And Rightly So!

Preserving places where history has been made should be an honorable thing to do. For the most part, I think it is. Some places, though, have been relatively unknown. I have been to Marblehead MA many times yet never heard of this, and I’m embarrassed because this is about the Marines.

MARBLEHEAD — The tiny plot of meticulously groomed grass and pea stone jutting into storied Marblehead Harbor is a hard-to-find sanctuary, a park bordered by the drab-brick headquarters of the Municipal Light Department and dozens of sailboats covered for the winter.

But 94 years ago, in the rocky cove beside this speck of land, Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham grabbed the stick of a rickety, two-wing “hydroplane,” puttered out to the harbor, lifted into the sky, and became the first aviator of the United States Marine Corps.

Today, the “birthplace of Marine aviation,” as the park has been designated by the US government, is maintained year-round in immaculate condition through the efforts of a former Marine and a few volunteers who donate time and money to their labor of love.

Who would have known? It doesn’t surprise me that one of the few and proud choses to volunteer his time to help keep this park up. Looks like he needs some help though.

“We can use the help,” said Humphreys, a Marblehead resident who enlisted the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. “To me, this is where it all started.”

That first Marine flight typifies the bravado and uncertainties of the nation’s experiments with flying. Cunningham, an Army veteran of the Spanish-American War, enlisted in the Marines in 1909 after a decade selling real estate because he envisioned an important future for military aviation.

Intrigued by Cunningham’s vision, the Marines dispatched him to Marblehead in August 1912 to test a single-engine seaplane constructed by W. Starling Burgess, a former yacht builder. After only 2 hours and 40 minutes of instruction, Cunningham took the plane on an aerial tour of Marblehead Harbor as townspeople watched in astonishment.

When the fuel stick showed empty, Cunningham recalled, “I got up my nerve and made a good landing. How, I don’t know. This was my first solo.”

By July 1913, Cunningham had made hundreds of flights. And after five years developing the fledgling corps of Marine aviators, he helped spearhead the use of Marine aircraft on the Western Front during the final months of World War I.

I would have LOVED to have been there to see it. How cool would that have been??

Julie Hahnke, a writer who practices her bagpipes in the park, took up some of the flag-raising duties last week, which had been performed previously by Steve and Micheline Ryan, who have moved to Salem.

The regimen at William L. Hammond Park, named for a former Marblehead schoolteacher, includes unfurling the Stars and Stripes at 8 a.m. and lowering the flag at sundown. But Hahnke said she could use reinforcements on those days when even the best-intentioned volunteers need a break. Humphreys currently raises and lowers the flag on weekends.

“I wouldn’t mind some backup,” said Hahnke, who added, laughing, that she once forgot to take the flag down overnight. “There is a place reserved in hell for those who don’t get there on time.”

Before 2001, when Humphreys adopted Hammond Park as his pet project, the grounds were a minefield of beer cans, dog droppings, and unkempt grass, he said.

“It was pretty ratty,” said Humphreys, a former commodore of the Boston Yacht Club.

But now, even on the cusp of winter, the place is an inviting oasis where visitors can savor a panorama of waterfront estates, wave-scoured rocks, and wooden wharves.

Now I have to go down there to see this place for myself. It does sound very inviting- and very New England water-front like.

For Humphreys, the park is an affirmation of his 65-year-old bond with the Marine Corps.

“I guess I’m a patriot, and maybe before being a patriot, I’m a Marine,” Humphreys said.

So if you live anywhere near Marblehead, get in touch with Mr. Humphreys and help him out. Keep these places of honor and remembrance clean and properly cared for. If I lived there I would do it in a heartbeat.

Semper Fi Mr. Humphreys!

UPDATE: Michael has some links about Marine aviation history that deserve a place here with this post.

Marine Aviation

Colonel Alfred Austell Cunningham