PRE-WWII
~S~
Please do not copy the photos on this site, many of which have been submitted by private individuals...
just come back and visit the site often to view the photos.
just come back and visit the site often to view the photos.
1 June 1922 ~ Petoskey Evening News
Alva "Frank" Starr
Alva "Frank " Starr served in both WWI and WWII. Frank was involved with rigging parachutes and parachute training. Frank was the father of both Kenneth and Miles who both also served in WWII.
Posted in the Petoskey Evening News Thursday, January 9, 1947 newspaper and gathered from the previous May 18, 1910 Petoskey Record newspaper: "Frank Starr of the U.S.S. Connecticut, arrived at his home at Walloon Lake last night for a short visit with relatives and friends. His furlough is for 19 days. He brings word that Eli Wyrick of Burt Lake, who is stationed on the same ship, is enjoying life in the navy and requests all his Burt Lake friends to remember him with a postcard. His address is U.S.S. Connecticut, Brooklyn Navy Yard." |
The date for this news article is not known:
“Walloon-Melrose Vets Organize For the purpose of organizing veterans of the Walloon Lake district and Melrose township, a group of veterans met Tuesday at the Walloon Lake community hall. The preliminary meeting was attended by 14 ex-servicemen. Frank Starr was temporary chairman, and opened the business meeting at which plans for affiliation with some national veterans organization were discussed. It was decided to wait until a larger attendance could be obtained before making further plans for the group. Thomas Dale was temporary secretary. Another meeting of Walloon Lake and Melrose township veterans will be held January 18 at 7:30 p.m., in the community hall. Refreshments will be served.” 
Alva Franklin Starr's Military Tombstone in Clarion MI Cemetery (1892 ~ 1958)
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25 August 2018
The Northern Michigan Review reported in 3 April 1941 in its Walloon Lake MI news: "Frank Starr, who reentered the navy a few months ago, is stationed at Lakehurst N.J., where he is instructor in the parachute department. He has sixty men in training under him. His son Kenneth is in the army in the Hawaiian Islands, another son Miles is at Camp Wolverine. Mrs. Starr and Doris are in Walloon Lake where Doris is in school."
L>R: Chief Alva "Frank" Starr, Pilot Lt. Brookley USA (Possibly Wendell Brookley???), Chief Lyman Ford ~ Probably Lakehurst NJ
Photo Above: The label on the back of the photo did not give a first name for "Pilot Lt. Brookley USA".
Alva Frank Starr was one of two of the first parachute trainers for the entire U.S. Navy.
The news article below includes two photos of Alva Frank Starr.
The news article below includes two photos of Alva Frank Starr.
Borger Dailey Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 1 No. 212, Ed. 1 Friday, July 29, 1927
Borger Daily Herald Newspaper Photo Article Above and Below Left
The Idaho Falls Post Article Below Right
Borger Dailey Herald (Borger, Tex.), Vol. 1 No. 212, Ed. 1 Friday, July 29, 1927
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13 January 1928 ~ The Woodbridge Leader
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25 September 1927 ~ The Idaho Falls Post Vol 22 No 210 ~ Front Page
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Photo below: Kenny Starr, Alva's 96 year old son, was so pleased to see this article above for the first time about his father's involvement with being a trainer in the Lakehurst NJ Navy's parachute school. Kenny remembered having lived in Lakehurst NJ while his dad's parachute training/jumping was happening. Kenny was a military man himself and was on Pearl Harbor the day it was bombed.
Alva Starr's son Kenny, 96 years old, (Photo Taken in 2013) holding the same news article about his father Alva's connection to being the FIRST Navy trainer for parachute school. Frank was located in Lakehurst NJ.
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Parachute Training Manual with Alva Starr's name included...
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Dropzone Skydiving Forum: One blog reads... " One of the earliest and possibly longest, but none more colorful, was the Parachute Rigger School. Established in 1924 by Chief Petty Officers Alva Starr and Lyman Ford, the school was set up in a small shed attached to hanger #1.
Precision workmanship was demanded, emphasized by requiring students to make a free- fall parachute jump with a chute they had personally packed. No other school in the Navy has had a more challenging performance test.
The first parachute jumps made at Lakehurst were from bi-wing aircraft, with the jumpers standing between and at the outer edges of the wings - since there was room for only the pilot in the tiny cockpit.
This was followed by having the students parachute from the open gondolas of early LTA aircraft, and the procedure used may have been where Buster Keaton got ideas for some of his daring stunts. Rope ladders were dropped over the side of the carriage, and the students were required to lower themselves to the very end of the ladder, grasp the ripcord in one hand while hanging on to the ladder with the other-then let go and pull the ripcord immediately. Presumably, the intent of this procedure was to allow the parachutist to drop below the slip stream of the propellers, which could foul his canopy while opening.
