Dave in San Diego wrote in message ...
vincent p. norris wrote in
:

I got my wings early in 1951. My number, preceded by a V, is about
1500 (not sure it's a good idea to publish the exact number).

Hmmmm....strange, I never questioned my Sept 25, 1959 number
of 15753.

Bob Moore

Doesn't it seem odd, Bob, that the numbers went from 1 to 1500 in
almost half a century, which included WW II, and then from 1500 to
15,000 in less than a decade?

There was more than one group issuing numbers at the same time for a while.
Zero to 1500 times at least three makes the numbers look better.

Dave in San diego

Naval aviator numbers were originally assigned through the Bureau of
Navigation, which became the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BuPers) in
1942. Numbers were assigned sequentially based on completion of the
required course and class standing. For example, my father was
designated Naval Aviator number 6953 in November 1940. On July 31,
1942, this system of numeric designation was discarded and replaced
with a system that identified with a letter the location where an
aviator received his training followed by a sequential number. Letter
identifiers we
P = Pensacola, FL;
J = Jacksonville, FL;
C = Corpus Christi, TX;
M = Miami, FL;
N = Norfolk, VA;
A = Alameda, CA;
L = Lakehurst, NJ; and
S = Moffett Field, CA.
Numbering at each location started at 1. Aviators were designated
under this scheme until March 29, 1949 when the system changed again
as follows:
Chief of Naval Air Training designated aviators sequentially beginning
with 1 with the prefix "T"
Chief of Naval Air Advanced Training designated sequentially beginning
with 1 with the prefix "V"
and the Chief of Naval Airship Training and Experimentation designated
with the prefix letter "L" sequentially from the last number issued at
NAS Lakehurst.
Sometime in the 1970s the practice of designating Naval Aviator
numbers was discontinued.. From 1911 to the end of 1970, some 119,000
aviators were designated by number, approximately 14,500 by the
number alone system and approximately 104,500 by the Letter-Number
system. Calendar years 1942 to 1945 saw some 61,658 designated naval
aviators.

Regards

Rich