The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-14
THE BIRMINGHAM AGEHERALD, SUNDAY, DECEMBER IA 1919

where the bolshevik lines have been established. in formerly German scout plane, the Albatross Dill Skis are ! place of wheels so that the machine
 may be landed on the snow. The work
 is occasionally varied with bit of ground "strafing."
 The squadron should do very well as | the members are all Al flyers, the ma 1 jority being tried service pilots with excellent war records behind them. The
 machine they are flying is one of the prettiest scouts that has ever been on service. It has a. 200-horsepower engine. and does stunts" quickly and we'll
 The credit for organizing the squad ron is due first to Major Cedric b. Fauntleroy, late of the Foreign Legion,
 Lafayette Escadrille, and American Ali
 Service, it's commanding officer. and | Captain Merriam c. Cooper. late of the l United States Army and the United ] States Air Service.
 There were many obstacles to over
 come before Major Fauntleroy and
 Captain Cooper finally got permission n
 to enlist squadron of ten pilots in cluding themselves.
 Many pilots have tried for months ! 10 get lHlO lil6 EOllSn AIT ScINlGSt Out7 l for the most part have failed. Early | in the spring of this year, another pilot
 and I applied at the Polish Military Mission in London, to be enlitsed as ! flyers for Poland. We were told to write to the general officer command 1 ing the Polish Army in Warsaw, which
 we did--many times, But neither of us
 heard from the G. o. c. of the Polish i armys l also applied at the Polish le- l gation in Paris, but those there also
 said that they had received no instruc-
 tions concerning the enlistment of | aviators
 1 I had about given up hope of ever l getting into the Polish Air Service when I saw Cooper in London Having l just got out of the hospital 1 was feel l ing pretty weak, and I suppose, looked 1 the same way. I told him that I had
 just been discharged from the hospital after undergoing an operation on my ! head.
 l He then asked me if, still wanted to 1 go to Poland, and would l go out with l them when I got better.
 | Several days later General Rosidow- 1 ski, chief of the Polish Mission in l Paris officially enlisted me in the Pol l ish army.
 ] lBEGINNINGE OF THE SQUADRON l When I asked Fauntleroy how he se- 1 cured permission to enlist an American | squadron he told me that the Poles had l asked for an aviation advisor, that his
 commanding officer in the American ! service had recommended him for the l position and that he had been accept l ed. His first act, after being enlisted in the Polish army, was to see General Rosidowski and get permission to en- 1 list the squadron. He then got Cooper rba time, to assist him.
 The Poles certainly did get a good
 man for the job in Major Fauntleroy. ''Faunt' went to Europe shortly after the destruction of the Lusitania and joined the Foreign Legion. He was later transferred to the Lafayette Es-
 cadrille, and, being an expert me- chanic, who had shown much promise when learnig to fly, the French made
 him a test pilot as soon as he finished his course. He was a flying corporal when the Americans entered the war and was transferred to the American service as a lieutenant, still retaining the position of test pilot. Later he was 1 promoted successively to the rank of i captain and major.
 ! Captain Merriam Cooper, who halls 1 from Jacksonville, Fla, is one of the
 bravest chaps that I ever met He has an indomitable spirit. While serving 1 with the Twentieth American Squad 1 ron, Cooper led bombing formation l over the German lines and was shot 1 down in flames He was badly burned 1 about the legs and was taken prisoner. | Any pilot who retains the desire to fly | after surviving descent in a burning plane is in the position to command every aviator's respect.
 l Immediately after his release by the 1 Germans he started to help in forming
 what is now the Kosciuszko Squadron
 Coop" served with the United States
 army on the Mexican border as a ser l geant, and is also a we1l-known news paperman. As captain in the United
 States Air Service he was very popular