It wasn’t only Cedar Point, Jarboesville, and the Patuxent River that were changed by the arrival of the US Navy. Piney Point, St. George Island, and the waterways from whence originates Message From the Captain, were where the Navy tested its torpedoes during World War II.

Naval aviation leaders at last month’s Pax Partnership and ANA briefing describe an immediate and imperative need for innovation in Navy aviation research, engineering, development, and test.

In the late 1930s and early ’40s, rumors had circulated that the military was interested in the Cedar Point peninsula in St. Mary’s County. But days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, government officials and surveyors began the process of condemning the land. The patchwork of farms and settlements would soon be smoothed over to make way for the Navy.