Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-07-05
War Department Plans to Break All Records For
 Number Craft and Men.
EXPERTS BELIEVE
 THIS WILL WIN WAR
Brigadier General Squier, Head of the Air Craft Bureau, Perfects Plans for Building of Machines and Train.
 ing of Many Flyers.

Washington, July 4.-Acting in the belief that aircraft will be one of the most important factors in determin- ing the world war, the war department is exerting every effort toward the expansion of the American military aviation service and the construction of the great aero fleet which it is proposed to send to Europe. In order to construct the thousands of fliers that will be needed for the service it is anticipated that many automobila and other manufacturing plants thru out the country will be turned over to this use,
 The construction of the American aero fleet will be the greatest task of it's kind ever undertaken by nation. The greatest difficulty is anticipated, however, in securing a sufficient num- Der of trained aviators to man the machines when they are completed. If the new aircraft bill, carrying an initial appropriation of $600,O00,00O for aviation purposes, is passed by congress, as there is every indication it will be. the aviation section of the Signal corps will be expanded to al- most 5O,OO0 men within the coming year. Of these 50,O00 men it is ex- pected that about 10000 will be from the ranks of the infantry arm, and will be trained at once as pilot -observ- CTS. The greater part of the remain der, it is expected. will be recruited from civil life and will be put thru the regular course of training.
 Tewtny-Fo Training Camps.
 For the purpose of training this great army of aviators "A training camps will be established at a cost of approximately $1,000,000 each. The largest of these training schools will be at Camp Kelly, San Antonio, Texas. Others will be located at convenient points in various sections of the coun- try.
 In charge of this hugo department of the military service is Brig-Gen. George 0. Squier, who, within a year, has risen from the rank of lieutenant colonel to brigadier-general. 1t is only a little more than year since Lieut.-Col. Squier was nominated by the secretary of war to be the head of the aviation section of the Signal corps. His attainments as an cleo tTlCldH IIlcCHdIllCldu dill HIS IcSOuICc- fulness as an inventor made the choice seem a natural one to men in the army who believe in placing experts in charge of important details of admin istration.
 General Squier was born at Dryden, Mich, in 1865. He entered the Unit ed States Military academy when eighteen years of age, and was gradu- ated with high honors in 1887. He studied physics while at West Point, but later at the direction of the war department added to his scientific knowledge by course at John Hop- kins university, being made Fellow at that institution in 1892.
 He acted as chief signal officer of the Third Army corps during the war with Spain. For two years, 1900 to 1902, during the laying of the Philip pine cable telegraph system, he was in command of the cable ship Burnside The work of laying the cables between the various islands of the Philippines was undertaken at great risk owing to the hostility of the natives.
 In 1912 Colonel Squier was named as military attache of the American en- bassy in London. He returned to the United States later to find that what he had studied at Johns Hopkins as a theory had become a practical de- vice. He studied aeronautics for some time, but it was while at work in the laboratory of the Signal corps at