New-York tribune., 1918-03-10
She supposes Son Is Me
chanic Until He Receives
Croix de Guerre
Saved From Worry
uaro!d Wright, Home ON Fur.
Tough, Refuses to Talk of
Feats in France

When Harold Wright kissed his
mother goodby on the doorstep at 1865
r;ftjeth Street, Brooklyn, thirteen
months ago, she was comfortably as
sured he would come back to her from
France alive and whole. That was be-
cause he was going over lNst to tune
m aeroplane moters and do other little
odd Jobs hundred miles. or maybe
two hundred miles, behind the fighting
lines
He mightn't be an heroic figure when
she next saw him, with grimy hands
and smudge on his face and maybe
in overalls. but, anyhow. he would be
two-legged. two-armed, healthy son
Ii betell yesterday that there he was
once more on the doorstep at 1855. He
still had two legs and he still had two
arms. There wasn't any doubt about
his being healthy.
Harold Wright wasn't wearing any
overalls. though. He was in the UNI
form of French Lieutenant in the fly
ine service and below his left shoulder
swung the Croix de Guerre.
Could Tell Tale of Damage
Instead OF returning with story OF
what things look like hundred miles
n the rear Of the French lines, ne had
come back with frst-hand description
of what lies that far, and farther, be-
hind the German lines. He couldn tell
OF having done q good deal OF damage
to aerorlanes. but he honestly cou.dn'
sav he'd done q tap toward nxlng one
Just camouhage, kindly cnmouaage-
that was all his parting conversation n
with his mother had beeB. It Went
rather we'll, because Wright mad the
Qualifications to back his talk. Before
he was out of his teens ne had RIDDEN
az mechanician with Ralph Mu-Iord
and at twenty-one he was part pro
prietor of garage in Church Avenue
That was when the war spirit took
possession.
II was months and months before
Mrs. Wright had any cause for sus-
nicions or niscivings. Her son saw to
i -ha+ every letter was convinclnGly
eraase-stained. He was sticking to his
last. he wrote, and keeping so far from
tbe fighting that he couldn't even heal
the guns. But a deceit can't last for
ever One day neighbors began te
troou in to congratulate the mother OF
the ssnaechanic." They had read in the
newspapers that Sergeant Harolt
Wright with one of the French squad
rons, had bagged his first flying boche
Confessed to His Mother
In her next letter Mrs. Wright &C
cueed Harold. In his next he confessed
Since then he has bagged sausage bal
loon and another Boche birdnlan. Ihe
War Cross has come his way. and h'
wears alongside it q stripe which mean;
ne has been wounded-a fact you c
never guess otherwise.
Lieutenant Wright got home yester
day aboard La Touraine, with
Belgian police dog to keep MIN com
pany on his thirty day furlough. How
ever, the dog didn't slide past custom!
as readily as the master. He VIII b'
held ten days.
The lieutenant isn't much on talking
about himself. He felt himself free u
say that the Germans haven't attaine'
anv real superiority IN the air. nu
merely have concentrated their plane
opposite the American front, and tina
the ncw Morane monoplene Is regula
bearcat But when conversation turne'
into more personal channels ne turne'
clam.
Wright waz wounded last August
shrapnel FIRE blew away the lowe
plane o. his machine. Even though h
los- consciousness on the immediateI
subsequent ascent, he managed to laH
right side up and was in an American
ambulance when he began TO take no
tice again.