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Naval History and Heritage Command

Executive Order of President Woodrow Wilson

 

Executive_Order

     Pursuant to the authority vested in me by Act of Congress approved July 27, 1917, (Public No. 31, 65th Congress), it is hereby ordered that possession be taken forthwith, on behalf of United States, for use for national defense and in connection therewith as sites for permanent aviation stations for the Army and Navy and for aviation school purposes, of the whole of North Island, in the harbor of San Diego, California.1

Woodrow Wilson

THE WHITE HOUSE,

          August 1, 1917.

Source Note: D, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: A naval air station still remains on the 1,232-acre North Island, billing itself the “official birthplace of Naval Aviation” because it was there that the Navy’s first aviator, Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, and many of his colleagues received trained. https://www.military.com/base-guide/naval-air-station-north-island, consulted 18 July 2017. The U.S. Army left North Island in 1936, whereupon the Navy expanded its operations, taking control of the entire island, https://coronadohistory.org/historic-coronado/a-timeline-of-coronado-history, consulted 18 July 2017.

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