Having had the good fortune to read this book in manuscript form, I was very pleased to be asked to write the foreword to what is a most interesting and historical publication. My father, Frank Dailey, was a Marine aviator who served in VF-9M at Quantico in the 1930s so these stories were of great interest to me. This book will have an appeal to aviation historians and particularly Marine aviation buffs. It will have a universal appeal to all of those Marine aviators, aircrew and aviation ground personnel who served at Quantico from 1918 to the present day. The many photographs of Quantico and the early Marine Corps aircraft, combine to present a well balanced and excellent historical record of a segment of our Marine aviation history, which, until now, has not been published in this detail and with this many facts, in one volume. John Elliott has put a great amount of research into writing this book. He is no stranger to Marine aviation history. In addition to having lived part of our Marine Corps aviation history for 24 years (Private in 1941 to retirement as a major and aviation ordnance officer in 1966), he joined the Smithsonian in 1966 as the Chief, Collections Branch, National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board. He became the Smithsonian%u2019s contract administrator in 1975 and retired after 18 years with the Smithsonian. He then accepted the position of Assistant Naval Aviation Historian on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations, where he worked for another five years on both Marine Corps and Navy aviation history. Foremost among his published works is the Official Monogram US Navy & Marine Corps Aircraft Color Guide, Volumes I through IV, 1911-1993. He received the Admiral Arthur Radford Award for excellence in Naval Aviation History and Literature in 1994 for this work. He is considered the world%u2019s leading expert on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft and paint schemes. He has published articles in Naval Aviation News, Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, The Hook, the journal of the Tail Hook Association, The Marine Corps Gazette and Leatherneck and the Marine Corps Aviation Association%u2019s Yellow Sheet and Journal magazines. He has also written several segments of the Naval Historical Centers%u2019 aviation history publications US Naval Aviation 1910-1995 and Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons. He has one of the largest private collections of early Marine Corps aircraft photos. Though he is now retired, he spends a considerable amount of time each week answering queries about Marine Corps aviation history and transmitting his photos around the world via electronic means as well as serving as a Docent at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. General J. R. Dailey USMC (Ret) Director, National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
