WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The foundation celebrating the centennial of U.S. naval aviation has pulled an account from its Web site amid complaints of "revisionist history."
As the yearlong commemoration began last month, irate former pilots began complaining to the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Foundation, The Washington Times reported Monday.
The slide show featured four "firsts" for women, but only two slides about World War II and hardly any mention of Vietnam.
"There is 'history' and then there is 'revisionist history' written to support a political agenda," said Roy Stafford, a former Marine pilot. "This timeline offered up the first female naval aviator and first female navy astronaut and first black Blue Angel pilot as major milestones and high-water marks for naval aviation to the exclusion of the real history makers. That just didn't sit well with my simple Marine Corps mind."
Retired Marine Maj. Gen. Bob Butcher, an officer of the foundation, told the Times that after receiving the complaints, he agreed and the timeline was removed.
He said a new history is being written by the U.S. Navy's National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Fla.
The first shipboard landing took place Jan. 18, 1911, in San Francisco Bay.
