CHAPTER XVIITRAINING THE MEN
Great as was the problem this country faced in the spring of 1917 on the material side of the creation of a new branch of warfare in the American Army—the construction of fields and planes, the development of industries and the procuring of skilled labor—even greater was the problem of working out a new system of training. We are accustomed to the creation of new industries and certain nuclei already existed around which this new one could be formed. We had trained a few civilians and soldiers to fly, but we had not trained an aviator, and had no means of training even one, for usefulness on the battle front. And we were urged to send overseas at the earliest possible moment 5,000 aviators schooled in the developments and the specialties which nearly three years of the hot-house growth of war aeronautics had brought about.
The British, French and Italian Governments detailed to this country, upon our appeal, a few expert fliers and teachers of flying to aid in the early development of our effort and cadets were sent from the United States to the flying fields of Canada, England, France and Italy to hasten their training. Some of these joined the flying forces of those countries and others returned after a few months to become instructorsat our own hastily established fields. The few civilians and army men who had learned flying in pre-war days were at once set to work as instructors at the primary fields. The most apt of the American cadets, of whom many took to flying as do birds of the air and quickly became expert, were used as instructors at the home fields instead of being sent overseas for service. And so finally an expert and capable instruction personnel was built up and a system of instruction evolved that represents a work of such diligence, ingenuity, resource and enthusiastic and incessant effort as to make it one of the many memorable achievements of the war.
At the beginning of the evolution of the training system it was necessary to organize medical boards to pronounce upon the physical fitness of candidates. The requirements were rigid and the work was new and therefore the highest available medical skill must be obtained. Fifty or more of these boards were established and in the first year examined nearly 40,000 men, of whom almost half were unable to pass the severe tests. As the months went on, experience developed the methods of determining the applicant’s physical fitness for flying to a remarkable degree of efficiency. The American system of training diverged somewhat, at its very beginning, from that of other nations, since it demanded a higher degree of scholastic attainment, a collegiate degree or a certain amount of collegiate work being a requisite, as it was believed that the mental development thus obtained would enable the student flier to advance more rapidly. As the system was finally developed, the candidate who had passed successfully the initial physical test had first a month of military training at a camp devoted solelyto this work to give him due regard for discipline and for accuracy of statement in the making of reports, to inspire him with military morale and to give to his body and spirit a thorough testing in order that those who should fall short under its severe demands might be sifted out at the beginning.
Airplane Ambulance
Airplane Ambulance
Airplane Ambulance
American Flying Field in France
American Flying Field in France
American Flying Field in France
Then came two months in a ground school, of which there were eight located in as many universities and technical schools in different parts of the country, where the cadet, under military discipline, received practical and theoretical training in the study of motors, airplane construction and other elements of aviation. By means of long hours and close application the young men did as much work during the two months spent at these schools as they would ordinarily have covered during an academic year. The next step was training at a field for primary flying under the dual control system and practice in solo flying until the cadet could pass the requisite tests which permitted him to be graduated as a Reserve Military Aviator, with the rank of second lieutenant. Then he passed on to other fields where he was taught advanced flying, acrobatics, night flying, formation flying and aerial gunnery, and afterward to a specialized field where he qualified to be a pursuit pilot and fly and fight his own machine, or to be a bombing or an observation pilot, or to do reconnoissance or photographic work.
At the close of hostilities fields for every specialty had been constructed and equipped and the system of training was receiving its final development in the establishment of brigades at a large flying center where the men were formed into squadrons, trained for work together and sent overseas as a flying unit.The signing of the armistice found one such great center, ranking among the largest plants the United States had constructed for the prosecution of the war, almost completed, its several coöperating fields able to handle over 7,000 men at a time and turn out a steady weekly installment of air squadrons, each with its eighteen flying officers, five ground officers and 150 service, supply, construction and repair men, trained, organized and ready for the final two or three weeks of experience at the flying fields overseas before being sent to the front.
The system of training thus worked out had been evolved in the face of many difficulties. There were no text-books, no traditions, no bodies of accepted rules and methods. As finally developed, it was modeled somewhat on the British system, with important modifications and differences. But the passing months saw in it, as it evolved, many and sometimes striking changes. It was constantly in a fluid state, subject to the results of experiment and of observation upon the cadets in training, to the conclusions of instructors and field commanders after comparison of experience, and to the evolving ideas of scores of air service men. And especially was it subject to the information, suggestions and orders that came back from the battle front in France, where air warfare was being shaped daily and weekly by war conditions and demands into new methods and new developments. And the training on these fields four thousand miles away had to be kept closely in touch with these constant developments and imperious needs and its methods and aims changed from day to day, if necessary, to meet the requirements.
