World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations -- Submarine; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
college opened in the fall of 1916, and when war broke out they were
prepared--for they had actually learned to fly. When the submarine
scares disturbed the Atlantic seaboard in the early months of the war
these Yale undergraduates were sent by the department scouting over Long
Island Sound and other places looking for the imaginary Germans. In
February, 1917, Secretary Daniels recognized their work by making
Davison a member of the Committee on Aeronautics; in March practically
every member of the unit was enrolled in the aviation service; and their
names appear among the first one hundred aviators enrolled in the
Navy--a list that ultimately included several thousand. So proficient
had these undergraduates become that they were used as a nucleus to
train our aircraft forces; they were impressed as instructors at
Buffalo, Bayshore, Hampton Roads, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Key West and Moorhead City. They began to go abroad in the
summer of 1917, and they were employed as instructors in schools in
France and England. These young men not only rendered great material
service, but they manifested an enthusiasm, an earnestness, and a
tireless vigilance which exerted a wonderful influence in strengthening
the _moral_ of the whole aviation department. "I knew that whenever we
had a member of the Yale unit," says Lieutenant-Commander Edwards, who
was aide for aviation at the London headquarters in the latter part of
the war, "everything was all right. Whenever the French and English
asked us to send a couple of our crack men to reinforce a squadron, I
would say, 'Let's get some of the Yale gang.' We never made a mistake
when we did this."
There were many men in the regular navy to whom the nation is likewise
indebted. Captain T. T. Craven served with very marked distinction as
aide for aviation on the staff of Admiral Wilson, and afterward, after
the armistice was signed, as the senior member of the Board which had
been appointed to settle all claims with the French Government.
Lieutenant (now Commander) Kenneth Whiting was another officer who
rendered great service in aviation. Commander Whiting arrived in St.
Nazaire, France, on the 5th of June, 1917, in command of the first
aeronautic detachment, which consisted of 7 officers and 122 men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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