Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1914-09-18

water, but also from the air. steps must and
should be taken to muster air fleet absolutely
second to none either hemisphere
The reason for the selection in the Hay bill
of the army for the first experiment is because
the army is at present far behind the navy in
attention to aviation and in the success attained
Dy its corps This Is due to the fact that the
army has been very much hampered by lack of
sufficient funds and by the failure of congress to
designate any single branch OF the service as an
aviation corps placing the burden OF the air work
on the Signal corps.
The navy, on the contrary, has for some time
possessed aviation corps which has done splen-
did work. The recent movement of the base OF
this corps from Annapolis Md, to Pensacola, Fla,
has given the navy additional opportunity for ex-
cellent work.
When the feet was ordered to Vera Cruz the
battleship Mississippi, which acted as the home
station Of the hydros was sent south with the
other fighting units of the navy. and the work
of the navy's aeroplanes in the neighborhoOd Of
Vera Cruz was the subject of than one
complimentary message from Rear Admiral
Fletcher.
The army sent no aeropanes to Mexico for
vo7y SGo3 reason-it had none to send that could
do the work demanded of them.
The army's feet of aeropanes is divided into
four sections, one at Galveston, Tex. at San
Diego, Cal. one in the Hawaiian islands and
one In the Philippines. These military aero
planes are out of date in the sense that they are
capable of being used onlyfor scouting purposes
and are not fitted for either defensive or Of
fensive purposes.
In the event of an invasion of Mexico the army
aeroplanes at present in use would be invaluable
for use in determining the position and number
of the enemy's forces. But when it came to
active participation in battle they would be
practically useless, while the majority of the
European air corps fitted up with special
munitions
in order to repulse attack from above or to
offer fight to forces on the ground.
1--WE must start by perfecting scouting sys-
tenn" is the opinion of Col Samuel Reber, who is
in charge of the present aviation squad las
child first learns to crawl. After that he may
take up walking and then running. In the case
of aviation running will have fully
equipped fleet of offensive airships-our actions
will probably consist of anything but running in
the literal meaning of the word.
''The advantage of the aeroplane fer scouting
purposes hardly be overestimated. The mill
tary pilot seated FIVE hundred or thousand feet
In the air is able to points of vantage and 70
catch glfmpses Of men on the ground which
would be entirely invisible either to the COM
mander or to his scouts on the level The num-
Der in any detachment could be ascertained
with surprising degree of accuracy by pilot
versed in the art of war and the information
which he brings back to earth would be invalua-
BILE to the commander planning his campaign for
the next hour.
I'VE have succeeded in bringing our aviation
scouting operations to such degree of success
that the time is entirely ripe for the next step in
the logical seQuence-the establishment of
separate aviation corps which will be powerful
enough to defend itself IL attacked or to give bat
tie to small bodies of men the ground In addi-
ton to making the highly important and I'm
mensely valuable surveys of the territory in front
of the advancing army"
The Har hill prOyiGeS the creation If aqn
aviation corps which shall be part OF the line