8 August 1913

Hawaiian Islanders craned their necks and gawked in astonishment at the primitive flying machine which soared over Diamond Head, made a wide turn, then sputtered back toward Pearl Harbor. It was 8 August 1913, and this was the first military flight in Hawaii. At the controls was First Lieutenant Harold E. Geiger, a fledgling pilot of the newly-formed Aviation Division of the United States Army Signal Corps. He and his men were based at Fort Kamehameha, at the mouth of Pearl Harbor.