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Old April 1st 08, 04:23 AM posted to rec.aviation.military.naval
R Leonard[_2_]
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Default Naval Aviator Production

On Mar 31, 6:15*pm, "John Carrier" wrote:

I just realized why these numbers didn't seem quite right. *I got my wings
in early 1971 and had a naval aviator number in the low 30,000's. *That
hardly jibes with these numbers. *Is this just a body count of everyone
aviation trained, including navigators, etc?

R / John-


No, these are all naval aviators . . . the guys wearing the wings with
the shield and single upright anchor . . . and include marines and
coasties who wear the same. No specialties, NFOs, Flight Surgeons,
and such, but includes the NAPs.

The numbering system changed a couple of times during the WWII years,
so yours is not a consecutive number. Somewhere around the third
quarter of 1943 they already hit 30,000. The article explains it.

Some time after your number was issued they stopped numbering all
together. Not sure, but I think I heard somewhere the powers that be
just decided to start them up again, but I could be wrong on that. If
they did, one would wonder at what point they restarted.

My father's number was 6953 from November 1940, when all numbers were
in sequence, which looks about right.

Regards,

Rich