05/01/2026
Major Alford Joseph Williams, Jr., USMC, Retired.
(July 26,1891 - June 15,1958)
Sharing a few pieces of memorabilia I have of Al Williams. The autographed photo of him standing next to his Gulfhawk (not sure what version, but possibly the first Gulfhawk) was taken by local Akron/Canton, Ohio Photographer Charles Koch. I obtained the original Negative from his Son Dan Koch. Pretty cool to have this pairing.
If anyone has any information to share on the recipient of the trophy (Leslie W. Griffin), I would love to hear from you. I have found nothing on this individual. Thank you in advance!
Below is some information on Al Williams and the many Gulfhawk's that existed as found via historynet.com. Enjoy!
Williamsâ Gulfhawk became the source of an oft-cited but false claim: that he âinventedâ dive bombing. Itâs clear that he used the Hawk to demonstrate steep dives and mock bomb drops at airshows, but the principle of dive bombing was understood and tried by the British in World War I: Pointing an airplane and its bomb at a target was more accurate than cruising over it in level flight and guesstimating when to release. The U.S. Marine Corps flew dive-bombing missions with de Havilland DH-4s during the Haitian and Nicaraguan campaigns in the 1920s, and it was not Williams but Navy Lt. Cmdr. Frank Wagner who flew the first near-vertical power dive in a Curtiss Hawk, in October 1926.
Williams, however, had befriended the German World War I ace and aerobatic pilot Ernst Udet, whom he brought to the U.S. in 1931 to represent Germany at the National Air Races, in Cleveland. There the German ace first witnessed Williamsâ dive-bombing display. Hugely impressed by the Curtiss Hawk, Udet acquired two for the infant Luftwaffe and used them to experiment with the tactics that ultimately produced the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, the worldâs most notorious dive bomber.
The Hawk was a 1920s design, and the small world of oil company demo pilots was a competitive one. Roscoe Turner flew a Wedell-Williams raceplane for the Gilmore Oil Company, Jimmy Doolittle of Gee Bee fame was the manager of Shell Oilâs aviation department, Frank Hawks and his Northrop Gamma Sky Chief represented Texaco, Wiley Postâs Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae was sponsored by Phillips Petroleum and other famous airplanes sported oil company logos. Williams needed something splashier than a postâWorld War I airplane.
He found it in Grummanâs state-of-the-art (at least by U.S. standards) F3F fighter, a barrel-bodied biplane with a big radial engine and hand-cranked retractable gear. Painted Gulf Oil orange, blue and white and with short F2F wings for greater maneuverability, it became the G-22 Gulfhawk II, the best-known of Williamsâ airplanes.
Williams flew the F3F in the service of Gulf Oil from 1936 until 1948. The big biplane was used to test Gulf high-octane fuel and mil-spec lubricants, and Williams often flew Gulfhawk II while wearing a throat microphone, a device heâd refined (though not, as is often claimed, invented; that honor goes to Wiley Post). The throat mike picked up voice comm from small microphones strapped around a pilotâs neck over the vocal cords. It allowed a fighter pilot to maneuver and talk with one hand on the stick and the other on the throttle.
The only other pilot ever to fly Gulfhawk II was Udet, while the airplane was in Germany during a European tour in 1938. Williams badly wanted to fly a Messerschmitt BF-109, and that was the quid pro quo for allowing his German friend into the Grummanâs cockpit. Williams was the first American to pilot a Bf-109, and he came away from the experience convinced that it was the best airplane heâd ever flown. Like Charles Lindbergh, who flew a 109 soon after him, Williams returned to the U.S. to warn the War Department not to underestimate the new Luftwaffe.
Williams had always advocated for a strong military air arm, something that made him no friends among the Navyâs battleship admirals; in a sense he was the Navy version of Billy Mitchellâforesighted and outspoken. He also said that such an air arm should be independent, not a subsidiary of the Army or Navy. Unfortunately, he was a decade too early. The Marine Corps, in fact, forced his resignation as a major in 1940 for what they considered to be his extreme public statements.
Williams went on to use Gulfhawk II to demonstrate aerobatics and precision flying to aviation cadets during World War II. The F3F was an antique by warâs end, so Gulf replaced it with the G-58A Gulfhawk IV, a civilianized Grumman F8F Bearcat identical to one his pal Roger Wolfe Kahn was flying on his sales calls. (Gulfhawk III was a two-seat version of Williamsâ F3F that Gulf used for PR rides and utility transportation. There was also a Gulfhawk Junior, a Stinson Voyager reserved for Williamsâ personal use, and five unnamed Gulf Stinson Reliants.)
Gulfhawk IV lived a brief life from August 1947 until January 1949, when the colorful airplane died in a fiery landing catastrophe at New Bern, N.C. Williams was returning from a Florida airshow when bad weather ahead caused him to opt for a precautionary stopover. Many reports suggest that the left landing-gear leg folded, though Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer, who had originally checked Williams out in the big fighter, frankly wrote that he âfailed to extend his landing gear.â Whatever the case, the Grumman crushed its external belly tank, which was full of avgas. Williams escaped in time, but the inevitable fire consumed the airplane.
Years later, warbird collector Elmer Ward bought Gulfhawkâs paperwork and built a replica from Bearcat components, which he painted in Gulf colors and registered with Williamsâ original tail number, NL3025. It too crashed, after an engine failure at the 1993 Oshkosh EAA airshow, within months after completion of the rebuild.
Al Williams retired from Gulf in 1951. He died of cancer in 1958 at age 62 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
