Old Boys Council Film Screening:
The Millionaires' Unit Documentary

St. Bernard's Small Gym
Tuesday, April 16
6:00 p.m. Reception, refreshments will be provided
6:30 p.m. Screening
 
Join us for a special, one hour screening of The Millionaires' Unit, introduced by the film’s producer and Old Boy, Harry Davison '76.  

The Millionaires' Unit is an award winning documentary about America's first combat pilots in WWI, some of whom were parents and grandparents of Old Boys.   Based on personal letters and family photographs, with exciting footage of single seater fighters in air to air combat maneuvers, it is a coming of age story for both a young country and a new generation of Americans. 

The story begins on the waters of Long Island Sound where the young men spent the summer together at the home of the Davison family at Peacock Point, and it continues during their winter break in Palm Beach, as they tried to earn their wings as aviators while undergraduates at Yale.  Captivated by the early promise of aviation, and caught up in the excitement of a new technology, they fought for respect against a myopic bureaucracy in Washington. Through their initiative was born the Naval Air Reserve, or as it was known at the time, The First Yale Unit. Sons of privilege, they could have avoided the conflict altogether, but instead they formed a private air militia in 1916, and earned their navy wings within weeks of President Wilson declaring war. It is a true story of adventure and of romance, of service and of sacrifice, of triumph and of tragedy as these young aviators became the first to fly and the first die for their country. In the words of a former U.S. Navy Admiral, "The First Yale Unit is the best story about Naval Aviation that has never been told." Those who survived  went on to become leaders in the military, in politics, business, intelligence and aviation, while the names of those who paid the ultimate price are still remembered by their families and etched in stone in cemeteries abroad.
 
Narrated by Bruce Dern, whose great uncle was a member of the unit, and featuring photos sourced from family collections and from the Naval archives, the film offers an intimate insight into the hopes and fears of a group of individuals who literally experienced a baptism under fire in action as they entered adulthood. The film also creates an authentic experience by putting the viewer in the cockpit of single seater fighter aircraft from the collection of director Peter Jackson (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), engaged in air to air combat maneuvers in New Zealand. 
 
The rush and exhilaration of action and the passionate expression of emotions explains better than anything why to whom so much is given, much is expected.

For more information on The Millionaires' Unit, please click here.  

Please register for the event below and e-mail Kate Fiscus with any questions.