Cunningham, Alfred ___ 1882-1939 ___ American ___ aviator

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Cunningham was born in Atlanta, Georgia. After serving as a volunteer in the infantry regiment during the Spanish-American War and in Cuba, he worked as an estate agent. In 1909, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps, and promoted to first lieutenant two years later. Based at the Marine Barracks, Philadelphia, he developed an ongoing interest in aeronautics, which led him to be sent to the US Naval Academy, with its nearby aviation camp. Between October 1912 and July 1913, he made some 400 flights, for both training and testing purposes. He was a strong advocate of Marine Corps aviation and was involved in the decision to set up the Naval Aeronautical Station at Pensacola, Florida, in 1914. By 1917, he appears to have emerged as de facto director of Marine Corps aviation. Under his direction, the Northern Bombing Group was developed. In the last year of the Great War, this undertook independent bombing raids, and joined in with British and French raids. For his service in organising and training the first marine aviation force, Cunningham was awarded the Navy Cross. After the war, he served in various positions, eventually becoming executive officer and registrar of the Marine Corps Institute from 1929 to 1931, and being promoted to lieutenant colonel.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Baggage and Boche

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1917-1918 ___ maritime military self France

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
a few pages
 

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Marine Flyer in France: The Diary of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham
 

November 2005, September 2008, March 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.