In the weeks following the Pearl Harbor attack, young men across American flocked to recruiting offices to sign on the dotted line and join the U.S. military. A certain number of them aspired to fly for the Navy, inspired perhaps by a recruiting poster featuring a naval officer in dress blue uniform with wings of gold on his chest or the inherent challenge of flying from an aircraft carrier. With the mass influx of personnel, the Navy realized the necessity of reorganizing its flight training program, one of the first measures taken occurring on February 1, 1942, with an announcement by the Secretary of the Navy that all prospective naval aviators would begin their training at pre-flight schools, which would emphasize physical conditioning, military instruction, and classroom work.
As sites for the pre-flight schools, the Navy turned to colleges and universities, which given the reduction in enrollment as college-aged men joined the military were more than happy to welcome the sea service to their campuses. The first pre-flight schools opened at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Iowa in May 1942. The following month, those at the University of Georgia and St. Mary’s College in California, commenced training students. In June, the Navy took over the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey, California, and used it for pre-flight instruction.
The universities selected as the sites for the pre-flight schools benefited immediately in the development of their physical plants, the Navy paying for new construction. At the University of North Carolina, for example, the Navy renovated dormitories, expanded an existing gymnasium, constructed an athletic field, and built Navy Hall, a white columned structure that is still in use on the campus today. St. Mary’s College got even more in the form of a dependable water supply. For years the college subsisted on water from a reservoir created by damming Las Trampas Creek. However, by the time St. Mary’s was selected to serve as a pre-flight school, erosion around the reservoir, which was named Lake Lasalle, had caused silt to build up in its waters. While the college had repeatedly been denied when officials asked to have pipes run from the campus to the water supply under the auspices of the nearby East Bay Municipal Utility District, the Navy was more difficult to say no to. In short order, in the name of defense, the pipes were run and thousands of aviation cadets reported to St. Mary’s.
It did not take long for cadets to arrive at the respective pre-flight schools in great numbers—beginning in May 1942, they began arriving in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at a rate of some 300 per week until a quota of 1,875 cadets was reached. This was mirrored at the other locations, as a steady stream young men arrived on campus, departing three months later for primary flight training physically fit and with the military bearing of the naval officers they were striving to become.
“Boy, they really set a fast pace around here and keep it up,” Aviation Cadet Raymond Porter wrote his family from the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School at the University of Iowa. “When I get up in the morning I think I am going to die and when I go to bed at night I am afraid I am not going to die.” Indeed, the instructors set a hectic pace, from intense classroom work to uniform inspections, to physical training, which included long hikes, running the obstacle course, and participating in an array of sports from wrestling and boxing to gymnastics. With such an emphasis on athletics, it was not surprising that the pre-flight schools fielded teams that competed against those of other military installations as well as at the intercollegiate level. As part of these programs, the Navy commissioned scores of college coaches in an array of sports, the ranks of physical training instructors including famed football coaches Bud Wilkinson and Paul “Bear” Bryant. Former heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney was called in to help mold the naval aviation cadets and another instructor was Michigan football standout and future President of the United States Gerald R. Ford.
Though the cadets participated in sports ranging from wrestling to swimming to basketball, football was where the pre-flight school teams had their greatest impact. With the ranks of aviation cadets including men who had played college football before the war, the pre-flight teams were virtual all-star squads. In 1943, the top ten teams in the final Associated Press rankings included the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks (#2) and Del Monte Pre-Flight (#8). Iowa Pre-Flight beat the likes of Illinois, Ohio State, and Iowa, losing only to eventual national champion Notre Dame by a single point.
Future President of the United States George H.W. Bush, baseball slugger Ted William, television personality Ed McMahon, and thousands of others passed through the Navy’s pre-flight schools, which served as the foundations of service for the aviators that piloted the Navy’s aircraft during World War II. With the end of the war, they closed as quickly as they had opened in the frenetic pace of wartime expansion, the campuses on which they once thrived soon welcoming veterans anxious to start their lives anew.
Pictured above, aviation cadets climb ropes at University of North Carolina Pre-Flight, a card sent by Aviation Cadet Paul Blair to his mother indicating that he had arrived safely at University of Georgia Pre-Flight in November 1942, and the cover of the program for a football game between University of Georgia Pre-Flight and Duke University on October 30, 1942.
Other Significant February Events in Naval Aviation History
February 9, 1935- Navy orders the N3N trainer, famously known as the "Yellow Peril"
February 22, 1974- Designation of the first female naval aviation, LTJG Barbara Allen