By By Tiffany Ayuda
Walking onto the north side of campus during World War I, students were more likely to find fighter planes than dorm rooms. Believe it or not, the University was a military aviation training camp during World War I.
“The land that is now Hofstra University was originally Mitchel Field Air Force Base,” Seamus Keane, the business supervisor from the Museum, located in Garden City said. “From here [Cradle of Aviation of Museum], I can see the quad of towers in the University and all that space there was part of the base used for flight. It was part of Mitchel Field until 1961.”
Bill Bleyer, a Newsday staff writer, said it was named after New York City’s former mayor, Maj. John Purroy Mitchel, who died in a training flight in Louisiana. At 35, Mitchel became the youngest mayor of New York City. and served from 1914 to 1917. However, he was not re-elected for a second term and instead joined the Signal Corps Army Air Service.
Camp Mills, which was west of Mitchel Air Force Base, was the largest training center for American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. In addition, the 42nd infantry went overseas from Camp Mills to become the first American ground troops to experience combat in France.
In an article written after World War I by Joshua Stoff, a writer for the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Mitchel Field underwent major construction – warehouses with an officers’ club, operations buildings and eight steel and concrete hangers were erected.
Between the years of 1920 and 1925, Mitchel Field ran major National Air Races.
“The most daring flights happened where the Hofstra towers are now located,” Keane said.
In the 1920 Pulitzer Race, Lt. C.C. Mosely set a new record of 156 mph; in addition, Lt. Cyrus Bettis set a world speed record of 249 mph in a Long-Island-built Curtiss Racer. In September 1928, James Harold Doolittle, a general for Signal Army Corps, returned to Mitchel Field and helped in the development of fog equipment. He assisted in the advancement of the most universally-used artificial, horizontal and directional gyroscopes and made the first successful flight by instruments.
Mitchel Field Air Force Base also played a huge role during World War II. As one of the significant Air Force bases along the East Coast, it was a key to the American defense systems. Moreover, it was a place where the public became engrossed with the modern military technology of the time, and it developed into a model of military strength and devotion to the world.
Army Air Corps missions operated in Mitchel Field as early as 1941. During 1934 and 1944, a fleet of 1,400 B-17, B-24 and B-29 bombers flew from Mitchel Field to bases in England. Interestingly enough, German prisoners of war were housed in the field, small establishments at the University, Nassau Community College and Nassau Coliseum were part of the camps set up for German prisoners during World War II.
Geri E. Solomon, the University’s Guest Curator at the Hofstra Museum, said in 1903 a very wealthy couple by the names of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Hofstra purchased their retirement estate, presently called “The Netherlands.” William Hofstra was co-owner of a lumber company called Nassau Lumber Company with Howard Brower. In 1932, Mr. Hofstra died and passed the estate to his wife Kate Hofstra. When she died in 1933, the entire estate was sold to Howard Brower and James Barnard, hence the names of the oldest buildings at the University are Brower and Barnard Halls. As a tribute to William Hofstra, Brower and Barnard established Hofstra College in 1935. Truesdel Peck Calkins, one of the Trustees of the University, was also the head of Bureau of Appointments at New York University.
To create an educational facility in Long Island was Calkins’s ultimate goal. So, initially, the University was known as New York University’s Nassau College Hofstra Memorial. The University’s first faculty was from New York University and the students commuted to Long Island to attend classes. Despite the effects of the Depression, many students began to enroll at the University and their various clubs and activities.
However, things slowly came to a halt when World War II began and the nation’s involvement in the war became more and more integrated. Clifford L. Lord, the author of The History of Hofstra University, says the women at the University joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (WAVES) and the Women’s Army Corps (WACS). More than 150,000 women served in the WACs, who were considered the first women, other than nurses, to serve within the United States Army, according to www.army.mil. The WAVES presented women with formal officer status in Naval service, states www.history.navy.mil.
Mitchel Field became a leading defense base in American military history. Soldiers and aviators were educated at the University for various emergency services and took management defense training courses. The Civil Aeronautics Administration working at Mitchel Field took courses in flight training. In a sense, the University was involved in World War II because it played an important role in the training and education of the U.S. military’s spread of patriotism. It prompted the public to take interest in the war and to take initiatives to provide support for the soldiers.
After World War II, Mitchel Field continued with its operations until 1961, as a result of pressure from residents of Nassau County to end its run. After Brower Hall was destroyed due to a training accident, the people of Nassau County took immediate steps to end Mitchel Field’s operations.
Presently, the University now stands where a history of aviators and military personnel once trained to defend our nation. So the University is more than an educational institution, a retirement estate of a wealthy business couple and a NYU commuter school – it was a vital part of America’s military history.