Brigadier General FREDERICK TRUBEE DAVISON Brig. Gen. Frederick Trubee Davison was born at New York, New York, on February 7, 1896. He attended the Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1914. He was appointed an ensign in the Naval Reserve on March 24, 1917, and a lieutenant junior grade on May 1, 1917. He was ordered to active duty three days and served as Instructor of Aviation, U.S. Navy at West Palm Beach, Florida, and Huntington Beach, Long Island, New York, until December 1918. On July 28, 1917, he was badly injured, suffering a broken back, in the crash of a seaplane he was piloting on a training flight over Huntington Bay, New York. He had no service in France but was awarded the Navy Cross for distinguished services.He was graduated from Yale University in 1918 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and from Columbia Law School in 1922 with a degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was honorably discharged from the Navy at the expiration of his enrollment on March 23, 1921, and on July 16, 1926, was appointed Assistant Secretary of War, having previously spent five years in the New York Legislature.On September 12, 1927, he was commissioned a colonel in the Specialist Reserve Corps of the Army and from that date until he was called to active duty in 1941 he served the usual short periods on active duty as required under his Reserve appointment.In June 1941 he was assigned to Headquarters, Air Force Combat Command, Bolling Field, D.C., for duty as Acting Deputy Chief of Staff and Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant General Delos C. Emmons. In January 1943 he was assigned to Headquarters, Army Air Forces, Washington, D.C., as A-1, Air Staff, later becoming Special Projects Officer. In March 1943 he was made Chief of the Special Projects Division, a division whose responsibility it was to have ready at all times an adequate plan for demobilization of the Army. He served concurrently as the Army Air Forces representative on the Interdepartmental Group on Material Demobilization Planning; served on the subcommittee on the disposal of transport aircraft under the Baruch plan; and provided representation for the Army Air Forces with the Office of the Under Secretary of War on matters on contract termination and disposal of surpluses.Some of his other activities are as follows: Member of the New York Assembly from Nassau County from 1922 to 1926; Assistant Secretary of War (Air) from 1926 to 1933; President of the American Museum of Natural History since 1933; Trustee, New York Trust Company, Mutual Life Insurance Company; Chairman, National Crime Commission, 1925 to 1936; Trustee, American Museum of Natural History; Trustee, National Playground and Recreation Association; Trustee, New York Zoological Society; Trustee, Institute of Public Administration; Member, Yale Corporation, American Geographical Society.He was promoted to brigadier general on June 3, 1945.DECORATIONSHe was awarded the Navy Cross in 1919, with the following citation:“The Navy Cross is presented to F. Trubee Davison, Lieutenant (j.g.), U.S. Navy (Reserve Force), for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility in the organization of the first Yale Aviation Unit which formed the nucleus of the first Naval Reserve Flying Corps, from which the U.S. Naval Aviation Force, Foreign Service, afterwards grew. The efficiency of this group was largely due to the example of loyal and courageous duty set by this officer.” He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal in October 1945, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services in the performance of duties of great responsibility during the period January 1942 to September 1945.NOTE: Davison was injured in a seaplane crash before he could earn his Naval Aviator rating. In July 1966, Vice Admiral Paul H. Ramsey, deputy chief of Naval Operations for Air, presented Davison a set of wings and designated him as an honorary Naval Aviator.(Current as of October 2024)