John Henry Towers - World War I

World War I

In August 1914, shortly after the war began, Towers was ordered to London as assistant naval attaché —- a billet he filled until he returned to the United States in the autumn of 1916. That August Lieutenant Towers accompanied the U.S. Relief Expedition aboard the USS Tennessee (ACR-10) as part of the naval delegation led by Commander Reginald R. Belknap, with overall command by Assistant Secretary of the Army Henry S. Breckinridge. Subsequently, Towers advocated for the First Yale Unit, which would become the core of naval aviation's participation in the war.

In May 1917, Lieutenant Commander Towers was ordered to the Bureau of Navigation as Supervisor of the Naval Reserve Flying Corp, a precursor to the Naval Air Reserve Force. When the Navy established the Division of Aviation, at Navy Department headquarters, Towers was appointed Assistant Director of Naval Aviation. There, he orchestrated the build up from a handful of obsolete aircraft and less than 50 pilots to a force of thousands of aircraft and aviators.