About this Event
Join author and historian, Dr. David Winkler, PhD, Commander, USN (Ret) as he tells the story of the USS LANGLEY (CV-1/AV-3), an experimental ship meant to launch and recover land planes which become the Navy’s first aircraft carrier. Commissioned in 1913 as the collier USS JUPITER, the Langley initially served as the Navy’s sole operational carrier, serving in concert with the Lexington, Saratoga, and Ranger, and then as an airplane tender servicing long-range patrol bombers before being lost in February 1942 due to enemy air action south of Java. Through two decades, Langley also plays a prominent role in the biographical narratives that have been written about pioneers in naval aviation, such as William F. Moffett, Joseph M. Reeves, John H. Towers, Patrick N.L. Bellinger, and Marc A. Mitscher. Dr. Winkler will also talk about these pioneering naval aviators.
About the Speaker: David F. Winkler served for many years as the staff historian at the Naval Historical Foundation, now the Naval History and Heritage Command. He currently co-compiles Tuesday Tidings with the National Maritime Historical Society and serves as Assistant Historian General for the Naval Order of the United States. He is also an Adjunct Professor with the Naval War College, teaching the Strategy and War Curriculum at the Washington Navy Yard. In recognition of his collaborative efforts to promote educational outreach with like-minded organizations, in 2022 he received the prestigious National Maritime Historical Society Distinguished Service Award. Prior to his appointment to serve as 2020 - 2021 Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to research the history of USS Langley, Winkler was appointed as the United States Naval Academy’s Class of 1957 Chair of Naval Heritage for the 2019 - 2020 academic year. Winkler received his PhD in history from American University. Recalled to active duty in 1998 to write a history of the Navy in the Persian Gulf, Winkler subsequently published Amirs, Admirals, and Desert Sailors (Naval Institute Press, 2007 and Tribute to a Generation: Haydn Williams and the Building of the World War II Memorial, (Naval Institute Press, 2000). He is currently working on a new book called, Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd M. Mustin.
Image: USS Langley (CV-1), 1920s, Naval History and Heritage Command, 80-G-320492
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
National Museum of the U.S. Navy, 736 Sicard Street Southeast, Washington, D.C., United States
USD 0.00