George H.W. Bush was part of Navy pre-flight training program in Chapel Hill

Posted Dec 6, 2018
In Jon Meacham’s 2015 best seller, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,” the president’s time in Chapel Hill plays a short but important role in his life. When Bush turned 18 in 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to Chapel Hill for pre-flight training, which was “a very shaping experience, a memorable experience.” (Durham Herald-Sun)

Related: Campus Connections

January 15, 1975: UNC Opened Its Doors, With Little Fanfare
On a cold and muddy winter morning 230 years ago, UNC officially opened its doors, though it didn’t have many doors to open. On Jan...
Tue Jan 21, 2025

Hundreds of UNC Alumni Affected by California Wildfires
The homes of nearly 400 UNC alumni were in the path or in evacuation zones of fast-moving destructive fires that began Jan. 7 in the...
Mon Jan 20, 2025

'This was a life': UNC community gathers for memorial to honor James Cates
James Cates Jr., a Black Chapel Hill resident, was murdered by members of a white supremacist motorcycle gang outside of the Carolina Union on Nov...
Sun Jan 19, 2025

Stuart Scott Has Been Often Imitated But Never Duplicated
For most of us, Stuart Scott came into our lives in the mid-90’s on ESPN2. Scott was at WESH, the NBC affiliate in Orlando prior...
Sat Jan 18, 2025