passenger. On 20 June 1913, Towers was nearly killed in an aviation mishap over the Chesapeake Bay. While he was flying as a passenger in a Wright seaplane, his plane was caught in a sudden downdraft and plummeted earthward. The pilot, Ensign W.D. Billingsley, was thrown from the aircraft and killed (becoming the first naval aviation fatality). Towers was wrenched from his seat but managed to catch a wing strut and stay with the plane until it crashed into the Chesapeake. Interviewed by Glenn Curtiss soon thereafter, Towers recounted the circumstances of the tragedy; his report and resultant recommendations eventually led to the design and adoption of safety belts and harnesses for pilots and their passengers. On 20 January 1914, after appealing to the higher-ups to move the aviation unit to warmer climes Lieutenant Towers led 9 officers and 23 enlisted men, with seven aircraft, portable hangars and other gear from the aviation unit at Annapolis (Greenbury Point) to Pensacola, Florida to set up the naval aviation training unit. On April 20, 1914, Towers led the first naval aviation unit called into action with the Fleet. He and two other pilots, 12 enlisted men and three aircraft sailed from Pensacola aboard the cruiser in response to the Tampico Affair. Naval aviator designation and insignia In January 1915, the navy decided to officially designate its flyers. At that time, Towers was officially designated as Naval Aviator No. 3, with an effective date of 1914. Lieutenant Commander Towers, while assigned to the aviation desk under CNO, is credited with the development of the Naval Aviators badge, which were designed and ordered in 1917. On January 19, 1918, distribution of the first gold Naval Aviator wings began, and it is likely that Towers, as Senior Naval Aviator in Washington at the time, was an early, if not the earliest, recipient. 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 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 became the core of naval aviation's participation in the war. In May 1917, Lieutenant