Carrier air-group command before 1937

The absence of a formally named US carrier air group before 1937 did not mean carrier aviation lacked coordination. Senior squadron commanders, shipboard staff officers, and other arrangements performed pieces of the function while the organization evolved. Those arrangements changed often enough that any single organizational snapshot can misrepresent how a carrier actually worked a few years earlier or later. A comparison with the Royal Navy's senior RAF officer and senior naval observer shows that other fleets also struggled to define authority over embarked aviation.