Milford chronicle., 1917-12-14
AVIATOR WRITES EXPERIENCES

puDilsh more letters al a later date whom
Fruit has time TO write US.
Sunday afternoon.
Dear Marshall:
When l left Milford you'll remember
promised you that / would send Won from,
time to time, news Of my experience
which you thought might prove Interest
IN gto the readers Of the CHRONrCr-e
Up to the last week or so. however r.,-a
been so busy that scarcely had tir,e f,-
anything outside Of my regular work .,
1ep' Ihe reading o fthe CHRONICLE.
which | wisely subscribed for al the tip,s
Of my departure
Before spending any further time and
thought on myself, let me conEra tul,,e
you and Mrs. Townsend's very good for
tune. 1t is now, I believe Marshall. wife
and family Please accept my best wishes
for you all
The obvious place for a beginning is
OF course, at the beginning so here goes
In accordance with my orders I reported
to the Massachusetts Institute Of Tech
nology, Army School OF Aernautics. Bos-
ton Mass, on August q, 1917 All Of us.
about 2S in number, who reported on that
date were assigned to and composed
Squadron Is.
They put US to work at once. The
course, you know, covers eight weeks and
not one minutes time can be neglected
or wasted. In that eight weeks were
erammed and jammed more work and
stuoy than I have ever experienced in
any previous eight months. And there
was no question Of doing the work or
dropping back to another squadron. II
was get it or got out
The work is divided into two main
parts-the Junior Consisting Of three
weeks) and the Senior 6 weeks) wings
In all, we covered approximately the
following subjects: Military drin. law and
tactics calisthenics; signalling Cwireless.
buzzer, Very's light, Pannean shutter and
blinke); army organization, theory of
| flight; flying; types of machines; engines:
care Of machines; tools; nomenclature;
machine guns; radio; field wireless; theory
Of wireless; aerial photography; flying
/ Instruments; bombs and bombing: me-
| teorology; astronomy; map making:
map reading; artillery observation; range
| finding code making and reading: rig
ging machines; aerial navigation.
There are many other studies. l have
given you only the principal ones
Our daily work bothered me the most |
When in Milford I had been accustomed |
to getting up in the morning around !
or 10. going around to the postofice and |
getting my mail in shape, taking the lit |
tie Ford and setting out on the days |
work. When night came 1 retired any |
time that suited me; depending. of course. |
on the Importance of the subject at the |
Merry Moments Debating Club.
Notice the difference and imagie its |
effect on me. We had to be out and /
dressed and nthe drill ground at $50 /
every morning except Sunday. After
suitable setting up" exercises we We're /
marched to breakfast at 6. At the real |
work of the day began-with a regulation |
army rifle on our shoulders. At first we |
had hours of that each day. To tell the |
truth, it just about fixed me at first. In
addition to the drill we had class room
work lasting until p m. At 7.55 We had
to be in the barracks and at work
Taps" were sounded at $50 and all
of us had to be in bed there with all
lights extinguished. It surely was great
l!fe-if you didn't weaken. However, all
things, good, bad and Indifferent, must
come to an end. Friday, October 20, ar
rived at last and most of US were thru.
Of our squadron, IA were Immediately
sent to Toronto, Dominion of Canada, for
instructions in the flying schools of that
place.
Five Of us, and I was fortunate to be
included in that list, we're given leave Of
absence from Friday noon until the fol-
lowing Tuesday morning as a reward for
good work We had to return to Boston
at that time and get our orders. No one
knew when. how or where we were going.
Tuesday morning, just one hour after
we reported, we were on our way to the
Aviation Concentration Camp at Garden
City. Long Island, detailed for foreign
service.
Weren't we the lucky ones? Just think
of it. Observation-Disclosures 25th a mail car
rier in Milford, Delaware-October 25th
4 member of the Expeditionary Forces
bound for somewhere on the other side
The Concentration Camp is just in the
process Of construction so conditions
there were such that l wont say much
about them. Our first night there we
had no blankets, cots. or anything for
sleeping purposes except the floor. And
let me assure you. if you have never tried ,
il. the floor can become very hard indeed
a bout or 3 a. m. At least the section :
oceupied did. We had several amusing
things to happen while there. One night =
our sergeant in returning from headquar- ,
ters fell in to a six-foot drain trench and ,
we had to pull him out. When that was
accomplished we had on our hands mix
ture composed of one part man. one part Z
mud. one part clay and quite a number d
of parts Of '-'s' -.,-. 7
While there we had only one formation I
q dav and that at $50 a. m. On Saturday
,,orning. october 2Sth when we lined up z
for inspection we were clearly and hrmly Z
told that we had just one half hour IN
which to pack all our belongings and De v
resdv TO leave You should have nearu Z
the shout that went up, for we all reaiiz-
cd that we were on our way at last In
Nv 9. 80 a. m. we were all packed, loaueo e
on trucks. bags and baggage, and oounu b
= ~, York Before u noon we were 3