Existing comment:
Glenn Curtiss, the "Father of Naval Aviation," spent two more years in San Diego, training dozens of pilots at his school on North Island. The federal government took over the lease on the property in late 1912 and established the Signal Corps Aviation School, renamed Rockwell Field in 1917, in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in a crash in 1912.
The Signal Corps Aviation School was the first Army school to train military pilots, and North Island was the school's first permanent location. The Army flyers established a tent camp at the north end of the island, and for about a year, the Signal Corps Aviation School rented airplanes and hangars constructed for the Curtiss school. None of the buildings from this early period remain standing.
Back in 1908, the Navy Department had tried to purchase North Island from its owner, John D. Spreckels, for $500,000, but Spreckels said he "wouldn't take a million for it." By the summer of 1917, however, the U.S. was sending troops to Europe to fight the Germans, and there was a desperate need for trained military pilots.
The Navy and War Departments now pressed Congress to take the property by condemnation, but Spreckels' good friend, San Diego congressman William Kettner, would only initiate proceedings with the government's promise to treat Spreckels "fairly." Promise in hand, Congress authorized the president to proceed with the taking of North Island for Army and Navy aviation schools; Spreckels received more than $6 million for the island when the transaction finally closed in 1921.
During World War I, Rockwell Field provided training for many of the pilots and crews sent to France. It also supplied men and aircraft for the Sixth and Seventh Aero Squadrons, which established the first military aviation presence in Hawaii and the Panama Canal Zone, respectively. |