His experience in world war i. Good evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to barnes noble bethesda. We are delighted to have marc wortman with us this evening. Mr. Wortman is an awardwinning journalist and the former editor at yale alumni magazine. His book the millionaires unit is about a generation of privileged young men prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in france. Driven by the belief their membership in the american elite required certain sacrifice, they led the way before america declared formally to join the war. The bulk of this group, the Yale Aero Club, became the first squadron in the u. S. Navy air reserve. The press dubbed them the millionaires unit. Without further ado please join me in welcoming mr. Marc wortman. [applause] well, thank you for coming out this evening. Thank you to barnes noble for having me. This is as many of you know a home coming of sorts. Having grown up in bethesda, it is wonderful to see so many old friends here. Especially today on the 39th day out of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain. Its been an extraordinary deluge here. Now, please pardon me if i refer to notes occasionally. Im much more used to writing to people than speaking to them. About 10 years ago i went flying with a group from yale, the yale aviation club, founded incidentally by fred smith, who also went on to an illustrious flying career. He later on founded fedex. The members of the club at yale told me they had a significant history of forebearers who established the first flying club. I went looking into that and found out about a group that formed the Yale Aero Club back in 1916 and that became the first squadron in the u. S. Navy reserve. Then when the u. S. Went to war, in world war i, became the nucleus of the navys air force. These were 19, 20, 21yearold boys. The members included the navys first and only air ace of the war, the creator of americas first Strategic Bomber force, and many leaders in the creation of an air service from practically nothing. Now, this group after the war proved to be crucial in the rise of usair power. And in many ways, and the rise the creation of the u. S. As a super power of the world. Out of this group came every single assistant secretary of navy and war. This was before the department of defense for air through world war ii and the secretary of defense during the korean war. Effectively American Military dominance and control of the sky came out of this group. The Group Continues to have a resonant role in america because they have very close ties to the bush family and president george h. W. Bush told me that this group had been an inspiration to him in becoming a navy aviator in world war ii. But this list of accomplishments just scratches the surface with this group. What really grabbed me was when i read the letters of kenneth mcleish, a member of the group, to his fiance during the war. He was, like most of the boys, the son of a very welltodo family, but in his case his father had been a selfmade man. He had emigrated to the u. S. As a teenager from scotland and came here chasing a woman and dreams of a fortune and he got both. After his first wife died, he married an educated woman from old connecticut stock who raised many bright, strongwilled children infused with their fathers scotch sense of romance and desire to make good. For instance kenneths older brother Archibald Mcleish would go on to be a famed journalist, statesman, librarian of congress, and threetime Pulitzer Prize winner and also a harvard professor. So kenny and archie, i learned, were in many ways typical of this generation at yale and in many of the Ivy League Schools of the pedro. Their group, their circle included young men like colt porter, dean acheson, future secretary of state, averil herman, future governor of new york and cabinet member, and other future leaders in many fields. Yale and the other Ivy League Schools still produce leaders, but theyre very different places now. And the types of leaders who come out are very different as well. Back then yale was much smaller. It was all male. It was mostly wealthy. It was almost entirely was p wasp, and a very High Percentage of the students came from multi generational lines at yale. For instance the mcleish brothers on their mothers side were the fourth generation of the family to have attended yale. Truly they were part of an american aristocracy and one that still sends many of its children into power in this country. They were also part of a very powerful campus social system that motivated them to achieve and to be recognized. In their day what they had was, what they tried to show was they had something called sand. That was something they spoke of because of the grit that used to be thrown on Railroad Tracks to make the wheels of locomotives grab. But what they wanted to show was they had character. And the way they showed it was by being active in the campus society. And the reward for that was to be selected for one of the secret societies at yale, the secret senior societies most famously skull bones. And as some of you may know, i found a letter describing the robbing of geronimos grave by a group from skull bones, and that has gotten quite a bit of attention and id be happy to talk about tchaurg the question answer period if theres any interest in that. Now, there was one other very big difference at yale at the time. It was today yale is thought of as a great center of intellectual life. Back then intellectual life was not the center of the yale campus. In fact, intellectual achievement was often scorned during the period. And campus life really revolved around extracurricular activities. Most importantly, athletics were at the center of campus life. So 90 years ago, this very month, and in much of the same type of weather as we have now, two opulent yachts carried the yale crew from new haven to new london to prepare for the yaleharvard boat race. How many of you follow intercollegiate crew racing . Okay. Well, we have a couple. Three. Back then virtually everyone here would have at least been aware of what was going on in the yale harvard boat race. And that was back before major professional sporting leagues and the feeder colleges had come to dominate American Sports life. Back then they were the yankees and red sox and in their case it was every sport. 