The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-10-12
.KLCL|NE ENLISTS IN
CORPS FOR AVIATION
Former Reporter On Advertiser
Passes Examination and Is
Accepted and Expects To Be-
gin Soon His Course Of Train
ing

.asE Esfs ......
William r. Kilclins, Z Mike as he was
known to his friends and closer asso-
ciates while be was on the rcportorial
staff of The Advertiser, has enlisted,
passed his examination and been ac-
eepted in the aviation section signal
officers reserve corps and expects to
begin his training for air service with
in the next two or three weeks, as soon
as his assignment TO camp reaches
him in San Francisco from washington.
For nearly year Kilcline was on
the staff Of The Advertiser. One of
his first assignments after his arrival
from San Francisco wRs 20 cover the
Inter Island Navigation Company hear
ings before the board of utilities He
later edited the sugar page in add.
tion to regular reportorial work aud
was one of the rathfndcrs in The Ad.
yertiser's Pilot Car on its tour of the
Islands. h.
When the call for registration for
the draft In Hawaii came Kilcline reg.
istered but his inclinations were not
for service in the ordinary line of duty
of the national army 20 be raised under
the selective draft. He had other am
billions and early in August he left Ha-
wall and Honolulu to seek the achieve.
ment Of those ambitions. How wen he
has succeeded is told in n letter re
eeiyed from him by the dast mail from
the mainland in which he says in part:
enlisted last Tuesday.
Preliminaries Are Slow ...
THE whole process of getting into
the aviation corps is a patience test.
Four days after my arrival here,
mailed my application to Washington
with the accompanying letters of recon-
mendation after having personally ap
piled for the required blanks at west.
ern department headquarters here. On
September IA, n month after my re
turn, / received acceptance of my ap.
plieation, Ten days later reported
before the examining board. The next
day group of sixteen applicants went
through the physical tests. This ex.
animation took place at the University
of California hospital here and lasted
four hours, We reported at seven,
forty,fve Tuesday morning and they
finished with us at noon that day. The
examination, in point of carefuIness
and thoroughness, IS everything that
you hear. But there are none of the
gun-shooting stunts or other fearsome
things as are reported. The only out.
of-the ordinary testis the one to de.
termine sense of balance-the whirling
chair. They give yon eight of these
q wbirls.' After each one YOU feel n
if you are aboard the Kinau or the
Likelike or some other Inter. Island
steamer. My experience travelling be-
tween Islands helped and / didn t do
what some Of the other boys did--lose
everything. - = 49,
Many Try, Few Accepted
"That afternoon much to my de
light, l was notified that had passed.
Six Of us passed out of sixteen, higher
percentage than usual. As rule about
four out Of twenty pass this aviation
corps test. Tommy Duggan took the
test few days before ! did and failed
because of slight deafness In one ear.
After passing the test, we were enlist
ed as privates. H..
4 1.-The next step is to await sending
of my papers to Washington. l will
probably be assigned to the preliminary
training school at the University of
California, Berkeley. There will take
a two months course in ground work
theoretical training. such as study Of
air currents, astronomy, machine gun
mechanism, observing, direction of ar,
tillery fire, wireless, etc.
Second Course Necessary
elf | pass the examinations at the
end of the two months, 90 to one of
the flying schools such as Dayton, Ohio,
or San Diego, California, and become
an aviator with a lieutenant IS commits
sion. It's long road but will be worth
while.
Everyone seems to be enlisting here
and the newspapers have a hard time
replacing men as fast as they enlist
1t is true that there is not the wild
enthusiasm and outward show of spirit
for the war that one would expect, but
San Francisco, at least, takes the war
seriously and, | believe il all for il -