By experiment, observation, steady thinking at highpressure and comparison of ideas on the part of every instructor, every officer and every cadet at every field, methods of instruction were hammered out for each phase of the work. Each field brought its offering of daily experience and almost every flight contributed something to the accumulation of facts out of which grew, finally, some surety of knowledge. Into the development of methods flowed a steady stream of ideas, discoveries, experiences and experiments, and so day by day the American system of training grew to better results and higher efficiency. Text-books, for the most part, were type-written or mimeographed accounts of results that had been gained the month, or the week, or the day before by following certain methods, with comments and suggestions as to their use.
Many contributions of value to the general theory and practice of training for flying were made by these enthusiastic young men who toiled unceasingly over the problems set by our training fields. One young lieutenant, while studying the causes of airplane accidents and trying to find some means of preventing them, worked out a series of exercises which reproduce the positions that must be taken in advanced flying and so enable the cadet early in his work to find out whether or not he is physically unfit to undertake acrobatic work and also give him a measure of preparation for it. Experiment showed that the motion picture film had possibilities for the flying instructor and when hostilities ended it had been drawn into the system of training and was beginning to be used to hasten and to make safer the cadet’s progress. Sitting safely in his chair, he watched whirling horizons, skies and landscapes, pictured from an airplanegoing through one acrobatic performance after another, noting the varying appearances of the pictures and his own sensations, and so having his nervous system educated in advance for what he would have to undergo, learning in time whether or not it would unduly affect him and gaining quickly and without danger valuable experience. An important development, worked out and used at American flying fields, was a series of tests of the flier’s physical ability to endure high altitudes. Observation showed that accidents sometimes were the result of inability to endure rarefied atmosphere and by placing the student in a tightly closed room, gradually exhausting the oxygen and noting his reactions it was speedily determined whether or not it was safe for him to attempt high flights, either with or without a device for supplying him with oxygen.
The flight surgeon, specialized out of the army medical officer, was one of the early developments of training for air warfare and soon also there appeared, first devised and used at an American field, the flying ambulance, which enabled him and his assistants to go at once to the help of an injured airman, give him first aid and bring him back in the fuselage of the ambulance plane to the hospital. The end of hostilities saw at least one flight surgeon at every aviation training field in this country and several at each of the large ones. And there had been established a division of flight surgeons for which medical officers could receive a special course under the direction of the Medical Research Board of the Surgeon General’s Office. The flight surgeon’s duty was to keep every aviator under observation, to examine each one physically before and after flying, to note the effects offlight, especially at high altitudes, to determine how frequently he should fly and to discover whether or not he had physical peculiarities which would unfit him for any special kind of air service. To aid in this work, which was producing remarkable results in the way of both efficiency and safety, there had been established at many of the flying fields research laboratories which worked out new tests and special and ingenious apparatus for using them and made examinations and observations of the airmen in training. Associated with the work of the flight surgeon was that of the athletic instructors who, toward the end of the war period, were appointed for service at the flying fields. They were former college athletes and athletic instructors who had received special training for the work of keeping the student aviators in the best possible physical condition.
These phases of the system of training that was worked out at American fields aimed to lessen the chances of accident and to gain greater speed and efficiency in the progress of the cadets. Throughout the war period the United States made a much greater effort to lessen the casualties of training than did any other nation. A longer period of work under dual control and more knowledge and skill before the cadet began solo flying were demanded by our system of training than other nations thought necessary. This and other provisions for the safety of the cadets made our training casualties less than half those of any other nation among our war associates. The record of American flying field casualties showed 278 fliers killed in training, an average of one to each 236,800 miles flown by cadets.
The system of training had not only to produce menfor work in the air. It had also to train large numbers for a great variety of work necessary to sustain and coöperate with the flying fighters and observers. In addition to unskilled labor, fifty-two trades and occupations are essential to the aviation service and men had to be either wholly or partially trained in each of them. At first, in order to secure skilled men with the utmost speed, mechanics were sent in detachments to a great number of factories where special training was given them and afterward, as experience began to disclose what would be needed, carefully worked out courses of training were established in nearly a dozen different schools. Government schools giving thorough training, in operation at the end of the first year of war, were graduating 5,000 mechanics every three months. Aerial photography had developed during the war to an exact science, but when we entered the conflict very little was known about it in the United States. Instruction in it was of a threefold character, for observers had to learn how to operate cameras in an airplane, intelligence officers on the ground had to be instructed in the interpretation of the results and enlisted men to be taught to do the developing, printing, and enlarging and to keep the equipment in condition. Schools for training in all these things soon produced the necessary instructors for the flying fields where training in aerial photography was given.
It was a complicated and difficult problem that the United States faced when it undertook to work out a system of air training while it was training the men for air service. But within a year and a half it had evolved an efficient system that set higher standards than did other nations and also better safe-guardedthe lives of the men in training, and while doing this it had sent overseas 4,776 trained flying officers, had as many more at home fields, and had in training at home more than 5,000 cadets, of whom nearly half were in advanced stages of the work. In the final test of service at the front the men who had been trained by that system received for their ability, skill and deeds the heartiest and highest praise.