 LeMay became a pursuit pilot and, while stationed in Hawaii, became one of the first members of the Air Corps to receive specialized training in aerial navigation.In August 1937, as navigator under pilot and commander Caleb V. Haynes on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, he helped locate the battleship "Utah" despite being given the wrong coordinates by Navy personnel, in exercises held in misty conditions off California, after which the group of B-17s bombed it with water bombs.For Haynes again, in May 1938 he navigated three B-17s 620 nm (610 miles or 980 km) over the Atlantic Ocean to intercept the Italian liner "SS Rex" to illustrate the ability of land-based airpower to defend the American coasts.