Yale Goes to War: The First Yale Unit

In 1916 as America faced a revolution in Mexico and full-blown war in Europe, a group of 12 friends at Yale decided it was time they learned how to fly. That summer the young men formed the Yale Aero Club and the volunteer Coastal Patrol Unit #1, later known as the First Yale Unit. They would become the country’s first naval aviation unit in World War I — the eyes in the skies that spotted enemy troops and land mines, chased U-boats and zeppelins, and engaged enemy planes in battles over Europe.