Ensign Morris Dry USN aviation WW1

[Chris Liontas]

I wanted to post this for a Jaba.   This is my only US Navy WW1 group.   I could. It resist it though as it is a complete trunk group along with the fabric insignia of his aircraft.   Ensign Dry kept all his uniforms which makes this trunk quite a time capsule.  

    The trunk was rescued from a house that was to be demolished.   All the contents were listed on the inside of the trunk in 1964.  Sadly the flight helmet and the original gold wings were removed from the group.  I placed a stand in, but the originals were gone by the time I saw the group 

[Chris Liontas]

my edits and photos crashed!  I'll get the photos downsized and try again 

[jaba1914]

Thanks for posting this uniform for me. Can you post Close-ups of his uniform.

I love it.

Kind regards
Alex

[Chris Liontas]

Ok lets try this again!   

  Again, this trunk was found in an old house and was sold to a dealer.  Once found, the aviation helmet and golden wings were removed from the tunics, the one on the Navy uniform is a replacement.  

   Morris Dry was born in Mexico, Missouri.  He attended the University of Missouri and was in both ROTC and the marching band.  Here is his ROTC uniform and band uniform from the University of Missouri.  The ROTC uniform has both the ROTC patch, and the U of M collar brass.   Morris after graduation would join the US Navy and train at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduate with class 25, 20 Aug 1918.  

MIT Class photo, with names above most photos.   Morris is also mentioned in the book Flying Officers of the USN 1917-1919.  Attached is his photo.  

Morris' white Navy Dress uniform along with close ups of the buttons and shoulder boards 

After graduation, Ensign Dry was assigned as a instructor and bombing instructor at Pensacola Naval Air Station for the duration of the war.  There he taught flight and bombing on Curtis HS1 flying boats.  He would do that until dischare at the end of the war where he returned to school and received his Law degree from Harvard.  

Practice bombs, one painted with an American Roundel and Morris' navigation wheel.  

Uniforms 

And the final prize to the group, the insignia off of Ensign Dry's flying boat.  There are three squadrons that I know of from Pensacola at this time.  This is the only insignia I know that survives, possibly the US Navy museum there has one.  The fabric appears a heavy linen, different than the others I have seen from combat aircraft in France.  It feels like a much heaver weave.  

The insignia shows the American eagle attacking the Kaiser's eagle.  It has amazing detail for the time frame, and thankfully was stored on the top of the trunk was it was never folded or smashed the way so many other fabrics were.