WW2 US Navy aircraft carrier captains

[Pangur]

I read somewhere that by law the Captain and I am assuming the executive officer of an aircraft carrier must have pilots. That makes sense however by the end of ww2 the US navy had a good 150 carriers. The prewar US Navy aviation was on the small side eight to be precise and three of them the Wasp, the Ranger and the Langley were on the small side - a small number of aircraft. So the question is between providing senior officers for captains, execs and `pure' aviation posts how did they find the numbers of experienced officers to go around?

 

[Blackfox5]

You seem to think that carrier command required existing pilots to be groomed to be captains. That is not the case. The Navy used officers who had already proven themselves in command on other ships, but they needed to attend flight school before they could command a carrier. Halsey was already a captain when he got his wings in the mid thirties. Afterwards, I wouldn't be surprised if he never flew again. Most of the prewar carrier captains were exactly the same.

Potential future carrier commanders would have been identified by Nimitz far in advance. If he wanted to give someone the job, but he hadn't had flight experience, it would have been easy to tell the person, "Get your ass to Pensacola and get your wings." There was more than enough time for a prospective captain to go out there and do so. However, I don't know enough about the carrier captains during the war to confirm that this was ever done.

It may even be that the requirement wasn't followed during the war. I don't think Spruance or Fletcher ever qualified as pilots, but I think they were admirals in charge of carrier task forces, and not captains of the ships themselves. Can't remember the details right now.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Halsey was an exception through the early 40s.

Spruance, arguably the bets American carrier commander, came up through Cruisers.

it was only late in the War that carrier captains were generally drawn from the ranks of aviators, but after WW2, it was the norm.

 

[Griffin]

I don't think that it was a requirement during WW 2. The Commander of the Air Group, however, did have to be a pilot.

 

[jlckansas]

Actually it dated to back when the Lexington and Saratoga joined the fleet back in the 20's. The people on the aircraft side did not want the regular officers to command the carriers because they did not expect them to know how to run them.
The law isn't that they have to be a pilot, they have to be trained as some form of Naval Aviator. This includes pilots, navigators, bombardiers, observers and such. Halsey and a few others that commanded carriers prior to WWII went to observers school to win that type of wings to command a carrier.

Currently you have to be either a pilot or naval flight officer(Bombardiers/navigator, electronic warfare, ASW) to command a carrier. There have been in recent years Naval flight officers that have commanded carriers.