Kenneth Whiting (July 22, 1881 – April 24, 1943) was a United States Navy officer who was a pioneer in submarines and is best known for his lengthy career as a pioneering naval aviator. During World War I, he commanded the first American military force to arrive in Europe for combat. After the war, he was instrumental in development of the aircraft carrier in the United States, where he sometimes is known as the U.S. Navys "father of the aircraft carrier". He was involved in some way in the design or construction of five of the first six U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, and served as acting commanding officer of the first carrier to enter U.S. Navy service and as executive officer of the first two American carriers. In the earliest days of the U.S. Navys development of an aircraft carrier force, he led many shipboard innovations still in use aboard carriers today.
Birth and early career Whiting was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on July 22, 1881, but moved to Larchmont, New York, at an early age. Larchmont remained his residence for the rest of his life. He was appointed as a naval cadet on September 7, 1900, and became a midshipman from New York at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1901. After graduating from the Naval Academy on January 30, 1905,Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294 he reported aboard the armored cruiser . After serving the requisite sea duty, he was commissioned as an ensign on either January 31, 1907Nimitz Library: Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 or February 25, 1908, according to different sources.Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/k2/kenneth_whiting.htm
In June 1907, Whiting detached from West Virginia and transferred to the gunboat in the United States Asiatic Fleet. He transferred again, to the steamer , in May 1908.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294
Submarine service After a brief stint aboard Concord again from August to October 1908,Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294 Whiting volunteered for submarine dutyNavSource Kenneth Whiting. and was reassigned to command of the submarine at Naval Station Cavite in the Philippine Islands to oversee her fitting-out. He then assumed command of the submarine at Cavite on November 20, 1908.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294
On April 15, 1909, Whiting took Porpoise out for what his crew of six thought would be a routine run. After Porpoise leveled off in Manila Bay at a depth of , Whiting informed his crew that he was convinced that a man could escape from a submarine through a torpedo tube and that he intended to test the idea on himself. He squeezed into Porpoises 18-inch (460-mm) tube and clung to the crossbar which stiffened the outer torpedo tube door as the crew closed the inner door. When the crew opened the outer door and seawater rushed in, Whiting hung onto the crossbar, which drew his elbows out of the tubes mouth, and then muscled his way out using his hands and arms. After 77 seconds, he was free of the submarine and swam to the surface; Porpoise soon surfaced and recovered him. Reluctant to speak about the incident in public – in Porpoises log that day, Whiting simply commented, "Whiting went through the torpedo tube, boat lying in water in normal condition, as an experiment..." – he nevertheless informed his flotilla commander, Lieutenant Guy W. S. Castle, who submitted a report on how the feat had been accomplished.Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a1/a-6.htm.
In September 1910, Whiting detached from Porpoise. He next took command of the Atlantic Fleet submarine . In January 1911, he reported to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia, to fit out the new submarine USS Seal, which was renamed G-1 later that year. He became the first commanding officer of G-1 when she was commissioned on October 28, 1912.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294
Naval aviation In 1910, Whiting applied for flight training by Glenn Curtiss and talked his friend from the submarine service Theodore G. Ellyson into applying as well. Ellyson was accepted and went on to become Naval Aviator No. 1 in 1911, but Whiting was not and continued his submarine duties.NavSource Kenneth Whiting On June 29, 1914, however, Whiting finally began his career in naval aviation, the field in which he was to make his name as a true pioneer, when he reported to the Wright Company at Dayton, Ohio, to learn to fly.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294 The last naval officer to take flight training from Orville Wright personally,NavSource Kenneth Whiting Whiting was designated Naval Aviator No. 16 on September 6, 1914.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294
Whiting then became officer-in-charge of the Naval Aeronautic Station at Pensacola, Florida. He and fellow naval aviator Henry C. Mustin worked together on seaplane designs and filed a patent application for the design of a "hydroaeroplane" on October 27, 1916.Universal Ship Cancellation Society Log, July 2011, p. 21. In November 1916, he transferred to the armored cruiser – renamed USS Seattle on December 1, 1916 – and took command of a unit of seaplanes attached to the ship.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294
Whiting would later become a member of the Early Birds of Aviation, an organization founded in 1928 and dedicated to the history of pilots who learned to fly before December 17, 1916.
