Show First Marine Corps Flyer Met Many Obstacles now considered such a vital weapon in our present daj system of national was looked upon as a fad by military authorities not so many years ago and was not believed to be of any special value as a war The first U. S. Marine to become interested in aviation was an air-minded young named Alfred A. who brought a plane he had rented into the Philadelphia Navy yard in according to the story told by Captain Con D. officer in charge of the Marine Corps recruiting office at the Federal Salt Lake Lieutenant Cunningham begged permission of the commandant of the yard to experiment with the contraption and was given a reluctant consent after being warned of the risks involved in flying The warning was as the plane never made a real Even after the young flyer built a runway with a bump at the bottom he occasionally only managed to get the plane only from twenty to fifty feet into the Some times its four engine refused to start after an hour or more of back breaking cranking and then the sputtering motor raised such a din that the pilot finally dubbed the plane Undiscouraged by this early Lieutenant Cunningham persisted until he eventually was assigned to duty at the U. S. al Aviation Camp at thereby becoming the pioneer flyer of the Marine which organization today is one of the most efficient and the mosi colorful of our country's ah |