By Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com, news-photos-features.com
It’s most apt that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who has ambitions of becoming New York State Governor, presided over an “America’s 250th” event at Peacock Point, a waterfront mansion in Locust Valley, to honor the founding of U.S. Naval Aviation by the First Yale Unit that became known as the “Millionaire’s Unit”, featuring a rainy-day flyover by a U.S. Navy T-45 Goshawk, before an audience of VIPs, Republican officials and county police and first responders, or that the host of the event, Henry Davison II, introduced him as “Mr. Governor…too soon?”
This wasn’t a flyover for 250,000, like at the Jones Beach Memorial Day air show, which this year, is being pushed back to July 5-6 to actually honor America’s 250th. The flyover lasting mere seconds – in rainy weather – was for an audience of about 60 invitees.
Blakeman’s boast about how he got the flyover was particularly revealing: “I called the White House to ask for a flyover and was directed to the Secretary of War,” he gleefully recounted. “Instead of 3 to 4, I got one” because there is a war on, you know. After the fly-by, the two pilots of Training Squadron NINE Tiger – US Navy Lt. Ravendran Shanmugam Thorny and Lt. Luke O’Sullivan (an “exchange” pilot from the Royal Navy Britain) – were ferried to the event by Nassau County Police helicopter, performing a second “flyover” and landing on the lawn.
Blakeman also related how he came to learn of the “Millionaires Unit.” it began at a dinner in New York City where he met a historian whom he asked what he might do to mark the 250th anniversary. He subsequently learned the history of these Yale students who formed their own flying club and went to Europe during World War I.
“The flying group they formed here at Peacock Point became the foundation for the U.S. naval air unit.
“Rather than do what others were doing for the 250th, I wanted to celebrate the rich history of the United States here in Nassau County.”
The event focused on the history surrounding “The Millionaire’s Unit,” a group of young Yale students who founded the U.S. Naval Aviation Reserves in Nassau County and became the first aviation unit to enter World War I from America. County Executive Blakeman highlighted Nassau County’s place in U.S. history and spoke about the values Americans should be proud of as we celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary.
In fact, Long Island is known as the “Cradle of Aviation” (there is even a museum dedicated to it) for good reason – the first airplanes were developed and manufactured here, and it was from what is now Roosevelt Field on this very day in 1927 (of which Blakeman was not aware), that Charles Lindbergh set out on his historic solo, nonstop 33.5-hour flight 3,600 miles to Paris. Lindbergh actually stayed at Peacock Point.
“We are known as the Cradle of Aviation, but not that many people know what happened here at Peacock Point,” County Executive Blakeman said. “This is the greatest country in the world. This country was founded on values and principles that have made us a rich, diverse, and, quite frankly, the greatest country in the world…There are values that we cherish: Judeo-Christian work ethic…democracy, freedom of religion, freedom of speech – things we might take for granted. But on this day, we should remember that those freedoms cannot be taken for granted.”
The event was held on the property of Henry Davison II, the grandson of F. Trubee Davison, who with his brother, Henry P. Davison Jr., were founding members of the first Yale Unit (known as the Millionaires’ Unit). He reiterated the importance of honoring American history and spoke about his family’s connection to Nassau County.
“The Davison family has been here for a long time. We have been here longer than anybody but the Indians, and we plan to stay here. And we are never leaving Oyster Bay,” Davison said.
There actually is a link in this event – or rather this family – to America’s 250th. Davison noted that his wife, Christina, is descendent from Benjamin Talmadge who was George Washington’s first spy master. Nathan Hale, Talmadge’s roommate at Yale, was captured by the British very near to this place, and hung in 1776, famously declaring, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” After Hale’s death, Talmadge set up the Culper Spy Ring to report on British troop movements.
Davison, whose great grandfather, Harry P. Davison, was a managing partner of J.P. Morgan, related the story to illustrate his family’s commitment to duty and sacrifice. “There was an explicit understanding, that to whom much is given, much is expected.” Which is why the very wealthy, privileged Davisons and the other Yale men, formed the Millionaires Unit and went to Europe to fight in World War I, when they didn’t have to. “They were willing to sacrifice their own life for those who represented their ideals.”
Actually Harry P. Davison is an American Dream success story. Abandoned by his father and orphaned at a young age, he got into a card game with circus impresario P.T. Barnum who introduced him to his future wife, Kate Trubee, daughter of a local merchant family, and got Harry his first job as a cashier at the Astor Place Bank in New York City, where he foiled a bank robbery and came to the attention of J.P. Morgan. He worked his way up, founded the Bankers Trust Company, became J.P. Morgan’s personal assistant, and ultimately a partner. After J.P. Morgan died, he took the helm. He became chairman and raised funds for the American Red Cross during World War I – a demonstration of where the sense of noblesse oblige originated.
Marc Wortman, author of The Millionaires’ Unit that so inspired Blakeman, related that the First Yale Unit (dubbed “Millionaires’ Unit” for their privileged backgrounds), was a pioneering group of 28 wealthy Yale undergraduates who formed a private air militia in 1916. At a time when the United States had funding for but one airplane (but not for parts or equipment) and just 40 aviators (fewer than Bulgaria), they financed their own training, planes, and equipment and formed a private air militia. Their group became the founding squadron of the U.S. Naval Air Reserve and the first to fly for the U.S. in World War I, ultimately persuading Congress to create the Naval Reserve Flying Corps.
“They formed the vanguard, the nucleus of the service that grew to 40,000 men,” he said. Among them were the first American to fly a bomber, first to fly a submarine patrol, the first strategic bomber force and the first aviator ace (Lt. David Ingalls), as well as the first aviator killed in combat and numerous accounts of heroism – when Harry Davison’s friend, Di Gates, was shot down in Europe, he undertook a rescue mission (Gates was taken as a PoW).
Many members went on to become top government and military officials, including serving as Secretaries of War and Defense. Davison’s godfather was Robert Lovett, one of the Yale First Unit who became Under Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949 and George C. Marshall’s primary deputy. Lovett orchestrated the Berlin Air Lift and spearheaded early Cold War initiatives, including the Marshall Plan.
Wortman noted that the young men were well aware of the risks and horrors that would befall them. Trubee Davison had been an ambulance driver, bringing wounded from the front, before the United States entered World War I. “He knew how dangerous war and flying was.”
“They were after honor, loved their country, had a sense of duty, righteousness, loyalty and a spirit of mission.”
Their stories were all but forgotten when Wortman wrote his book (that was turned into a documentary) based in part on letters from Kenneth MacLeish to his brother, the Pulitzer prize winner Archibald McLeish. Kenneth MacLeish was shot down and killed over Belgium on October 14, 1918—just weeks before the war ended.
“They put their lives at risk for the ideals, the principles that kept our country free,” Blakeman added before unveiling a plaque that will commemorate Peacock Point as the place of the founding of U.S. Naval Aviation.
In addition to covering the history of aviation in Nassau County, the event also featured two live demonstrations. The proceedings began with a ceremonial flyover of a U.S. Navy T-45 Goshawk advanced jet trainer, operated by pilots of Training Squadron NINE “Tigers” of the Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi. A second flyover featuring a Nassau County Police Department helicopter concluded the ceremony.
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