50,000 people came out to watch the boat race every june in new london lining the banks of the thames river there and in yachts that lined the race course. The following fall, 80,000 people filled the yale bowl for the yaleharvard football game. That was more than the entire population of nevada at the time and about 1 15 of connecticuts population at the time. So it would take over 225,000 people today to have a comparable crowd. While in new london actually at a training compound along the river a 19yearold sophomore who was an assistant manager for the crew team, frederick truby davidson known as truby, the son of j. P. Morgans senior partner, he told his teammates about what he had seen the summer before as an ambulance driver in paris. A terrible war had been raging in europe. It was an ocean away, but it involved every industrialized nation on earth except the u. S. In two years that war had already decimated a generation of young men who charged out of their trenches in the stalemated battle lines to be moan down by machine gun fire, artillery, and poison gas. It was the first truly mechanized war and the results for frail humanity were horrific. There had already been more deaths than all previous wars combined. In fact, july 1 will be the 90th anniversary of the battle of the soane. On the first day of the battle there were 50 british charged out of the trenches and within a very few minutes there were 50,000 casualties and in that battle that lasted for about six months there were more than 1. 3 million casualties on both sides. So trubey thought that the u. S. Was going to end up being involved in the war and he thought the place for a young man like he and his friends to fight was in the sky. That was just 13 years after the Wright Brothers first flight but the airplane was already a war machine with heavy bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, and fighters battling as much as four miles above the earth. But they did it with no parachutes and no oxygen supply. Casualty rates among flyers were appallingly high often a hundred percent. The average Life Expectancy at the front was about three weeks. In fact it was about three days. If you survived those first few days chances are you might make it through. So that was where truby wanted to take his friends. They were all for it. He enlisted bob lovett. He was a brilliant neighbor and classmate. He was a son of the head of the Union Pacific railroad, which at the time was the Worlds Largest transportation network. They convinced 10 friends to spend the Summer Learning to fly in a boat over the Long Island Sound. The group buveraged at the davisons 45room mansion along the Long Island Sound with its 57 servants. This was not what you would call a hard training mission. But the press took notice of the group. Flying was still a very rare thing and, in fact, most americans had never seen an airplane. Period. The press dubbed the group the millionaires unit. Truby davidson tried to win Government Support for the squad. He wanted it to become a reserve squadron. And they were spurned. There was one young assistant secretary of the navy who took notice of their efforts. That was Franklin Delano roosevelt. He would remember them later on, 25 years later on. When there was another war. So in the fall they went back to yale. All the while, german submarines had been attacking british shipping in and out of the u. S. Ports. Most infamously the lusitania. But there were many other ships sunk. Finally, hoping to strangle the island nation of britain, the u boats began attacking american shipping. Suddenly the government, which had spurned the boys efforts, became very interested in what they had to offer. Congress created the navy reserve and the first yale unit as it was called expanded to 28 members, became the first squadron. Of course they were expected to supply their own airplanes, their own base, and their own instructors. But with family and j. P. Morgan money, that was not a problem. So before leaving for training and war, campus traditions at yale could not simply be ignored. And one of the most important traditions there was a junior prom. The grandest ball of the year. Ill read a little section about the prom. As the long anticipated night of february 6 finally arrived the campus lights twinkled festively against the piles of snow. The grim victorian viceage of yale further darkened by the gathering clouds of war gave way to the chatty excitement and ernest selfinspection of young men and women making themselves ready like actors on opening night. Exemplifying the spirit of the day, that morning the yale daily news ran a ditty on its front page. A top hat for a students cap, a dress suit for a gown, immune from worry and mishap, well dance the planets down. The stars were in alignment as the clock struck 9 00 and the big doors to woolsey hall, which is a large concert hall that had been set out as a ballroom for the night, were flung open. Dapper young men in white tie, tails, and top hats drove from dormitories and apartments in gleaming packards, hudsons, mercers, to escort their dates and chaperones from the hotels to the prom. The lovely Little Things stepped out beneath fur coats, corseted and layered within long, low cut, silk ball gowns of unearthly hues with fur trim. Their hair was piled high with plumes and ornaments and false tresses and curls. With women basically never part of their lives except as sisters of friends and in their own family, women were truly exotic creatures to these young men. The line of autos pulled up to the sweeping curb of the grand colonnaded entrance of the rotunda lobby. Like stars and starlets at a film premiere photographers snapped the arrivals stepping to the carpeted curb. Blue and white bunting, imported palm trees, and tropical flowers filled the lobby and ball rooms. In the vast