United States Navy (USN) Airship Utility Squadron 1 (ZJ-1) was established on February 10, 1944. Headquartered at Meacham Field, Key West, Florida, ZJ-1 performed mainly aerial photography, electronic equipment calibration, and torpedo recovery. By assuming such technical utility functions, ZJ-1 (the Navy's only airship utility squadron), allowed the patrol squadrons (ZPs) to concentrate on anti-submarine warfare (ASW).

Detachment One of ZJ-1 operated several K-class and G-class blimps out of Naval Air Station (NAS) South Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1944 and 1945. Sub-detachments also operated from Elizabeth Field on Fisher's Island, New York; the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia; and the Naval Mine Warfare Test Station, Solomons, Maryland. ZJ-1 recovered torpedos for Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.

ZJ-1, Detachment 1, Fisher's Island, NY

Today, Elizabeth Field serves as a private airport. Most of the WWII structures are gone but aerial views still show the ground scaring of many structures.

Personnel

ZJ-1, Airship G-7, 1/2-ton Heavy, June 27, 1944

Airship Utility Squadron 1 (Utron) is mentioned in the ZP-11 War Diary for February 1944

Airship Utility Squadron 1 is mentioned several times in the ZP-11 Squadron Diary (this is a large 8 MB pdf file).

Credits

This page is the creation of Don Kaiser.

Unless otherwise mentioned, the photographs on this page were provided by Marc Frattasio at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD and kindly provided to preserve the history of ZJ‑1.

Technical assistance to keep this page up-to-date with modern web browsers provided by ALC Press.