World War I The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, and Whiting was selected to command the 1st Naval Air Unit (or First Aeronautic Detachment) and assigned to the collier in May 1917. The units seven officers and 122 enlisted men crossed the Atlantic Ocean to France aboard Neptune and the collier to become the first American military unit to debark in Europe for combat, with Jupiter arriving at Pauillac on June 5, 1917, and Neptune at St. Nazaire on June 8, 1917.Layman, p. 116.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294Naval History and Heritage Command Naval Aviation Chronology 1917-1919.
With only vague guidance and, at first, no aircraft, Whiting set about establishing a European presence for U.S. Navy aviation. In June 1917, he selected Dunkirk as the site for a U.S. Navy air base,American Military and Naval History USN Northern Bombing Group I laying the groundwork for the establishment in 1918 of the U.S. Navys Northern Bombing Group.Naval History and Heritage Command Naval Aviation Chronology 1917-1919. He also instructed French pilots.
On June 1 or July 20, 1918, according to different sources, Whiting, by now promoted to lieutenant commander, took command of Naval Air Stations 14 and 15 at RNAS Killingholme, England.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294Naval History and Heritage Command Naval Aviation Chronology 1917-1919.
For his World War I service, Whiting was awarded the Navy Cross "for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility,"Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/k2/kenneth_whiting.htm and France awarded him the Legion of Honor (Chevalier).
Interwar aircraft carrier advocacy
Whiting sometimes is referred to as the U.S. Navys "father of the aircraft carrier". He had begun agitating for the U.S. Navy development of what were then called "plane carriers" in the spring of 1916,NavSource Kenneth Whiting and as early as March 1917 he had proposed to United States Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels that the Navy acquire a ship with an aircraft catapult and a flight deck, prompting the first serious U.S. Navy consideration of the acquisition of any kind of aviation ship since the American Civil War of 1861–1865.Layman, p. 116. The United States Department of the Navy rejected his proposal on June 20, 1917.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 116. In the years between World War I and World War II, however, Whiting would be instrumental in the construction of five of the U.S. Navys first six aircraft carriers and serve as executive officer of its first two.Universal Ship Cancellation Society Log, July 2011, p. 23. He also served as acting commanding officer of its first carrier at a time when the United States was experimenting with many aspects of the operation of aircraft carriers and their aircraft.
Returning to the United States after World War I, Whiting was assigned to the Chief of Naval Operations Office of Naval Aviation in Washington, D.C., in 1919.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294 Testifying along with other leading naval aviators, including Henry C. Mustin and John Henry Towers, before the General Board of the United States Navy about the need for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, Whiting was partially responsible for the General Boards April 1919 recommendation that the collier be converted into the U.S. Navys first aircraft carrier. On July 11, 1919, the United States Congress authorized Jupiters conversion into the carrier, which later would be named .Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294Wadle, p. 13.Naval History and Heritage Command Naval Aviation Chronology 1917-1919.
Later in 1919, after the battleship experimented successfully with the use of aircraft to spot her gunfire and found that the aircraft spotters allowed her greater accuracy, Whiting testified before the General Board, attesting that aircraft spotting could increase the accuracy of ship gunnery by up to 200 percent.Hone and Hone, p. 81. The success of the experiments led the Navy to embark floatplanes aboard all of its battleships and cruisers.Hone and Hone, pp. 94-96.
On September 1, 1921, Whiting transferred to the Navys newly established Bureau of Aeronautics.Nimitz Library Special Collections and Archives Guide to the Kenneth Whiting Papers, 1914-1943 MS 294 There he continued his advocacy for an American aircraft carrier force. In January 1922, he said, "The Langley when commissioned will provide our Navy with an experimental carrier which, while not ideal, will be sufficiently serviceable to conduct any experiment required for the design of future carriers and for the development of naval aerial tactics, and for the development of the various types of aircraft...for these last are also lacking in our Navy, due to concentrating on anti-submarine work during the War [i.e., World War I]. That carriers will be successful, and an absolute necessity to any well-equipped navy in the future, there is not the slightest doubt in my mind. We are asking this Congress for the first properly designed 'carrier.' It will take from three to four years to build it. Will they give it to us?"Quote from "Aircraft Caiiers: Floating Homes For Naval Planes," Literary Digest, February 18, 1922, at 1920-30.com The First Aircraft Carriers. The "properly designed" carriers Whiting wanted first began to appear in 1927, with the commissioning of and .
USS Langley (CV-1)