commons, which is the great dining hall at yale, which was also part of this, where the promenade was held, where the dancing was to take place, the most coveted boxes sat on platforms surrounding the dance floor. The two dance orchestras lovett had engaged for the night, markel of new york city, and dance from new haven, had set up in the balconies at either end of the hall. Markel would play the dances. Dance provided musical background during the intermissions. Soon the white, linen covered tables lining the dance hall were filled. Corks popped for the Champagne Service at each table. At 9 30, lovett, master of ceremonies for the all important dancing, stepped out in his white tie and tails and signaled to band director markel, who struck up the first number of the evening. The elegant junior and his regal new york neighbor adell brown, his date for the week, stepped smartly to the center of the floor. They danced a graceful, lively waltz to the first few bars alone and then the other members of the Prom Committee and their dates followed after them. Lovett signaled and all 47b couples stepped to the floor for the grand march. Markels strings danced them in a stately promenade through the ballroom. At the tables stags, chaperones, and hostesses applauded the elegant and passionate parade passing at a measured pace. With a nod from lovett the orchestra broke into a fast dance number and like a crazed solar system couples whirled away in their planetary orbits across the floor. Some of the chaperones tuttutted as the waltzes gave way to the tin pan alley dances like the turkey trot, fox trot, and as numbers changed new partners stepped out on to the floor. The women danced and danced. After more than an hour of dancing, lovett again gestured up to markel who sounded the chimes for supper. The crowd moved through the lobby to woolsey hall where a floor had been laid and candle lit tables set over the orchestra seating. After the supper, the dancing resumed and never stopped. Few acknowledged the breaks. Dancing couples crowded the floor all night even swinging on during intermission. Women consulted their cards and moved from partner to partner. All through the night the music, dancing, drinking, and merriment continued. At 5 30 the next morning lovett invited the remaining partiers, very few had retired, to applaud the orchestras. A raspy throated call went up for lovett and the promenade committee. The exhausted couples and chaperones returned to waiting cars and carriages. Walter camp wrote about the prom, with a lass tude that forgets the croup ld gown or disarranged hair, happy girls and their equally happy chaperones threw on their wraps and were whisked back to the hotels where they were soon dreaming over again the events of the week. As they returned to their rooms, some glanced at the front page of the previous days yale daily news. Its chilling headline read berlin not to change policy, washington continues war plans. The next month the unit was called up by the government. They were the First College kids in the country called to service. Still, life was not so bad for the gold spoon brigade. They went first to palm beach to train, staying at the breakers at the start and then renting, taking over a nice hotel. And then they returned to long island where they stayed at another resort. Once they got their wings, though, they did ship overseas or they stayed in the u. S. To build up bases, train men, test weapons, everything for a country with an air force at the time that was smaller than bulgarias. Most eventually ended up flying combat in europe. Many in the unit ended up based together. Most in the area of dunkirk, france, at the far western edge of the western front. Soon the boys were in the thick of it, flying submarine patrols and battling over the trenches or flying bombers. The results were quickly tragic for the unit. As one fell in battle the first usair combat death ever, others would follow. But the members of the group stood out. Many became base leaders. Robert lovett, whose previous experience had been organizing the junior promenade, flew bombers without parachutes in open cob pits and he also created a Strategic Bomber force. 22 years old, he soon had more than a thousand men under his command. The youngest member of the unit david engles who is now remembered at yale by the campus hockey rink, he took to flying like a hockey player to ice. He was reckless and hard hitting and maybe a little nuts. He transferred to land machines and flew with camels, the planes made famous by snoopy, and he shot down enemy after enemy. And by luck and skill managed to survive. Ill read a little section about that shows just how much luck. So he flew out with the english air ace George Hudson one evening, for one last look in the growing dusk for a low two seater. They flew over the german lines and he saw one. An old rum pleaseler. He signaled to hudson who had already turned back toward the lines. Engles dove alone but flew too fast in his first and in his first pass overshot the german machine. He circled back widely, trying to stay below the rumpler away from the observers arc of fire. Engles soared back up ignoring the tracers between the struts on his left side. Just 10 yards away he could see the two perfectly in their black helmets. He dropped back behind them, took aim, the enemy aircraft exploded. He dropped down to contour chase home. In other words he was flying so close to the ground that he would jump over hedges and trees in that way to avoid enemy antiaircraft fire. Although he flew closer to the ground ks that put him within range of the, spiteful, sharp crackle of ground machine guns with their tracers flashing by first on one side then the other. A sharp or lucky marksman could down a scout with a single, wellplaced bullet. As engles flew along he heard a burst of fire from below. His motor stopped. And gas poured out of the tank beneath the seat. A cloud of white vapor rose from the tank. His machine fell. Pulling back on the stick, the elevators did not respond. The elevators are the flaps on the tail that are used to lift