Abstract Eugene P. Rankin was born in 1916. He graduated from the Naval Academy at Pensacola, Florida, in 1941. In 1943, he served in World War 2 in the Pacific Theater. There he was the commanding officer in a “Black Cat Squadron”, conducting nighttime attack missions consolidated PBY Catalina patrol bombers. Afterwards, Rankin became a Captain of the USS Kearsarge (CV-33). The Kearsarge was tasked with assisting Project Mercury, in that it would have to recover astronauts who splashed down in the...

Abstract

Photographic Prints that have been digitized and placed on the DAMS and Flickr. They have been assigned a 09 Series Number. Eugene "Smokey" Rhoads was the Chief Mechanic on the NC-4 first transatlantic flight in 1919. He later went on to have a successful career in the Navy and was Chief Inspector at Lockheed Aircraft.