WINGS OF EAGLES, WINGS OF GOLD

it was the end of the beginning man lifted his eyes from the earth and looked above first he knew ha and wonder [Music] then he began to dream [Music] [Applause] [Music] it has been a lengthening journey a continuing Odyssey the pioneers of Naval Air helped create the age of flight they led us away from the beginning through the darkness of the unknown they were rare men unfried your ships of wooden wire they wrote their dreams into reality into the present where they remain their names are live among us still Allison Rogers towers Cunningham Smith Chevalier Bellinger Billingsley Murray Mustan McIlvain Richardson softly Bronson waiting they were called Eagles [Applause] the naval aviators of today are the direct descendants of the pioneers their wings have cold and reminder of the past the wings of eagles Pensacola Florida a city that remembers the beginning a name synonymous with the growth and development of naval aviation in the official chronology as recorded the following January 20th 1914 the aviation unit from Annapolis under lieutenant JG towers arrived in Pensacola to set up a fly-in school a flying school since 1914 they have come here by the tens of thousands flight students inheritors of the dream flight training is a school for survival are unique proving ground in every aspect there is a purpose a reason for each chartered challenge along the road a naval aviator must know wind and weather understand the stresses of heat and cold be able to function and survive on land and sea he must know the elements and command them all most of all he must master himself it is another of the constants one of the things that does not change the demands of basic and free flight are perhaps the most rigorous of all a man with his head on the clouds is asked to keep his feet on the ground it is asking a great deal what is the force that sustains the flight student through the long hours of classroom and theory perhaps it is a dream that vision in his mind's eye that links him with the Eagles of the past and to a future all his own [Music] Randy Cunningham and Bill Driscoll are Eagles of today pilot and radar intercept officer RI oh they are the first dual aces a designation hard one in skies over North Vietnam they share their past with flight students of the present the Eagles of the future I'm sure Randy would agree with this there are some things in the air combat maneuvering environment that are always the same that don't change there are certain attitudes and philosophies that were the same in World War one in World War two and today there are some refinements and subtleties of course in the jet age that certainly did not exist back in the propeller age but in a final analysis it's one man in a machine versus another man in a machine and there are certain things that we could talk about in fighter air-to-air tactics and we could talk with a world where one fighter pilot a world war ii fighter pilot and the things that we would talk about would be almost exactly identically the same we we have a firm belief at the Navy fighter weapons school the first man to see the other man is probably gonna win and if he doesn't win he's probably not gonna lose be it on radar I'd be a to eyeball times have changed little since a time of Rick Tobin Al Jarreau polka M woman in the land and since the time of McCampbell that the biggest inference that we face is that we're only saw makes three times and one time there was a massive MiG's up but when the camel was flying they had large formations going against large formations they brought a hundred and raised it to [Music] man against man plane against plane it is a familiar litany the past influences the present and affects the future this is the true story of the Naval Aviation Museum progression of history that can be felt and heard as well as seen [Music] displaying superb airmanship and extraordinary heroism inspiring leadership the President of the United States in the name of the Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor a record of brilliant successes in aerial combat achievement unsurpassed in this war by courageous determined and inspiring efforts in the face of utmost danger within these walls the span and scope of Naval Aviation becomes a single fabric a three-dimensional tapestry that weaves and blends together across the years ships and planes men and events it is a voyage through space a trip in time we make the journey guided by the eyes of Eagles men who win their lives wrote what will be found along the way in November 1910 Eugenie Lee a civilian pilot flying a Critias pusher took off from a wooden platform built over the bow of the USS Birmingham anchored in Hampton Roads Naval Aviation was underway in the beginning the tools at hand were barely adequate some men were better far better than the machines [Music] eight years before Lindbergh the NC four flies the Atlantic bringing the world closer together the Navy's first carrier USS langley becomes the realization of commitment to the error as well as the sea America in the early 30s a small exuberant Naval Air Arm tests its wings with unbounded enthusiasm the world struggles with depression the horizon darkens some nations appear to discover strengthen dictatorship it is a strange disquieting time a young man from Mount willing Alabama patrolled the fringes of this twilight world from the cockpit of a PBY Thomas More would one day command the Pacific and Atlantic fleets would be Chief of Naval Operations and serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff such lofty heights were far away and on imagined the year is 1941 in those days without radar all searches were by eye and this meant two things one you could only search in the daytime and two one could only take a sector of about nine or ten degrees around the compass Frances this would have meant that it would take 36 aircraft on contains patrol to cover the area and the approaches to Pearl Harbor and consequently the probability of detecting a specific ship under those conditions was very low I was at Pearl Harbor when the war began we lost practically all of our aircraft from strafing and bombing on the ramp on Ford Island there was just total chaos in the harbor oil was burning all over the place actually black aura was 2 3 inches thick all the way around Pearl Harbor as the Japanese progressed in their invasion of the entire southeast area the fighting became more intense and my major experience occurred on the 19th of February when I was patrolling in search of the Japanese aircraft carriers and suddenly encountered a flight of 9 zeros and these the aircraft were equipped with a 20 millimeter fragmentation projector which had a very slow velocity I could see the damn things and they came right into the cockpit right over my shoulder right into the instrument panel an aroused nation armed but an arsenal of democracy cannot be created overnight [Music] buying from USS hornet army airforce b-25s strike at the home islands at tokyo itself in the Pacific the Navy buys time with hit-and-run raids captain David McCampbell Medal of Honor Navy Cross 34 victories leading ace in