Former Rice football star, and Anahuac resident, Ox Hinman organized the so-called “Air Wing” of the Fraternity, lining up pilots from across the state to fly to the Chambers County Airport. Hinman welcomed 122 planes in 1955. In 1956 there were 134.
In June of 1954 it was said, “The gathering of planes belonging to members of the Fraternity of the White Heron each Fish Fry Day at Anahuac is the largest single day’s aggregation of airplanes in the nation and is exceeded in numbers only by the national convention of the Flying Farmers.”
From a 20 June 1952 article: Garland 'Ox' Hinman of LaPorte, squadron commander of the air wing of the Fraternity of the White Herons, paid an aerial visit to Baytown early Friday morning.
He flew low over the city in his plane that has two big herons painted on the sides. His trip was to publicize the annual White Heron Fish Fry at Anahuac, Saturday.
Admiral Thad Felton and the Goose Creek Navy will make the trip to Anahuac in at least 10 boats tomorrow. At least a dozen planes from the Baytown and LaPorte area plus scores of autos will make the trip.
Some 5,000 persons are expected for the annual fish fry, called the nation's largest.
The Goose Creek Navy
Excerpt from the 29 Sept 1952 edition of the Baytown Sun.
The Goose Creek Navy was organized in 1947 under the command of Admiral Thad Felton. The first maneuver made by the Goose Creek Navy was a cruise to Fort Anahuac to attend the White Heron Fraternity in June of 1947. Only one boat and seven admirals made the trip. On the 1952 “maneuver” 11 boats and 85 Admirals made the cruise.
The Navy’s primary purpose is to build good will for the city of Baytown and is the brainchild of Admiral Thad Felton, who when he was president of the Baytown Chamber of Commerce, decided that some such vehicle was needed for that purpose. He also felt that some means of preserving the name “Goose Creek” should be provided as, at that time, Baytown, Goose Creek, and Pelly were in the process of consolidations and the old city of Goose Creek faced extinction.
It is also the purpose of the Goose Creek Navy “to protect and defend the shores of the ship channel, Galveston Bay, and Trinity Bay, from the San Jacinto River to Fort Anahuac, from foreign and or federal encroachment or invasion.”