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[[photograph of 10 men with a trophy]]
[[caption]]  
PROJECT LANA PILOTS meet with V Adm. R.B. Pirie and H.E. Wirth, Navy League VP at League annual convention.  Left to right, Cdr Julian Lake, Ltjg. Cowart, Ltjg. Young, Lt. Gordon, VAdm. Pirie, Mr. Wirth, LCdr Lamoreaux, LCdr. Spencer.

stay alert and clear for the streaking jets.  In Ontario, teams were getting a good breakfast under their belts, checking last minute points and donning their pressure suits for the run.  Ground crews, mechanics, technicians, and factory representatives were scurrying around each aircraft insuring that nothing had been left undone. Airplanes were positioned at the edge of the runway and power units were hooked up.  Once the engines were started, it was a race to get everything disconnected, so the precious fuel would not be wasted on deck.  The airplanes would light off and literally run down the runway with only one heading in mind--GO EAST and GO FAST.
The hot-line telephone remained manned during the entire race and information was passed up and down the line instantaneously. Radar tracked each aircraft as it proceeded on course and the engineers plotted the track each minute for comparison with the planned profile. The weather was also checked constantly in order to give a different altitude if the conditions were better at another level than that being flown at the moment.
What occurred at NAS NEW YORK as the first three of the four Phantom II's blurred past the field control tower at intervals of seven minutes is now history. LANA One, home first, broke the existing record by nearly five minutes. 
The congratulatory tide was turned in short order to engulf the team in LANA Two which eclipsed the short-lived mark by a healthy margin of seven minutes. A ditto and final demonstration was enacted a little later as LANA Three, cleaving another ten minutes from the most recent mark, taxiied in to take all of the (Bendix) bacon and cheers of the flying world.
Of LANA Four little has been recorded owing to its failure to top any of the transcontinental marks. 
It is noteworthy that the team of LCdr. Spencer and Lt. Wagner, undaunted by refueling problems, and despite the fact the crowd had dispersed, closed on the terminal point tower with the same enthusiasm as had the winners. LANA Four finished at 1530 New York time, precisely the limit set by FAA for ending the race.
For their achievement in the advancement of Navy Aviation, Lt. R.F. Gordon and Ltjg. B.R. Young received Distinguished Flying Crosses from VAdm. R.B. Pirie, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), on 26 May 1961 at the Navy League Convention dinner in Washington, D.C. Cdr. Lake, Ltjg. Cowart, LCdr. Lamoreaux and Lt. Johnson received Air Medals for their spirited contribution to the effort on the Bendix Trophy speed race.