the history of naval air through the fiery skies of the southwest Pacific Dave McCampbell and those who flew with him brought us to a turning point [Applause] the roll call of recovery begins well canal Bougainville the Coral Sea Midway Tarawa Raja Lane touch of blanket Sicily Salerno strange exotic names in haunting counterpoint the scenes of violence and death tell your forces multiply becoming vast our mothers whose fleets of aircraft darken the skies and hasten the end Normandy Saipan Leyte Gulf Luzon Wow it would jam huh Okinawa the inland sea names that will not be forgotten landmarks on the road to victory for the carriers most of them the victory soon turns to silence 165 Aviation ships are an active service it was end the number quickly Falls to less than two dozen yet men do not forget its Admiral John fetch fighter pilot squadron commander one of the architects of victory in the air in the Pacific Jimi fetch is one of those who will forever hear the sounds of yesterday [Music] the clouds the clouds [Music] flight quarters man your flight corner stations well-trained flight that was a thing of beauty for the Wildcat Corsair we used to call so many things happening at once all coordinate with the tempo rhythm we only like buggy in 2005 in my mouth I call that Bridge this is the captain speaking [Applause] [Music] remember victory proves transient so is peace when conflict erupts in Korea ships and planes are not so easily fond once again brave men stand ready Vice Admiral bill Hauser currently Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for air was part of the nucleus of resistance one of the stubborn few Corsair meant home to me at that time it's a rugged airplane it was fast for its time and powerful very versatile it served as a good fighter and as a good attack airplane or bomber and of course there was a veteran it had survived World War two and of course these were improved models of the same airplane it was known as the bent leg or the bent wing monster the hog the Corsair I think will remain one of the most remarkable airplanes ever developed the Navy air-to-air action in Korea was limited principally this was a war of close air support of attrition of deep interdiction Korea was a war against a land power not a sea power as we saw in World War two in support of another land power and the Navy didn't get in and conduct sustained operation for over three years [Music] Korea at time of transition in the years following Korea years of peace naval aviation begins to extend itself to seek new directions and conquer old forbidden frontiers it is the genesis of an age of acceleration records and research experiment and exploration it is a time when the improbable becomes routine project test pilot during c-130 carrier trials aboard USS Forrestal his commander James flatly the third famous son of a famous father Admiral Jimmy flatly world war two ways and fighter tactician Jim flatly is live more than 1300 arrested carrier landings and commanded a squadron in Vietnam without the loss of a single aircraft father and son the flatly symbolized the passing of the torch the continuity of Naval Aviation from one generation to the next [Music] Vietnam at first it's an irritation a mild intrusion the national consciousness that would change for those who are there in Vietnam means participation in a bitter conflict that seemingly is without end July 18 1965 mission military installations a few miles southern Hanoi you're the famous bridge at Dunois [Music] [Applause] please and Cruz returned to the carriers commander Jerry Danton is not among those who come back in the prison cages of North Vietnam an eternity of enduring begins with him thousands of miles apart others Anduin unless their lives suspended in an agony of waiting while for some the world stands still for others the earth is but a point of departure and then a destination Apollo lifts the heart of America and touches the soul of man [Music] the interlude is brief advance and innovation positive accomplishments are obscured in the swirling controversy of Vietnam [Music] the face of war has changed there are no clear-cut records and cost remains high still there are those who willingly pay the price and those who pass the harshest test the whole country welcomes you we're so glad to have you back and so thankful for what you and all of you have done for us we are honored to have the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances we are profoundly grateful to our commander in chief and to our nation for this day god bless america god bless america [Applause] triumphant tragedy often they are found in close proximity these two will be a part of a new Naval Aviation Museum part of a living heritage of a deeds of men for machines time is the enemy where are the ships and planes of yesterday gone abandoned neglected forgotten most but not all the Naval Aviation Museum is a commitment to the rediscovery of history history is a place for the machines a process of recovery begins what is actually involved is more much more than the restoration of aircraft the Naval Aviation Museum is a focal point for the sweeping panorama that is the story of Naval Air a gathering of eagles [Laughter] [Music] for the machine skill and patients are given their reward at the mention time is successfully challenged the enemy has been defeated the reality of yesterday is now if one person could somehow represent the advancement and achievement of the years of naval aviation that singular individual could well be this men captain charles Pete Conrad United States Navy retired I actually started doing some of my first flying myself in the end 3n as a boy I was born in 1930 at that time we'd hardly exceeded a couple of hundred miles an hour and hardly gotten above twenty-five thirty thousand feet and by the time I got to college to take aeronautical engineering we had at that point just begun to break the sound barrier and by the time I got to flight training in 1953 they were just beginning to go twice the speed of sound and then in 1960-61 and two we went into space that's very short time span we've gone a a great way in order the Odyssey of Pete Conrad is the Odyssey of naval aviation from the training fields of Pensacola from the deck of a carrier to the surface of the Moon okay around a 19,000 feet I got thinking about how eyes are out there I got the freighters do but I don't know where I am yep okay Hannah by 1564 okay kinda chucked out there I think I see my crater hey baby I'm not sure 74 feet right down the middle of the road outstanding sleep doctor I can't believe it amazing fantastic writer the crater so their survey yes sir that let's see it can't be any further 600 feet from here psychic walkways well seems a little weird I'll tell you hey I'll get work out here all day take your time [Applause] for the beat Conrad to this world nothing has beyond reach there are no barriers just challenges only the planets are left in their precarious isolation beyond them only the stars remain waiting waiting [Applause] [Music] the journey is over The Odyssey ended or is it for Naval Aviation the Odyssey the journey may have just begun