It wasn’t much later that Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone became an early proponent of developing a Coast Guard aviation capability for air-sea rescue and many of the other missions that the service would be called upon to perform. Fortuitously, Stone and Second Lieutenant Charles Sugden were stationed aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Onondaga which, as fate would have it, was based near aviation design pioneer Glenn Curtiss’s aerodrome in Newport News, Virginia. With the support of their Commanding Officer, Captain Benjamin Chiswell, Stone and Sugden worked with Curtiss to experiment with aircraft. Captain Chiswell’s enthusiasm was almost prophetic as he said “I believe [the aircraft] would be the biggest find for the Coast Guard of the century and might be the means of saving hundreds of lives.” For his early support, Chiswell is recognized as the “Father of Coast Guard Aviation.” With Chiswell’s support and that of the Treasury Department (under which the Coast Guard fell), Stone and another Coast Guard pioneer, Norman Hall, used a Curtis Model F flying boat to experiment with the viability of using aircraft to supplement other Coast Guard platforms.
Left: A artist's depiction of the NC-4 piloted by LT Stone during its transatlantic journey in 1919. It was the first time humans had flown across the Atlantic, a full eight years before Charles Lindbergh accomplished the feat (the first non-stop solo flight). Image: USCG
Below: Commander Elmer Stone as photographed in his flight gear during the early 1930s. Photo: USCG
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