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Sue "Bucks" and 

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F. Trubee Davison in 1916 Photo

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Getting Wings. F. Trubee Davison, the first assistant secretary of war for air, relaxes at his Peacock Point home yesterday. Davison will receive honorary naval aviator wings in a ceremony today in Huntington.

LI Ceremonies Today Fete Naval Air Reserve
By Joe Demma

Huntington - A dozen college students, a deserted beach and a two-seater seaplane may be considered the perfect ingredients for a high-styled carousing by today's youth, but 50 years ago they were the ingredients and foundation for a nationwide naval air reserve force.
The ingredients made up the first U.S. Naval Air Reserve unit known as the Yale Unit, which was founded in the summer of 1916. The 12, most from Yale University, students, were brought together by F. Trubee Davison, who later became an Army brigadier general and the first assistant secretary of war for air, and Robert A. Lovett, Secretary of Defense during the first Eisenhower administration. Since that summer when the 12 students formed and financed the Aerial Coast Patrol, the Naval Air Reserve has grown into a 29,000-member force.
The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Naval Air Reserve was to be celebrated today with the unveiling of a marker at Huntington Bay Hills Beach, the site of the first air reserve base. Besides Lovett, of Locust Valley, and Davison, the members of the Yale Unit who were expected to attend the ceremony are: David S. Ingells, retired rear admiral and former assistant secretary of the Navy; Artemus L. Gates, former under secretary of the Navy and assistant secretary of the Navy for air; William A. Rockefeller, and retired Navy commander Kenneth R. Smith. 
A Navy spokesman said Davison had spent the summer of 1915 with the French ambulance corps and came in contact with the Lafayette Escardrille flying unit on the World War I battlefront in France. Upon his return, he contacted Lovett, a Yale classmate, about forming an aerial coast patrol. "This was the first time that airplanes were used in warfare," Lovett said yesterday, "and we were both impressed that we (the U.S.) did not have an appreciable amount of air facilities. We felt it was important to use aircraft for the defense of our shore line."

Navy Favored Idea

Then followed a series of conferences with Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels, who was in favor of the idea, the Navy spokesman said. On August 29, 1916, the Naval Appropriations Act, which provided for a Naval Flying Corps to be composed of 150 officers and 350 enlisted men, became law, but the Yale Unit remained a civilian group. In March, 1917, however, following the break in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Germany, the unit was activated and sent to Palm Beach, Fla., for intensive training. In June the unit returned to Huntington where it was to undergo qualifying flight tests before its members were given the wings of naval aviators. All but Davison received their wings and were sent to France in the fall of 1917. Davison crashed into Huntington Bay and suffered a broken back on July 25, 1917, while taking his qualifying test.
Davison, who never received his aviator's wings because of that accident, was to be presented with honorary naval aviator wings at today's ceremony in Huntington by Vice Admiral Paul H. Ramsey. Following the unveiling of the marker, a luncheon was to be held at Davison's Lattingtown estate at Peacock Point in Locust Valley.
In France, the Yale Unit separated and the history of its individuals becomes vague. Smith, who served as a pilot in both World Wars, recalled one incident: "We were flying submarine patrol in a French seaplane, when our engine failed," he said. "We went down about 20 miles from the French coast and floated for about three days before we were rescued by a torpedo boat. We had some good friends on shore and we knew they would find us," he said. "Our only communications in those days were pigeons. We sent two of them, one of them never arrived and the one that did, didn't have the message. But they knew it was our pigeon and that we were in trouble," he added.

Nassau Tells U.S. Of Mitchel Interest

Mineola - County Executive Nickerson has notified the federal General Services Administration of Nassau County's interest in acquiring for development a 191-acre tract in the northwest corner of Mitchel Field.
Nickerson said yesterday he had received official word, as expected, from the GSA that the land was available for acquisition since no federal use was planned for it. The Nassau County Planning Commission is developing a plan for the area as part of a comprehensive program for county-owned land on the former Air Force base, including that to be used for the John F. Kennedy Educational, Civic and Cultural Center. The plan will be submitted to the Mitchel Field Planning Committee for approval or possible modification and then forwarded to the federal government. A county spokesman said this should be done sometime this summer. Nassau County has apparent priority for getting the land if its plan is approved. 
No details of the county plan for the area have been made public, but Richard R. Gardner, acting executive director of the county planning commission said last night that housing complexes and commercial and industrial areas were among alternatives under consideration.