A three second free-fall from the gondola would have accomplished the same thing! However, the prevailig knowledge of parachuting at the time, was that a person would black-out in free fall.
Until multi-place acircraft became available, the Lakehurst LTA community provided the means for the Parachute Rigger students to make their graduation jump"
Precision workmanship was demanded, emphasized by requiring students to make a free- fall parachute jump with a chute they had personally packed. No other school in the Navy has had a more challenging performance test.
The first parachute jumps made at Lakehurst were from bi-wing aircraft, with the jumpers standing between and at the outer edges of the wings - since there was room for only the pilot in the tiny cockpit.
This was followed by having the students parachute from the open gondolas of early LTA aircraft, and the procedure used may have been where Buster Keaton got ideas for some of his daring stunts. Rope ladders were dropped over the side of the carriage, and the students were required to lower themselves to the very end of the ladder, grasp the ripcord in one hand while hanging on to the ladder with the other-then let go and pull the ripcord immediately. Presumably, the intent of this procedure was to allow the parachutist to drop below the slip stream of the propellers, which could foul his canopy while opening.
A three second free-fall from the gondola would have accomplished the same thing! However, the prevailig knowledge of parachuting at the time, was that a person would black-out in free fall.
Until multi-place acircraft became available, the Lakehurst LTA community provided the means for the Parachute Rigger students to make their graduation jump"
Write up about Alva Starr's involvement with being one of the first parachute trainers:
"In October 1922, Lieutenant Harold Harris,U.S. Army, was dramatically saved from death by using a manually-operated parachute when his aircraft failed. By March 1924, it became mandatory for all Army and Navy aircrew to wear the standard back-type parachute while in flight. A sign in one of the parachute lofts read, “Don’t forget your parachute. If you need it and you haven’t got it, you’ll never need it again.” With the requirement for all Navy aviators to wear parachutes, the necessity for trained personnel to pack and maintain these parachutes became apparent. In June 1922, the Bureau of Aeronautics requested volunteers from among the petty officers attached to the various naval air stations to take a course of instruction in parachutes at the Army School at Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois. Thirteen chief petty officers were selected from throughout the Navy. They completed the course of instruction and returned to their duty stations. Three of them were selected for further training at McCook Field, Dayton,Ohio, at that time the Army Equipment Experimental Depot. The three chief petty officers received advanced training in parachutes. In August 1923, Chief Alva Starr and Chief Lyman Ford, two of the three, were ordered to Lakehurst, New Jersey, to set up a training course on parachutes. Although the course was established,the PR rate was not established until 1942. In September 1924, class No. 1 was convened at the Parachute Material School at Lakehurst to teach parachute rigging. Although his name is now lost to history, one of the farsighted founders of the PR school decided on a novel means to help combat the airmen’s reluctance to “hit the silk.” He reasoned that if it became known that the men who packed and repaired the parachutes had enough confidence in their ability and equipment to make a deliberate, premeditated jump, the aviator might be more willing to take a chance on his parachute than to crash in his airplane. In the beginning, graduate trainees jumped from the outer wing tips of a biplane flying high above the naval air station at Lakehurst. Later, the students “let go” from short rope ladders suspended from the sides of the old gondola airships (blimps), and later still,from training and patrol type lighter-than-airships. Since the beginning of the PR school in1924, there have been over 72,000 parachute jumps made at Lakehurst, New Jersey.With the coming of the jet age, the emergency use of parachutes has become a highly technical sequence; that is, events in time order. Today’s emergency sequence for ejecting from a disabled aircraft starts with the aircrewman making a decision to leave the aircraft. After making that decision everything is done automatically, as you will see in the ejection sequence for the A-6aircraft, shown in figure 1-1"
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This was just something random at http://www.nlhs.com/guests-05.htm
that seemed fun to note
From: Ed xxx of MN
20 Dec 2005
I'm sure that all of us who have served at Navy Lakehurst are grateful for the preservation of it's history. My sincere thanks to all who have contributed to establishing the "NLHS," and to the creation of this most interesting web site. Over 90+ years Navy Lakehurst was host to many tenant commands.
One of the earliest and possibly longest, but none more colorful, was the Parachute Rigger School. Established in 1924 by Chief Petty Officers Alva Starr and Lyman Ford, the school was set up in a small shed attached to hanger #1.
Precision workmanship was demanded, emphasized by requiring students to make a free- fall parachute jump with a chute they had personally packed. No other school in the Navy has had a more challenging performance test.
The first parachute jumps made at Lakehurst were from bi-wing aircraft, with the jumpers standing between and at the outer edges of the wings - since there was room for only the pilot in the tiny cockpit.
