Performing Surveys in The Pacific
Noteworthy highlights of her Pearl Harbor-based deployment came in the early 1920s, when she participated in surveys of various and sundry Pacific islands. In July 1923, for example, Whippoorwill—together with her sister-ship Tanager (AM-5)—accomplished the first survey of Johnston Island in modern times. During that cruise, she carried members of the Tanager Expedition, a joint expedition sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and the Bishop Museum of Hawaii. She also carried a Douglas DT-2 floatplane on her fantail, hoisting it into the water so that it could take off for aerial survey and mapping flights over Johnston. A little over a year later, in September 1925, the plane's pilot, Lt. Comdr. John Rodgers, would win fame as a member of the crew of the PN-9 flying boat.
Whippoorwill made other cruises, carrying members of ornithological surveys to islands such as Kingman Reef, Palmyra, Christmas Island, Jarvis Island, Howland Island, and Baker Island. The islands would later assume importance as transpacific air commerce spread its wings toward the Far East and South Pacific Ocean.
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