Scarcely a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, airplanes had already become incorporated into modern warfare. Nicholas Paul Comeford Healy, Class of 1920, responded to the call for aviators in November, 1917, and applied for commission in the Signal Corps. Nicholas was sent almost immediately to Berkeley, CA, for instruction and from there to the Signal Corps Aviation School at Rockwell Field, San Diego. He made rapid progress in flight school and was declared qualified to fly solo.
On a training flight on May 3, 1918, Healy's Curtiss Jenny (JN-4D) crashed near La Jolla. According to accounts “the airplane fell in a spinning nose dive from an altitude of about 500 feet after the cadets made a dip for landing for some unknown reason and started up.” (Leavenworth Times, 4 May 1918) A cadet flying with him, Emmett O’Hanley merely suffered a broken ankle.
Nicholas was one of six children born to Nicholas Caine Healy, a prominent pioneer lumberman, and his wife Estella Comeford. Born in Marysville, he was a graduate of Broadway High School and briefly attended Washington State College. The UW sophomore was studying liberal arts and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Nicholas was buried with full military honors at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery and his death came just days before he was to receive his commission. (bit.ly/uw_healy)
Contributor: Andy (48021049) • [email protected]
from a FAG member:
Nicholas Comeford Healy, '20 (class of 1910, University of Washington), lost his life in an airplane accident at La Jolla, while flying from Rockwell Field, May 3, 1918. He enlisted November 1917 in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. Being sent to the aviation school at Berkeley early in 1918, he graduated from there March 9, 1918, and was sent to Rockwell Field at San Diego. Healy was a sophomore and made his home at 713 Sixteenth Avenue North, Seattle.
-Photo and article published in the University of Washington yearbook, 1919.
On a training flight on May 3, 1918, Healy's Curtiss Jenny (JN-4D) crashed near La Jolla. According to accounts “the airplane fell in a spinning nose dive from an altitude of about 500 feet after the cadets made a dip for landing for some unknown reason and started up.” (Leavenworth Times, 4 May 1918) A cadet flying with him, Emmett O’Hanley merely suffered a broken ankle.
Nicholas was one of six children born to Nicholas Caine Healy, a prominent pioneer lumberman, and his wife Estella Comeford. Born in Marysville, he was a graduate of Broadway High School and briefly attended Washington State College. The UW sophomore was studying liberal arts and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Nicholas was buried with full military honors at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery and his death came just days before he was to receive his commission. (bit.ly/uw_healy)
Contributor: Andy (48021049) • [email protected]
from a FAG member:
Nicholas Comeford Healy, '20 (class of 1910, University of Washington), lost his life in an airplane accident at La Jolla, while flying from Rockwell Field, May 3, 1918. He enlisted November 1917 in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. Being sent to the aviation school at Berkeley early in 1918, he graduated from there March 9, 1918, and was sent to Rockwell Field at San Diego. Healy was a sophomore and made his home at 713 Sixteenth Avenue North, Seattle.
-Photo and article published in the University of Washington yearbook, 1919.
Scarcely a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, airplanes had already become incorporated into modern warfare. Nicholas Paul Comeford Healy, Class of 1920, responded to the call for aviators in November, 1917, and applied for commission in the Signal Corps. Nicholas was sent almost immediately to Berkeley, CA, for instruction and from there to the Signal Corps Aviation School at Rockwell Field, San Diego. He made rapid progress in flight school and was declared qualified to fly solo.
On a training flight on May 3, 1918, Healy's Curtiss Jenny (JN-4D) crashed near La Jolla. According to accounts “the airplane fell in a spinning nose dive from an altitude of about 500 feet after the cadets made a dip for landing for some unknown reason and started up.” (Leavenworth Times, 4 May 1918) A cadet flying with him, Emmett O’Hanley merely suffered a broken ankle.
Nicholas was one of six children born to Nicholas Caine Healy, a prominent pioneer lumberman, and his wife Estella Comeford. Born in Marysville, he was a graduate of Broadway High School and briefly attended Washington State College. The UW sophomore was studying liberal arts and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Nicholas was buried with full military honors at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery and his death came just days before he was to receive his commission. (bit.ly/uw_healy)
Contributor: Andy (48021049) • [email protected]
from a FAG member:
Nicholas Comeford Healy, '20 (class of 1910, University of Washington), lost his life in an airplane accident at La Jolla, while flying from Rockwell Field, May 3, 1918. He enlisted November 1917 in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. Being sent to the aviation school at Berkeley early in 1918, he graduated from there March 9, 1918, and was sent to Rockwell Field at San Diego. Healy was a sophomore and made his home at 713 Sixteenth Avenue North, Seattle.
-Photo and article published in the University of Washington yearbook, 1919.
On a training flight on May 3, 1918, Healy's Curtiss Jenny (JN-4D) crashed near La Jolla. According to accounts “the airplane fell in a spinning nose dive from an altitude of about 500 feet after the cadets made a dip for landing for some unknown reason and started up.” (Leavenworth Times, 4 May 1918) A cadet flying with him, Emmett O’Hanley merely suffered a broken ankle.
Nicholas was one of six children born to Nicholas Caine Healy, a prominent pioneer lumberman, and his wife Estella Comeford. Born in Marysville, he was a graduate of Broadway High School and briefly attended Washington State College. The UW sophomore was studying liberal arts and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. Nicholas was buried with full military honors at Seattle’s Lake View Cemetery and his death came just days before he was to receive his commission. (bit.ly/uw_healy)
Contributor: Andy (48021049) • [email protected]
from a FAG member:
Nicholas Comeford Healy, '20 (class of 1910, University of Washington), lost his life in an airplane accident at La Jolla, while flying from Rockwell Field, May 3, 1918. He enlisted November 1917 in the aviation section of the Signal Corps. Being sent to the aviation school at Berkeley early in 1918, he graduated from there March 9, 1918, and was sent to Rockwell Field at San Diego. Healy was a sophomore and made his home at 713 Sixteenth Avenue North, Seattle.
-Photo and article published in the University of Washington yearbook, 1919.
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