Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-01-04

Sergeant Ernest L. Shaffer, son of
Mr.. and Mrs. Charles E. Shaffer, of
Dauphin, and brother of Walter j.
Shafter, whose letters from the
FRENCH flying schools have been fol-
, lowed by thousands in the Harris
burg Telegraph, is rapidly recovering
from pneumonia at his home. He was
given furlough to recuperate. Ser
geant Shaffer is stationed at the
Army service school, at Fort Leaven-
worth, Kan He enlisted in May in
the Signal Corps.
Walter Shaffer has passed his eX-
amlnauons ana now is accounted a
full-tiledged flyer in the French
army His latest letter home follows:
Somewhere in France,
Nov. %, 1917.
| don't know whether that is the
date or not, but L do know this is
Thanksgiving Day. You can be quite
sure my mouth is watering for the
good things / know you have pre-
pared, meanwhile | can be thankful
Tor candle to write by, for am
bunked ia a h"Ylofl now, wnt, II is
some worse than Avord. There l
slept IN manger Here it's the hay
loft. Didn't L always maintain l
would go up in the world? I'm not
crazy to go higher, although | did
set some such notion the other night
when L rose up in the night to hunt
another blanket and like to knock a
dozen shingles off the roof as my
head came in contact with the caves.
eS indeed, It's a great life, but I
uidn't tell YOU about leaving Pau.
They gave me a machine to play
around with for an hour or so the
day before | left. Straight flying
was not any fun anymore, so I prac-
iced the retournement, the vertical
turn and only having had one vrille,
tried another on my own hook. Like
10 break my fool neck at that-be-
cause she wouldn't come out of it,
however. | had started it at 1000
[ meters, stood her up on her tail until
she lost all her speed and then over
ana down we came spinning like 4
top. Kept my eye on the altimeter
and when she had spun down to 600
meters | judged it was time to come
out. But l must have done some
thing wrong because instead of
strengthening out like a good plane
should she began spinning the other
way, with the result-that when 1
did come out l was 800 meters high.
Not All Picnic
The next day we were on the
ptlltNlli DOetlu " iCdNG. lHey gave
us q complete outfit of clothing and
among other things, two pairs of
shoes, neckties, bellyband and an
automatic revolver, with so car
tridges. Even gave us two handker-
chiefs, which were so big / thought
they were towels. One would think
| had outgrown bellybands, but 1
took it along nevertheless. AS for
the automatic it served to impress
upon me the fact that this was not all
a picnic and made war seem a little
closer than vague something in
the future. Indeed, noticing the eff
cient way in which we were trained
in this school, one could not help
but admire the officials in charge for
the student was led to the final diff
cult acrobaticS by such easy stages
that he hardly realized it.
Even at that many were killed
during the leading up process. In
deed l was glad when j was through,
for every once in a while a wing
came off and one more pilot was
finished. Whether this was the pilots
fault or weak construction of the
plane was sometimes question The
plane was generally given the benefit
of the doubt though, and the pilot
blamed.
These accidental deaths never af-
fected me until I heard of an AM
erican being killed just lately. Then
l realized that even an American
could get it," 1t was always
Frenchman before, you know. |
knew this American very well, too,
and finer fellow never lived
Am quite near the front as 1 told
you and many are the stories one
hears of pilots being sent up in a
plane to tour de piste." getting lost,
and unknowingly flying into the
battle zone, coming back with holes
in their planes. You can bet 1
learned the direction of the front
right quick, not that am afraid of
getting near it, but / wish a gun or
my plane when that time comes,
thank you.
A Beauty"
Here I had my first look at q
"Spad," that little fast fighting plane
of the French. Gee! But it's a
beauty And tiny as a mosquito and
as sturdy looking as a horse. This
is the type plane / am here to learn
TO hv, as we Americans are all sup
posed to fly these. I look back with
amusement on the days when I first
reached Avord. and sitting atop a
dirt pile, watched an IS m. Nieuport
come hurtling down to earth, and
era acefrllv settle on the ground with
wondering eyes. AS for the man who
piloted it, he seemed like a God,
superman, in my eyes, and vet
have flown the same plane two sizes
smaller and think nothing wonder
flll about it. Even the fact that I
have done acrobatics with a 1S m.
Nieuport) that people in America
nave never even heard of let alone
seen, does not seem out of the ordi-
nary. Probably this was due to the
way such things were regarded.
Everyone else tried them, the moni-
teurs expected results. and a man
hates to be outdone or admit he is
scared. Many Frenchman was
killed. ar Pan because no would not
admit his fear and when he got
-aloft and his fear mastered him then
lit was we had another finished"
pilot; for those were the boys that
"got it, as a rule.
When / finished Candran, / was
just beginning to get the hang of the
thing. but, was still cropping around
in the dark about mum berless things
that only an aviator runs up against /
and wants explained. "WeH,2 he |
thinks. "I'll understand it when I fIy
Newport, and then comes the Nieu- |