James Warner (aviator)

James Warner (1891-1970) was the radio operator on the aircraft Southern Cross piloted by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith for the first trans-Pacific flight in 1928, during which radio was first used successfully on a long distance flight.

Warner was born near Lawrence, Kansas in 1891. His parents divorced during his early childhood. His mother cared for his two sisters but their father took James and his two brothers to an orphanage in Wichita and left them there. At the age of five he was adopted by a German family named Oswald and spent most of the rest of his childhood living and working on their farm. He also spent about a year in Germany with his adopted family. James attended both local German and English language schools in Lawrence through eighth grade and reportedly made friends easily. At age fourteen he left home and went to Wichita where he found work in a butcher shop, refusing his adopted father's pleas to return home. After learning from someone how to make harness dressing with lard and lamp black, the teenaged Warner saved enough to buy a donkey and cart, from which he sold the dressing, meanwhile making his way to Denver, where he worked in a bowling alley setting pins.

He later went to Boulder, Colorado and worked driving a team of horses with a road-grader. At about the age of eighteen he got a job on a dairy farm where by reportedly milking 50 cows twice a day he developed the large forearms he kept for the rest of his life. He bought a dairy route from the farmer, making daily deliveries. However, this ended when he and the dairy farmer had a dispute and Warner lost his substantial investment. Following this he may have spent time as a hobo during his late teens, which was fairly common in early 20th century North America, riding the rails and living in hobo encampments.

In 1911 at about age twenty Warner went to Denver and enlisted in the US Navy. He spent boot camp at Goat Island (later called Yerba Buena Island) in San Francisco Bay. Warner was then sent to the western Pacific and on to China where he served on gunboats patrolling the Yangtze River. He advanced to Quartermaster first class and in 1916 trained in the then-new rating of Electricians Mate, Radio. By 1919 he was one of the first chief radiomen in the US Navy. During World War I Warner served on the USS Parker, which patrolled the coasts of Ireland. He was then assigned to the USS St. Louis. Warner may have also sometimes served as a German-English interpreter for naval officers after the war. He was later assigned as a radio instructor in San Diego and commanded the compass station at Point Reyes in Northern California. On 30 March 1928 Warner left the navy in San Francisco.

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