Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-12-14

One of the branches of military
service that has been brought out
and is being developed by the great
world war is the aerial service in
which both offensive and defensive
warfare as we'll as reconnaissance and
observation is carried on by means of
airplanes and trained aviators. There
are many who are in position to Judge
who believe that this branch of the
service is to play a very important
part in helping the allies win the war
for Democracy and permanent peace.
This service is new, and there are
many interesting details in connection
with it that are not generally known;
for this reason we publish herewith
extracts from a letter recently re-
ceived from Darby Kenyon, who was
accepted by the commanding officer
of the U. S. Signal Corps last sum-
mer as an applicant for a commits
sion as First Lieutenant in the Off
GERS Reserve Corps, Aviation Section,
U. S. S. c., and is now classified as
"Flying Cadet" in training to quail
ify for his commission. Darby COM
pleted his course of training in Royal
Flying Corps, "Ground School," at
Toronto University and is at present
getting his aerial training in the avi-
alton camp near Fort Worth, Texas.
The following extracts from a letter
: to the "home folks" are self explana-
tory:
The last l wrote you was Tues
day night, just before going to that
dance, l believe. That night | met
a bunch of Fort Worth elite girls;
; one in particular invited me to
Thanksgiving dinner, and right
there is where the "sob stuff"
starts. Wednesday, ten of US from
; the 22nd Squadron were trans
ferred TO Benbrook Aerodrome, and
that night all the camps around
Fort Worth were ordered under
quarantine on account of diseases
breaking out in Camp Bowie, Ma
tional Army camp, so | didn't get
in for the Thanksgiving dinner.
/; don't know how long this quaran-
tine will last; it's bad for US, for
> there are no epidemics except
y broken noses in the Aviation camps
I. (there are three around Fort
Worth-Hicks, Everman and Ben
brook-all of them about ten miles
out). l hope it don't last long; it's
a rotten life staying in camp all
the time, even though we are taken
good care of.
> At last l am on "solo." I've got
= three and half hour in and %
landings; had five and half hours
= dual" It's a great old feeling to
sit up about 5000 feet and look
down at the humble old world be-
heath you; there's a certain fasci-
: nation about being up there all
alone, but l suppose even that will
= become commonplace before long
p ! got along fine on my first
: "solo"; "took off" and flew around
the aerodrome just once and land
= :, ed, while my instructor stood out
y on the field and watched me.
y certainly felt great when l "got
- ~ by" with that first "solo"; it:
q something every embryo aviator
~ spends a good bit of time think
- ing about.
~ ~ The first one of our original On,
- Hundred who left Fort Wood wa!
- - killed yesterday at Everman, on hi
Is first "solo"; lost control while il
! the air.
- A strange thing happened her
i the other day; a fellow tainted a
=, 1,500 feet, crashed, and miracu
~ ~ lously escaped with only a broker
- nose and a cut above the eye.
l., might go on and tell you about doz
y ems of crashes; there are lots o
n them. but few are fatal; as yet n
= one has been killed at Benbrook
~ most of them occur when landing
~ and the machine suffers more tina
the pilot. When you see these 49,
900 planes being crashed almost b
% the wholesale, you see where
~ costs something to train a fiier-
- i am knocking on wood;
~ haven't crashed yet.
be- / sure would like to drop in o
to (Continued on page eight