OCR Text |
Show HUGE ARMY IN AIR AMERICAN AVIATORS BY THE SCORE8 OF THOUSANDS MAY 800N BE IN WAR. GREAT APPROPRIATION ASKED Youth of This Country Not Daunted by Danger of This) Service, Which, However, Is 8mller Than In Some Other Branches). By EDWARD B. CLARK. Washington. Congress has been nuked by tho national council of defense de-fense to npproprlato n huge sum of money to carry Into effect n program of nlrcrnft production through which It Is hoped thnt American avlaturx will dominate the eifemy on the lighting linen In ICtiropo. It seems probable that the American Hjlnjr corp-3, Instead of numbering Its .illots and Its observers by a few "(ores, hoon will number them by the thousand scores. There are a good tunny things In the aviation service ulilch thu American youth does not know. It Is apparent that the nrmy desires that the lnformutlou be Imparled. Im-parled. Llttlo by llttlo tho wnr department Is giving out Information about nrmy iivlutlnn plans. From the other side of the water nnd from this side too liavo come urgent appeals that Unele( .Sum train filers by tho hundred thou-' sands nnd build machines enough to send them all soaring. It Is knmvn that at some of the olltrers' reserve corps camps few of the men lmvo shown n desire to enter the ulr service. Hasty Judgment passed In this matter has made It np-pear np-pear that young Americans ore afraid of the ulr. This Is far from tho truth. They nro Just as willing to take chances aloft as they are on the ground. Tho reason for holding hack is thnt the young fellows In training for commissions nnd the thousands of young men In training for army service have not been properly Informed In-formed concerning the training nnd the duties' for scouting nnd lighting in tho ulr. Not Most Dangerous Service. The Americans who think thnt the youth of tho land Is holding bnck from nvlutlnn service because of Its dangers are misinformed ns to fncts In the case. There Is nothing In the history of wnr to show thnt danger would daunt uny American, but the truth happens to bo thnt tho flying service Is not ns dangerous ns two or three other services Into which the men fairly clamor to enter. In tho present wnr tho records show thnt the doctors and tho Utter bearers aro In greater danger of ''death nnd wounds than men of uny other brunch of the service. Itunntng 'them close are the engineers, the lufuutry and the artillery. It Is probable that some-v. some-v. here In between the Infantrymen nnd the gunners will bo found the tilers. They lmvo suffered heavily, of course, but their chance of escape is greater than If they were serving In nny of threo other of tho fighting branches. Tho urgency of the demand that American aviators In great numbers be sent to Europe nnd thnt America turn out Hying machines by the scores of thousands unquestionably will bring lt.s results. Tho chances aro that when tho American nrmy gets to Franco It will he found that a branch of the service that twenty years ngo was unknown un-known will be numerically as strong ns nny other clement In the nrmy, burring bur-ring only the Infantry nnd perhaps the artillery. Must Be Very Well Fitted. There are aviation camps In vnrlous parts of tho country todny. There, young men nro trained for the literally high service work. The numbers of men at thesq camps, however, nro small us compared to what they will bo when tho plans for an enlarged scrvlco aro completed. It takes a peculiarly pe-culiarly well-fitted youngster to mnko a successful nvlator. Temperament, combined with a sense of direction and ono or two oUier things, Is everything, and Amerlenn nrmy officers have shown thnt they aro experts In Judging Judg-ing temperament after short acquaintance acquaint-ance with Its possessor. Young men nro wanted for the aviation avi-ation ttervlcc. Tho nrmy has a method meth-od of detecting their senso of physical balance, anil It has another one, as old as an ancient parlor trick, of determining deter-mining whether or not they have a sense of direction. Tho youngster Is blindfolded, twirled like a top, and then told to walk nnd touch tho wnll which he was facing when tho spinning spin-ning begun. When I was at tho French front two years ngo I witnessed tho attempts of tho nntl-nlrcraft cannoneers to bring down German airplanes. They seldom were successful In their attempts tto hit tho Hying machines. Thnt was two years ago. It Is understood today that tho cannoneers aro better shots than they weru shortly after tho outbreak of tho war and that now and then they bring down tlicso mcchnntcnl birds of passage, but most of the airplanes air-planes thnt nro tumbled to earth aro sent tbero by other plnnes giving them battle In midair. The young aviator now entering the service will lmvo his chance at tho most exciting bnttlo sport known to man, and while there Is no thought thut bo will bo particularly Interested In tho statement, It may bo said that he will run no greater danger of death than his comrades who aro fighting with good sound earth under their feet. I |