{{Infobox military person | name = Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier | birth_date = {{Birth date|1889|3|7}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1922|11|14|1889|3|7}} | birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island | death_place = Norfolk, Virginia | image = LCDR Godfrey Chevalier.jpg | caption = | allegiance = United States of America | branch = United States Navy | service_years = 1907-1922 | rank = Lieutenant Commander | commands = Naval Air Station Dunkerque, France | unit = | battles = World War I *Western Front (World War I) | awards = Distinguished Service Medal<br>''Croix de Guerre'' | other_work = }} [[File:LCDR Godfrey Chevalier first landing aboard USS Langley (CV-1).jpg|thumb|right|300px|{{center|An Aeromarine 39B piloted by Chevalier is seen just before it touches down on the flight deck of {{USS|Langley|CV-1}} on 26 October 1922 – the first landing aboard an American aircraft carrier.}}]] Lieutenant Commander '''Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier''', USN (7 March 1889 – 14 November 1922) was a pioneering naval aviator of the United States Navy of World War I and the early 1920s.
==Biography== Born in Providence, Rhode Island on 7 March 1889, Chevalier graduated from the United States Naval Academy in June 1910. He was appointed a Naval Air Pilot on 7 November 1915 and a Naval Aviator on 7 November 1918.
On 8 May 1913, ensign Chevalier was the passenger in a long-distance flight of 169 miles, flown in a Curtiss flying boat piloted by Lieutenant John Henry Towers, Naval Aviator No. 3, from the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. down the Potomac River and then up the Chesapeake Bay to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The flight took three hours and five minutes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://home.earthlink.net/~ralphcooper/pimage5.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991007161420/http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eralphcooper/pimage5.htm |archive-date=1999-10-07 |title=Lieut. Towers Makes Long Flying Boat Run}}</ref>
On 12 July 1916 he participated in the installation of the first real aircraft catapult used in the U.S. Navy and piloted the first plane to be launched by catapult, from the armored cruiser {{USS|North Carolina|ACR-12|6}}. In November 1917 he commanded the first naval air station in France, at Dunkerque, and for World War I service was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. On 9 March 1919 he was also awarded the ''Croix de Guerre''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y9sDAAAAYAAJ&q=GODFREY+de+COURCELLES+CHEVALIER+LIEUTENANT+COMMANDER%2C+U.S.+NAVAL+AVIATION+SERVICE&pg=PA418|title=New England Aviators 1914-1918: Their Portraits and Their Records, Volume 1|editor=Ticknor, Carol|date=1919|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|page=418|access-date=13 April 2018}}</ref>
In 1922 he was attached to {{USS|Langley|CV-1}}, the first American aircraft carrier, in connection with fitting her out. On 26 October 1922 Lieutenant Commander Chevalier made the first landing on ''Langley''{{'}}s deck, flying Aeromarine 39B No. 606.
A distinguished pioneer of naval aviation, Chevalier died at the Norfolk Naval Hospital at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Virginia, on 14 November 1922 as a result of injuries sustained in the 12 November 1922 crash near Lockhaven, Virginia, of a Vought VE-7 he was flying from Naval Air Station Norfolk to Yorktown, Virginia.<ref>Linder, Bruce, "Tidewater's Navy", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, Library of Congress card number 2005019790, {{ISBN|1-59114-465-5}}, page 154.</ref>
==Namesake== Two U.S. Navy destroyers have been named {{USS|Chevalier}} in his honor, as was Chevalier Field, an airfield at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida. The Chevalier Theatre in Medford, Massachusetts is also named for him.
==Awards & Decorations== {| |- |{{ribbon devices|number=0|type=award-star|ribbon=Navy Distinguished Service Medal ribbon.svg|width=80}} Navy Distinguished Service Medal |- |{{ribbon devices|number=1|type=service-star|ribbon=World War I Victory Medal ribbon.svg|width=80}} World War I Victory Medal with one bronze service star |}
==Photo gallery== <gallery> File:Godfrey Chevalier in whites.jpg|Godfrey de C. Chevalier File:William d billingsley guantanamo 1913.jpg|Early navy aviators; de C. Chevalier at lower right File:Early aviators at Pensacola, Florida, 1914.jpg|{{center|Early aviators at the Naval Aeronautic Station) in Pensacola, Florida, in 1914. Ensign Godfrey de C. Chevalier is second from right.}} File:Five early American naval aviators at Pensacola, Florida.jpg| File:Godfrey Chevalier in cockpit.jpg|{{center|Godfrey Chevalier in the cockpit of an unidentified aircraft.}} </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} *[https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/c/chevalier-i.html www.history.navy.mil: USS ''Chevalier'']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chevalier, Godfrey}} Category:1889 births Category:1922 deaths Category:Military personnel from Rhode Island Category:United States Naval Academy alumni Category:United States Navy officers Category:United States Naval Aviators Category:United States Navy personnel of World War I Category:Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal Category:American recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1922