The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1917-09-07
CLARENCE FRY GOES
TO ITALY TO TRAIN
FOR AVIATION Duty
COLUMBIAN ONE OF TWO FROM
TENNESSEE IN PICKED DE-
TAcHMENT OF $50.
TO Be MADE FIRST LIEUTENANT
Makes Light Of Personal Danger And
Gives Glowing Account of What the
United States is Preparing to do in
Air to Crush the German Army.

q The United States probably Wi
, have 5000 trained ayiators on tn
e European battle front by next spring
is the opinion of Clarence Fry, Sol
, of Judge ]. w. Fry, who came Sun
, day morning for a short visit at hom,
> and will leave tonight for New Yorl
where he win in a few days depar
with a detachment of $50 picked
2 aviation students for further train
ing in Italy.
Mr.. Fry is a candidate for a com
: mission in the aviation corps and will
receive first lieutenants commission
before his ship sails. He attended
the aviation university at Columbus
Ohio two months where he was
given instructions in observation
signaling and the operation of air
planes. From Columbus he was sent
to the flying school at Mineola, Long
Island, where he spent month re-
ceiving instructions in flying. OF the
$50 men picked to go to Italy he was
one of two from Tennessee, the other
being Jim Stokes, of Nashville While
at Mineola he was often the guest of
J. F. Stillman, son of the we'll known
New York banker, and H. P. David
son, Jr., son of the executive head of
the American Red Cross, both of
whom will go to Italy with him. He
will be accompanied to New York to-
night by his father who will spend
the remainder of the week there.
Like most of the young men of
America who are doing the big things
in the war; Mr.. Fry, despite the in
sistent interrogations of a Herald re
porter, would talk but little about his
personal life at the camps and his
prospects at the front, but was en-
thusiastfc in his conversation con-
corning the great plan of the United
States to surpass everything that has
been undertaken by the European
allies in the way of aviation. He
described the training in this country
and said that flying is simple per-
formance that anyone could learn to
fly, but that the great difficulty is in
learning the work that must be done
in the air, such as bombing, observ-
ing for the artillery and scouting
against the enemy craft.
In his practice Mr.. Fry has attain
ed height of 5000 feet and found it
very much like automobiling, there
being rough roads in the air and steep
grads just as on the ground. AL
though aviators are required ordinar-
lily to fly a total of at least 1920
minutes before being commissioned
as first lieutenants, Mr.. Fry, and the
others who have been picked for spe-
cial training, have not flown more than
60 minutes, but the government desir-
ed that all the men who go to the
Italian field be commissioned.
With the new flying schools that
are being established it is. possible
that the United States soon will be
turning out 400 or 500 aviators
week with sufficient supply of
machines for them as we'll as for
many of the European fliers.
An aerial squadron, he said is
composed of one major, medical
officer, II lieutenants and captains
who do the flying, 154 enlisted men
who do the ground work and prob
ably will also have Notifying COM
missioned officers when in active
service ..
The branch Of the aerial service
that appeals most strongly to a
majority of the students, and to
which the men who are going to Italy
will be assigned, is that of scouting.
or actual fighting. These men fly in
high powered machines alone and
protect the observation machines,
which are the eyes Of the artillery,
and the bombing machines which
make raids on enemy positions that
are inaccessible to the artillery.
With that modesty that character
ICES the hero. Mr.. Fry made light Of
the dangers of Aging, saying that it
| is as easy as automobiling and that
he was sure that before many months
this country will have thousands of
men in the service. well trained to
form a perfect air superiority against
the Germans, thus binding their
aerial service and completely reveal
ing all operations behind the enemy
lines. This will probably be the work
/ that will end the war.
Mr.. Fry promised that he would
write for The Herald series OF let
tiers from Italy, which would not only
be OF personal interest to his many
friends here but would also enlarge