The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-13

worked hard, but I had to meet Cap tain Thach to realize that. I need not mention that he is an exceptionally bril- liant man, as I know that wherever Cap tain Thach might go, his brains, his energy and intense application to what ever work lay in front of him, would make him a prominent figure. That part of him. 1 expect is just as well known in Alabama as it is over here. but what made Captain Thach so well-hked and respected in the air service, was the iact that no matter how keen he was on go-
 ing to the front and how bitterly dlsap- pointed he was again and again, when his services could not be spared, and he was kept at headquarters, for the best interests of the service he did his duty and gave the very best of himself to the work in front of him. In this he, of course, defeated his own hopes as the more valuable he became the less chance he had of getting out to strafe the Huns in person.
 T should very much like to mention some of the work and results achieved by Captain Thach, but that might not be correct on my part. However, one of the men from one of the training camps said to me that "Thach has the repula- tion in the camps of the man who will put things through, if they are just and fair In this connection I shall never for 6Sl lilS uldiy lelleTS that used to come from all parts of the air service from young men who felt they had got tied up somehow and who felt Captain Thach would surely straighten things out Then we had also 'callers'-young men who felt they were not getting quickly enough to the front or who wanted to get one kind of training when they were actu- ally having another-and then Captain Thach would talk to them and make them see that they were over here to do the best for their country and that personal preference had nothing to do with it. I am here sitting at this desk when l have been trying for months to get to the front, and it's up to me and It up to you to do the work you are needed for Then the boys-for most of them are so young-would begin to feel little bit ashamed of themselves, and they would all end up by saying that they saw the point and go away with an esprit de corps and a sense of the duty they owed not to themselves but to the country that had sent them thousands of miles overseas. After a year of this sort of thing, I felt that man like Cap tain Thach was doing a great deal for his country and also for the boys whom he came in contact and whom he influ- enced.
 LIEUT.. ROGERS ARRIVES
 'erhen Lieut.. c. M. A. Rogers came to act as assistant to Captain Thach and he was feeling very cut up be- cause when he had completed his training successfully and imagined he was getting to the front, medical board turned him down on account of some eye trouble. However, in spite Of his disappointment and disgust with medical boards in general, Lieu tenant Rogers took up his appointed place in the scheme of things, and very soon I realized that he was eXcep tionally capable and was doing good work. Sometimes he would turn round and rebel at his hard luck in being kept from the front, and Captain would join in, and then after letting off steam little they would go ahead schemes for speeding up of observers for the front. Both of them would have been perfectly happy if they could have had one good fight with some Boche machines, and toward the end of things, they both had great hopes that they were going to get out and realize their ambitions When I heard them talking about getting to the front--I used to say, Well, if your people at home could see the work you two are doing, they would be very proud of you both. It is the men with the brains who count Tn this war, and it is the men with the brains who will help the allies to win this war" I saw their point of view and with it, although l never would admit it to them, but I real ized, too, that men with their brains and powers of application, were really needed at headquarters, and that going to the front they might bring down