This was followed by having the students parachute from the open gondolas of early LTA aircraft, and the procedure used may have been where Buster Keaton got ideas for some of his daring stunts. Rope ladders were dropped over the side of the carriage, and the students were required to lower themselves to the very end of the ladder, grasp the ripcord in one hand while hanging on to the ladder with the other-then let go and pull the ripcord immediately. Presumably, the intent of this procedure was to allow the parachutist to drop below the slip stream of the propellers, which could foul his canopy while opening.
A three second free-fall from the gondola would have accomplished the same thing! However, the prevailig knowledge of parachuting at the time, was that a person would black-out in free fall.
Until multi-place aircraft became available, the Lakehurst LTA community provided the means for the Parachute Rigger students to make their graduation jump.
On June 28th 1961, as a parting farewell to those SilverGiants of the sky, several Instructors at the PR School re-enacted the graduation jump as it was first done - - minus the rope ladders. These fearless Riggers leap into the force of zero forward air speed, undaunted by seagulls hovering nearby, and wrote a final chapter to an aviation brotherhood established so long ago. My Parachute Log Book indicates we jumped from ZPG-2's - KE-5, at an altitude of 3,000 feet over the "Jump Circle" in the woods west of the main part of the base.
Unfortunately, my memory fails to bring forth the names of all the jumpers that day, except for Chuck Seymour (PRC, Ret - a NJ guy) who slipped out the rear hatch just before me.With great pride, Chuck and I lay claim to being "The Last Two Great Blimp Jumpers."
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28 May 1936 ~ Northern MIchigan Shopping Guide
11 June 1936 ~ Petoskey Evening News
The photos below are scans of original 1925 postcards of Kenny Starr, from his father Alva Starr. The postcards each show the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) which was built in Germany for the US Navy. It was an American ship built as compensation for Germany's war-debt to the United States. The airship was decommissioned 30 June 1932. The Navy Lakehurst Historical Society has preserved the history of the USS Los Angeles (AR-3) on its website, along with a great deal of the history of the Lakehurst NJ Air Station.
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Kenny Starr and his family visited this Lakehurst NJ hanger in 1961 when the colored postcards below were purchased. This is the very hangar that Kenny's father Alva "Frank" Starr used for his parachute training. Kenny used to play inside this hangar as a boy.
The postcard above, of the Lakehurst NJ Air Station has written on the back: "This HRS helicopter in front of Hangar #2, is painted red for better visibility while in service at the polar regions. The ZPG Airship in flight over Hangar #1 is best known for its work with the 'Submarine Killer-Hunter Squadrons'".
Postcard above: U.S. Naval Air Station, Lakehurst NJ... The HRS helicopter in the foreground is the type used by the Marines so successfully during the Korean War. The Bell HUL (in flight) is used for liaison, photographic and rescue missions. These are painted red for use in the Artic and Antarctic.
Parachute jumper, U.S.N.A.S. Lakehurst NJ
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K Type Airships moored at masts, U.S. Naval Air Station Lakehurst NJ
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29 March 1960 ~ Petoskey News Review
The Navy Lakehurst Historical Society has preserved
a great deal of the history of the Naval Air Station on its website.
a great deal of the history of the Naval Air Station on its website.
Two 1952 Photos Below: The former Navy blimp will visit Petoskey area and be moored
at the Harbor Springs airport Phillips Flying Service field on the Petoskey-Harbor Road.
at the Harbor Springs airport Phillips Flying Service field on the Petoskey-Harbor Road.
11 July 1952 ~ Petoskey Evening News
12 July 1952 ~ Petoskey Evening News
Photo Below: The Pfeiffer Blimp was in hovered over the city for Petoskey's Centennial,
and took this aerial portrait.
and took this aerial portrait.
17 July 1952 ~ Petoskey Evening News
9 April 1931 ~ Petoskey Evening News
Nazi Airship Hindenburg Disaster Real Footage ~ Heading to Lakehurst NJ.
Several people did survive, as 22 of 61 crew members died and 13 of 36 passengers died.
Several people did survive, as 22 of 61 crew members died and 13 of 36 passengers died.
William Smith, Good Hart resident, received the Army's Purple Heart for WWI injuries.
2 July 1958 ~ Petoskey News Review
3 July 1958 ~ Emmet County Graphic
1 June 1922 ~ Petoskey Evening News
Page 63: George H. Spencley, 553657, first sergeant, Company A, 8th Machine Gun Battalion, 3d Division. For Extraordinary heroism in action near Cunel, France, October 15, 1918. Although painfully wounded in the back by a piece of enemy shell and tagged for evacuation to the hospital, Sergt. Spencley, then corporal, refused to be evacuated, but returned to his gun during two enemy counterattacks, during which he stopped by his fire an enemy attack which had reached within 40 yards of his position. Residence at enlistment: Good Hart, Michigan. (From Michigan in the World War compiled by Charles H. Landrum, M.A. , Edited by George N. Fuller, Ph.D.)
