page_title: James T. Moore (USMC)
section_title: Aviation service during Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: James T. Moore (USMC) / Aviation service during Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: English: Three future Marine Corps Generals: 1st Lt. Christian F. Schilt, Capt. James T. Moore and William L. McKittrick during theirs interwar service.
context_page_description: James Tillinghast Moore was a decorated aviation officer of the United States Marine Corps with the rank of lieutenant general. He is most noted for his service as commanding officer of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing during World War II.
context_section_description: Moore returned to the United States in April 1919 and was assigned to the Marine barracks at Philadelphia Navy Yard. He was transferred to the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot, Massachusetts in December 1920. After one year service there, Moore requested for transfer to Marine Corps aviation, which was granted. He was appointed student aviator and sent for flight training to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida in July 1920. Moore completed his training and was designated Naval aviator on July 1, 1922.
  He was subsequently assigned to the Marine Barracks Quantico, Virginia, where he stayed only until August and then reported for duties with First Brigade of Marines. Moore sailed with this unit for Haiti and served there as Pilot until September 1924, when he returned to the United States. Moore was assigned back to the Quantico base, where he remained until March 1925, when he was transferred to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, where he was appointed assistant to Chief of Naval Aviation Training. In June 1925, Moore was sent to Kelly Field in Texas, where he attended three months course at Advanced Flying School.
  His next assignments was again at Marine Barracks Quantico, where he stayed until March 1927, when he left for China during Yangtze Patrol. Moore served there as executive officer of observations aircraft squadrons within Third Marine Brigade under the command of Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. While stationed in Tientsin, General Butler arranged a special review on the occasion of Marine Corps Birthday on November 10, 1927. During the exhibition of stunt flyers, Moore flew his plane very low just over the crowd of spectators and tried to make a climbing roll. His plane lost both of its wings and became uncontrollable. Moore bailed out of the plane by the parachute and landed in the front of the crowd of spectators. Most of them were unaware about the accident, thought it was the best show they had ever seen. Moore was transferred to the Naval Station Guam in September 1928 and served there until July 1929, before he was ordered to the States.
  In August 1929, Moore was appointed a student at the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field, Virginia, and upon graduation, he was assigned for another studies at Field Officers Course within Marine Corps Schools. He was subsequently appointed executive officer of the aircraft squadrons, East Coast Expeditionary Force based at Quantico and also promoted to the rank of major on May 20, 1931. At the beginning of May 1932, Moore was assigned to the 1st Brigade of Marines and sent back to Haiti, now as squadron commander and later as commanding officer of the Bowen Field in Port-au-Prince. For his service in Haiti, Moore was decorated with Haitian National Order of Honour and Merit by the Government of Haiti. He returned to the United States in August 1934.
  Moore spent one year at his well-known Quantico Base, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on June 30, 1935, and subsequently transferred to Virgin Islands, where he served as Squadron Commander at the Marine Corps Air Station at St. Thomas. He returned to the States in April 1937 and was assigned as a student to Senior Course at Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in June 1937. Graduating following year, Moore was appointed executive officer of the Marine Aircraft Group 1 at Quantico and transferred to the Marine Corps Base San Diego in July 1939. Here he became force air officer within Fleet Marine Force.
caption: Three future Marine Corps Generals: 1st Lt. Christian F. Schilt, Capt. James T. Moore and William L. McKittrick during theirs interwar service.
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