page_title: Henry C. Mustin (1874–1923)
section_title: Naval Aeronautic Station
hierarchical_section_title: Henry C. Mustin (1874–1923) / Naval Aeronautic Station
caption_attribution_description: By March of 1914 the U.S. Navy had established a flying school at Pensacola, Florida. Among the commissioned officers taking the course that year were the above (left to right); Lieutenant Victor D. Herbster, Lieutenant W. M. McIlvain, Lieutenant Patrick N. L. Bellinger, Lieutenant R. C. Saufley, Lieutenant John H. Towers, Lieutenant Commander Henry C. Mustin, Lieutenant (Marines) Bernard L. Smith, Ensign Godfrey de Chevalier, and Ensign M. L. Stolz.
context_page_description: Henry Croskey Mustin was a pioneering naval aviator who undertook the auspicious task of establishing the first Naval Aeronautic Station on the site of the abandoned Navy Yard at Warrington, Florida in 1914. He was designated Navy Air Pilot No. 3 and later Naval Aviator No. 11. Two U.S. Navy destroyers have borne the name Mustin in honor of Captain Mustin and his descendants, three of whom have served as flag officers.
context_section_description: In 1913, plans for a national naval air service were taking shape, and Pensacola, Florida, was chosen over Annapolis, Maryland, as the site of a training facility, as the warmer weather along the United States Gulf Coast would be better for year-round flying. On 31 December 1913, Mustin reported for duty as executive officer of USS Mississippi, a battleship being sent to Pensacola Bay for training purposes. On 6 January 1914, under a new ranking system for officers, Mustin was designated Navy Air Pilot No. 3 (after Theodore G. Ellyson and John H. Towers). A detachment of nine officers and about two dozen enlisted men arrived at Pensacola on 20 January and began to establish the new school. It was operational by February. Mustin and his wife and two sons, Lloyd and Henry, moved into Quarters A on the station.
  Following the Tampico Affair on 9 April 1914, the United States sent a squadron of warships to Veracruz, Mexico. After first sending three planes to Veracruz aboard the light cruiser USS Birmingham, Lieutenant Commander Mustin took temporary command of Mississippi as her acting captain and led a second aviation detachment, along with 500 United States Marines, aboard her to the campaign. They arrived at Veracruz on the evening of 24 April 1914. The United States occupation of Veracruz marked both the first operational use of naval aircraft and the first time that any U.S. aviator of any service was the target of ground fire. Mississippi began her voyage back to Pensacola on 12 June 1914 to make repairs to the aircraft which had seen continued use without means of maintenance. In July 1914, Mustin took Mississippi to Norfolk, Virginia, to be sold to Greece.
  Mustin was named commandant of the Naval Aeronautic Station in April 1915. With USD $1 million in funding for the year, the station conducted antisubmarine patrols, worked on the development of a new bombsight and a gyroscopic sextant, and saw the arrival of ten new students in July 1915. A new station ship, the armored cruiser USS North Carolina, arrived in Pensacola on 9 September 1915. On 5 November 1915, Mustin launched himself from North Carolina via catapult in a Curtiss Model AB-2, recording both the world's first catapulting of an aircraft from a ship and the first takeoff from a ship underway. Actually, the first takeoff from a ship underway was by the Royal Navy's Commander
  Charles Rumney Samson from HMS Hibernia in May 1912, three and a half years earlier. The RN used a ramp for launch, while the US developed a catapult launch system.
  Mustin was outspoken about the potential of naval aviation, despite conclusions by officials that "aeronautics does not offer a prospect of becoming the principal means of exercising compelling force against the enemy." He lobbied to halt funding of dirigible projects and focus development on high-speed fighter aircraft. He and fellow naval aviator Kenneth Whiting worked together on seaplane designs and filed a patent application for the design of a "hydroaeroplane" on 27 October 1916. However, the hurricane that struck Pensacola on 18 October 1916 caused more than $1 million in damage to the base, and Mustin faced accusations that his "wrong flying instruction methods" had caused the deaths of two naval aviators, Lieutenants, junior grade, Richard C. Saufley and James V. Rockwell – developments that greatly dampened  plans for the Aeronautic Station. He was detached from Pensacola on 31 January 1917 and, as then customary, his Naval Aviator designation was revoked simultaneously. While he returned to sea duty, Mustin ultimately was promoted and restored to aviation command.
caption: The detachment of naval officers who established the Naval Aeronautic Station at Pensacola, Florida. Henry Mustin is fourth from right.
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