United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy (also known as USNA, Annapolis, or simply Navy) is a four-year coeducational federal service academy adjacent to Annapolis, Maryland. Established on 10 October 1845, under Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, it is the second oldest of the United States' five service academies, and educates officers for commissioning primarily into the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. The campus is located on the former grounds of Fort Severn at the confluence of the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay in Anne Arundel County, east of Washington, D.C. and southeast of Baltimore. The entire campus (known to insiders as "the Yard") is a National Historic Landmark and home to many historic sites, buildings, and monuments. It replaced Philadelphia Naval Asylum, in Philadelphia, that served as the first United States Naval Academy from 1838 to 1845 when the Naval Academy formed in Annapolis.
Aviation Cadet Training Program (USN)
In 1911, the navy began training its first pilots at the newly founded Aviation Camp at Annapolis, Maryland. In 1914, the navy opened Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, dubbed the "Annapolis of the air", to train its first naval aviators. Candidates had to have served at least two years of sea duty and training was for 12 months. In 1917, the navy's program became part of the Flying Officer Training Program. Demand for pilots, however, still exceeded supply. The navy organized an unfunded naval militia in 1915 encouraging formation of ten state-run militia units of aviation enthusiasts. The Naval Appropriations Act of 29 August 1916 included funds for both a Naval Flying Corps (NFC) and a Naval Reserve Flying Corps. Students at several Ivy League colleges organized flying units and began pilot training at their own expenses. The NFC mustered 42 navy officers, six United States Marine Corps officers, and 239 enlisted men when the United States declared war on 6 April 1917. These men recruited and organized qualified members from the various state naval militia and college flying units into the Naval Reserve Flying Corps.