[1] The IOC also provides financial assistance to persons and organizations in fields related to aviation and other technology industries.

[2] In the South Pacific theater, in the early days of World War II, a United States Army Air Forces flight surgeon, Captain James E. Crane, organized a group of American and Allied pilots under his care into a fraternal order that came to be called the International Order of Characters.

[3] In the early 1950s, Dr. Crane, then a flight examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration, reactivated the IOC at the urging of former members.

[3] The reborn IOC became an education foundation that provided scholarships and grants to children of deceased or disabled pilots as well as to former members of the armed forces who studied for a degree in aviation-related fields of research.

[2] The IOC also provides funding to organizations that issue individual scholarships to deserving candidates in fields related to aviation and other technology industries.