The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-01-04
TRAINING FOR
. AVIATION CORPS
i IMOST THOROUGH
Drilling and Study Occupy About
is Hours of Every
Day.
GET ESSENTIALS IN 8 Weeks
Eiaht "Ground" Schools Located At
Leading Universities Where candi.
dates Are Given Intensive Course
Of TrainIng-More Men Are
Needed In the Service.

Of TrainIns-More Men Are
Needed In the Service.
BY a Lieutenant Of the Aviation See
tion.
Washington.-A group Of SO well-set-
up young Americans, the summers
tan justsfading from their faces, are
closely studying a battlefield. Within
six feet of them is the rapid flash Of
shells bursting in quick succession
not real shells, but as close an imita-
ton as desirable in lecture hall
and the men are behaving with the
sureness and precision which, as fu-
ture officers and pilots of Americas
great aerial battle fleet, they are ex-
pected to display.
After each explosion, or, rather,
flash, is heard the buzz of the wireless
as the men take or send a message
from sssomewhere"-in California, or
Massachusetts, or Illinois, as the case
may be.
A second group Of pilots, looking
down upon the others, are seated IN
cockpits high above the miniature bat
tie field. They hear the imaginary
roar of Pershing's guns, and there is
another succession of lightning flashes
on various squares of the military map
below them.
Directs Artillery.
sBuzz-z-z, Buzz-z-z-5g" goes the
wireless, as in actual warfare, where
artillery fire is directed by the "eyes
Of the army" the pilots from the top
of the scaffold observe the location Of
'Inits'' by the artillery and signal the
range to the gunners-in this case
instructors-below.
ssW-29D-7-S" is the message to the
artilleryman-cryptic, of course, to
those who do Iot understand the
squared map and pin-point system in
use by aerial observers on the western
front. Perhaps it is prearranged
shoot, in which case the clock code is
handy for signaling how close the
"hits'' come to the dugouts of Kaiser
Wilhelms privates, or trench crossings
filed with huddled groups of the same,
or whatever else the target may De.
eva, B-6," sings the buzzer. And
the United States artillery officer cor
rects the range of his big gun to suit !;
at least, he will do so short time
hence, when our young pilots now in
training get the first real opportunity
of showing their mettle to the enemy
across the Rhine.
At the Ground Schools.
The foregoing is few minutes
work in what is a part-a very small
part-of the program of one OF the
United States schools of military
aeronautics, more commonly known as
ground" schools. The man in the
street has fair knowledge of what
our flyers are doing. BY sight and
hearsay he is beginning to know Of the
work at our many flying fields. AS
for war, conditions, the average citi-
zen carries a vague picture of swoop-
ing bird men, loops and spiral dives,
rapid-flre duels high above the clouds,
etc. But the man in the street knows
nothing of the eight weeks milling
that these lads go through before even
stepping into fusilage and proudly
calling s'contact"-to set the motor re-
volving for their first ascent. In 9TH
er words, he knows nothing of our
ground schools for the fundamental
training of aviators.
The American schools are located at
the following colleges: University Of
California, Cornell. Georgia School Of
Technology, Princeton university, Uni
versity of Illinois, Massachusetts, In
stitute of Technology. Ohio State uni
versity, and University of Texas. AL
though they have taken over a large
part Of the technical apparatus and
some of the instructors of the univer
sites on whose grounds they are stu
ated, it is to be noted that they are in
no sense a part Of the university or of
the ordinary university course. They
are army posts administered and sup
piled by the schools section, air di-
vision of the United States Signal
corps.
No Time Is Wasted.
The course of training is necessarily
intensive. Within the comparatively
short space of eight weeks there is
crammed into the ground-school cadet
the heaviest diet Of military funda-
mentals, scientific and technical essen
/ tials Of flying that he can possibly
digest-and a little more. Colonel
Bingham,s theory "a successful one,
judging by the quality of fyers) is that
the man who can assimilate within a
given time an overdose Of the above
kind of work is also the man who can
keep his mental and physical poise un-
der the strain Of battle flying in mod
ern warfare. Ground-school candidates