Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-11-29
AMERICAN .AIRMEN
IN ENCL AND

Fulton County has number of
her men IN the U. s. Air Service
who have been ira ned in England
and then passed on to the battle
fields of France while others have
been kept in England There have
been a number who wondered why
our Aviation boys spent so much
time in England; the following arti-
Gle from @The Stars and Str pes" of
Oct. 4th:
When the war is over and the
doughboys have learned to pro-
nounce "Fr edrichshafen," have ab-
sorbed most of the rain n Lorraine,
and have been put through the
steam room, the refrigerator room,
the tub roast, and been fumigated
with formaldehyde there is likely
going. to be grand rush of appli-
cat ons for side tr ps to England be-
fore the jaunt back to the U. S. A.
Not all of the Yanks, however,
will be yearning for a peek at Pic
cadily, squint at the Strand, or
trek up to Stratford-on-A Avon, where
Shakespeare used to dictate high
brow stuff into phonograph fun
nel
Unbeknown to most of the dough-
boys, many thousands of the T bro
theirs of the Air Service already
have had Their tour de luxe of Eng
and and have learned to say
sFrawnce" and sip tea precisely at
4:30 in the afternoon.
AS a matter of fact. the United
States, for almost year, has main
..ained small army of Air Service
troops in England under reciprocal
agreement serving two purposes,
one, relieving corresponding num-
ber of English mechanics for use at
the front; and two,, training Ameri-
can mechanics on up>to-the- minute
| types of airplanes and engines.
Snipes, Camels, D. Fl As and D. u.
| 9's behemothics Handiey-Pages, and
what not.
Thousands of these mechanics
arr yed in England as cary as last
December and January and regular
ly every month well-trai1ed and
and h ghly specialized squadron-pur-
suit, day bombardment, night bonn
bardruent, army observation and re-
pair, have been gallivant ng across
\ the English Channel to France after
a thorough training course of from
four to eight months in England,
Scotland or Ireland, ready for active
service at the front.
When the first of these Amer
can contingents arrived in England
from the United States. the British
welcomed them with perfunctory
hospitality, but as friendships rip
ened and the British discovered that
kee. Blackfeet or Pawnee Indian
bucks, likely to run amuck at the
slightest prov cation they opened
W de the doors of reserve and sowed
the seeds of a splendid camaradere.
This laboratory work of Uncle
Sans has progressed to such an ex-
tent that Yank soldiers from Kala-
: mazoo, Keokuk. Klamath Falls and
Corpus Christi now are carrying on
, the work IN some rs British, air
dromes and, in addition, hundreds
: are going to school, learing how to
adjust compasses, how to monkey
!: with the mechanism Of 200 pound
!, bombs, how to vulcanize rubber. how
to blacksm ith. how to do acetylene
: weld ng, how to true up fuselages,
! rig ailerons-in fact, learning every
, thing there is to know about the
anatomy and aerodynam es of an
/ a.1plane.
| And, bes 'des these European col
) lege courses at Uncle Sans tuition,
{ the men are getting plenty of mutt
ton, rice, jelly and sightseeing pill
grimages thrown in for good meas
) ure.
Nearly one thousand enlisted men
are attending classes regularly in
one of the big British technical
schools. After fin Ishing their
courses, which run anywhere from
one week to 10 or IL weeks, they are
graduated and sent back to their
souadrons, ready for the call from
France.
AS shown by British practice, the
average time required to tran
thoroughly a mechanic for any one
type of machine is from three to
four months During this period of
training the American mechanics
work side by side WITH the BrlIlSn
enlisted personnel, thereby securing
the advantage of the valuable exper-
ience gained by the British during
the last three or four years.
American flyers also are being
ira ned in England. Several hun.
dred pilots already have been turned
out of British flying schools. Most
of them are required to serve theil
apprenticeship with the British
squadron in France.
There are other activities of the
American Air Service in the British
Isles which cannot be touched upon
But it can be stated that our govern.
ment's plan of training American
mechanics in close proximity tC
France has proved of great value e
the heads of the Air Service, A. E
IF. There is at all times steady
stream of personnel ready to bt
poured into active service at the
> front, for the Ain Service men Il
~ active ira ming in little old England
I number into the thousands.
| Airma1