Youth, Training, Active Flight Period
Doorman, born in Utrecht and raised Catholic, came from a family of professional soldiers. In 1906, he and his brother Lou ACM Doorman were commissioned as midshipmen. In 1910 came his promotion to officer rating. In the latter year he moved on board the cruiser HNLMS Tromp to the Dutch East Indies. During his first three years of duty, from January 1912 to December 1913, he was placed aboard the survey vessels HNLMS van Doorn and HNLMS Lombok, with the primary aim of mapping the coastal waters of New Guinea. Early in 1914 he returned to the Netherlands on board cruiser HNLMS De Ruyter. In March 1914 he made a request to enter the Aviation Service.
From April 1914 he was placed aboard armored cruiser HNLMS Noord Brabant and, just before the first World War broke out, with that ship he was part of a mission to Albania to recover the mortal remains of Major Louis Thomson, who was killed in action there. His request for entry into the Aviation Service was approved in the summer of 1915, after rigorous testing, and he was one of the first naval officers to be awarded his wings.
From 1915 to 1918 he was stationed at the Aviation Service at Soesterberg under command of Captain (later Major) of Engineers H. Walaardt. There he met Albert Plesman, who at first was an observer but later was trained as a pilot in the Army. In 1915 he was awarded a civil pilot licence and in 1916 he was awarded the Naval pilot licence. From 1917 to 1921 he was an instructor, first at Soesterberg Air Base and from October 1918 at the Naval Air Base De Kooy at Den Helder. He commanded this Naval Air Base from 1919 to 1921. Because of his merits as an organizer of the still very young Naval Aviation he was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1922.
From 1919 to 1934 Doorman was married to Justine A.D. Schermer. In 1928, his son Joop was born. In 1934 he married Isabella J.J.J. Heyligers.
Budget cuts and an arm injury meant that Doorman's active flying career was over. From November 1921 to November 1923 he attended Higher Naval School in The Hague, essential for a career as a naval officer, particularly for staff positions. After he successfully completed this training, in which, among other things, he studied communication between aircraft and naval vessels, he was placed at the Department of the Navy at Batavia in December 1923.
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