for the gas bags, there were countless thousands— like Garland Fulton who died in 1975 in his 85th year—whose eyes must have misted at Rankin’s poignant closing line: “Quartermaster, strike a slow eight on the bell!”
Clay Barrow
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& Exposition, San Diego, California 26-27 March: U.S. Naval Institute- Admiral Nimitz Museum Foundation Cosponsorship, “1942: ‘. . . Issue In Doubt,’” San Antonio, Texas 23-24 April: U.S.Naval Institute’s 118th Annual Meeting & Seminars, “Columbus—500 Years Later and There’s Still A Question” and “Sorting Out a New National Strategy,” and “The Oceans: Good News, Bad News,” Annapolis, Maryland
7-8 May: U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, “Coral Sea Retrospective” and “Desert Storm Lessons,” Pensacola, Florida
We hope to add an October seminar in Washington, D.C. Watch this column for further program information.
For more seminar information or to order transcripts of past seminars or videotapes of our 117th Annual Meeting, call Customer Service at 800-233-USNI.
See You in San Diego
Our 6-8 January 1992 joint program with the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association (AFCEA) will feature a Naval Day, a Space Day, and a Joint Services Day. Confirmed featured speakers include Naval Institute President and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Frank B. Kelso, Marine Corps Commandant General C. E. Mundy, Jr., and the Honorable Carol Hallett, U.S. Customs Commissioner.
For additional information about this program, see the ad on page 91.
New Books
The age of the great flying boats takes off again this month with the publication of Robert Gandt’s China Clipper. An engrossing tale of struggle, intrigue, and strange alliances, this book offers a fascinating chronicle of the seaplane’s development.
Gandt introduces all of the dynamic personalities involved its creation, life, and demise to reveal the story behind the mystique. While generally recognized as a commercial venture, Pan American Airlines’s China Clipper and her sister airships were directly linked to the U.S. Navy, with Admiral William A. Moffett, then-Commander John H. Towers, and others supporting the project. Even Pan Am President Juan Trippe and chief pilot Ed Musick were former naval aviators.
With more than 70 photographs and line drawings, the book details the remarkable technological advances made in
Proceedings / October 1991