Coast Guard aviation took root in Carteret County, N.C., in 1920

One of the pearls of information that connect Carteret County, N.C., and the U.S. Coast Guard was shared recently by Capt. Tim List, Commander of Coast Guard Sector North Carolina (shown below).

 

He said the history of Coast Guard aviation officially began in 1920 at Camp Glenn in the community of Carolina City, just west of Morehead City.

In 1905, the State of North Carolina acquired a sandy tract of land on a bluff overlooking Bogue Sound to be used as a training site for the North Carolina National Guard. An installation was built in 1906, named Camp Glenn after Gov. Robert Broadnax Glenn of Rockingham County, who served from 1905-09 (shown below).

 

Barracks, sewers and other infrastructure could readily accommodate 400-500 men. Between 1911-18, Camp Glenn was the “permanent site of the annual encampment of the North Carolina National Guard.”

 

After World War I, Camp Glenn served briefly as a U.S. Navy air station. The camp was turned over to the Coast Guard and became operational on March 24, 1920, as the first Coast Guard Air Station in the nation.

The reason why the Coast Guard wanted an “aviation arm” was simple, according to Lt. Cmdr. William Pitts Wishar, one of the earliest Coast Guard aviators. He said: “Any ship in trouble at sea had to be searched for by a surface cutter, and vital time was lost searching. The sea is awfully large.”

“An airplane, in weather that would allow it to fly and search, could cover enormously greater areas at sea than a cutter could.”

Wishar was selected by Lt. Cmdr. Stanley Vincent Parker, Aviation Aide to Rear Adm. William Edward Reynolds, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, to serve as commander of first Coast Guard air station.

 

Lt. Cmdr. Parker

“Parker asked which of two available surplus Navy air stations would be better for our Coast Guard aviation work: the one at Morehead City or Key West, Fla?”

Wishar said: “I gave him my ideas. Key West would be a better-weather, less rugged station. The Coast Guard had to prove the worth of aviation as an adjunct to its duties. The rougher-weather Morehead City station was closer to the ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’ (Cape Hatteras).”

“We would have more opportunities to locate vessels in distress, derelicts, menaces to navigation and vessels ashore on Diamond Shoals, Lookout Shoals and Frying Pan Shoals. Parker was in accord and informed the Navy that the Coast Guard would take the Morehead City station.”

The Navy left behind a small fleet of seaplanes, including five HS-2L Curtiss flying boats and two Aeromarine 40 flying boats.

 

With a crew of 11 pilots and nearly 20 enlisted men, Air Station Morehead City went about its mission: Saving life and property in coastal regions and adjacent waters, enforcing laws and assisting other federal and state officials, assisting fishermen by spotting schools of fish and surveying and mapping.

 

In 1921, Rear Adm. Reynolds (shown below) appealed to the U.S. Congress for funds to continue operation of the Morehead City Air Station, stating that “it had proved its worth.” Congress, however, declined to appropriate funding for continued operation. The facility was decommissioned on July 1, 1921. Men were transferred to other assignments.

 

“A few enlisted personnel under Carpenter Theodore Tobiason were left to complete shipments and clean up,” Wishar wrote. “I was transferred to Charleston, S.C., as Captain of the Port, later to a cruising cutter. Thus ended the first stage of Coast Guard aviation.”

Today, the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla., pays tribute to the origin of Coast Guard Aviation in Carteret County.