Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-03-16

enemy WHO can be pounced on sudden
Is unawares and a getaway made be-
fore his comrades are on the victors
tail. The obviously inexperienced
pilot is the game the scientific air
fighter goes after. and the majority
of victories are won that way.
NOVICE SOMETIMES GETS
ACE Bi UNEXPECTED MOVE
l'u; on the other hand. it is the
novice usually who gets the famous
ace by doing at some moment the UNI
Expected thing. He rashly attempts
or blunders into a Vancouver which
is dead aSains; all the sane rules and
that is something against which the
master OF the game has not provided
and is not forcarmed Sheer fool
hardness or PLATA clumsincss has done
what skill and experience could not
do. Or else accident does it, engine
trouble. Il damned machine gun. or an
oversight. remember AN incident
which might easily have made end
Of me.
An approved method OF attack was
10 dive out of the sun 1t the rearnlost
boche OF Hun formation. shoot him
spiral upward and dive again at the
next tailender tried the trick once
and got as Tar as the first act on the
sure and forge, about IL. and when.
alter crashing my first Hun. | tried 10
20 climb. had to 20 into a roll which
got my gravity feed into action. but By
that time the boche were All coming
at me in a bunch with their guns spit
ting There was nothing for it but TO
dive with fun power. which in the
case Of Spad means going down at
and fortunately we were pretty high
up with half dozen Huns after me,
! went down 5000 feet that way, and
though had some trouble getting her
out OF the dive, ] managed it and got
away in spite Of the fine target
made
4
bring out a point illustrated by the
case OF the doughbOy who got tired Of
marching ana dropped out by the road
side. An officer ordered him to get back
TO his place and added that he had
better be glad he was In the infantry.
because If he had been in the air and
Ing Is one Of the safest jobs in the
army as long as you do not drop out.
il you do drop out. you are dead
man. and dropping out means. usually,
that you have made Il mis- take or let
go OF your grip.
NOT SO FOOLfiARDY
AS BRiTISH FLYERS
There have been stories about the
rec kIessness OF the American flyers.
and no doubt they went FOR the Hun
wherever ihey could get at him. and
some took very long chances. but on
The front as J saw it. the American
the French and the British. The
French We're inclined 10 be cautious
as settled military policy of getting
the best results with the least ex-
p.ndiiure OF valuable lives and costly
planes. The British were foolhardy as
matter Of princple and morale. be-
| cause they found that they got the
best results with their people in that
way. Compared with the French play
h ing th.!r 9%n game IN the way they,
or the war. our men seemed reckless.
Compared with the British. they
q ms haH hi a., 4,
the courage OF the three nations or OF
individual F.enchmen. Englishmen or
Americans. The French and English
had each worked on, a method of
scientific murder that did the job. We
were working out ours with the eN-
nerience o. both TO help US and the
methods Of both TO choose from. The
promise.
REh, here 1 may mention as mat
ter OF interest that in point OF maturity
Tor this work the Engiishnan of
eighteen is about even with the Ameri-
can OF Twenty-Five. our men are gem
the ages OF twenty-five and twenty
six: the English are best between
eighteen and twenty-five. | have been
asked why, and | think it is due 10
two countries rather than TO anything
directly connected with the British and
American practice OF training flyers
TELLS REMARKABLE
STORY Or FRANK LUKE
Returning for moment to the
stories OF recklessness on the part of
our avators, there were men Ike
Frank Luke. whose record is one OF
the brightest glories Of our air SER
vice.. and who gave his all, his life.
TO the cause. Luke's eighteen Huns
included eleven balloons. and to get a
balloon you have 10 go through the
antiaircraft and machine gun barragc
and the flaming onions they send up
n 800 ~
much more difficult than getting a
plane. in fact. that the Germans credit
a. pilof with two victories for every
balloon brought down.
Luke from the beginning was wild
man in the air He would take off and
p!ayfully do series Of loops within
few hundred feet of the ground
That sort of thing was strictly for
planes are too valuable and too diff
cult 10 replace at the front to be risk ell
unless there is real reason for the
risk. But after run of hard luck
such IS came along sometimes-when
we had lost lot of men and the
spirits OF the others were beginning
to show the strain. | used to go out
myself and do all sorts of stunts right
out in front of them.
RICKENRACFkER'S STUNTS
RESTORED MEMS MORALE
1t had surprising moral effect. The
man said. Anyway, they haven't got
1tlckenDackeTS goat On the next
sortie they went up full Of pep and
snap and ready TO go anywhere and do
anything.
My own squadron. the Ninety fourth
fHat-in -the-Ring). had a fine record.
the highest record n;
we were the first American squadron
in the game; we had the first ace and
the highest record of air victories of
any American squadron at the end
OF the war, and. finally. we had n
chance to so into Germany at the
head OF the American Army, which
was magnificent climax to the units
active career and an experience not
TO be forgotten by any of us-hying
over those cities and castles and vine
yards along the Rhine that we had
been thinking of the distant goal
of all the fighting that went before.
FEELS HE WOULD KEEP
UP HIS FLYING CAREER
Some of the men who have been fly
ing over there in France came back
saying they are fed up and have had
enough OF the air.. But do not think
am one of them. The sky means
something TO me il never meant before.
When | look up and see the sun shin
ing on the patch of white clouds up
in the blue, | begin to think how il
would feel to he up somewhere above