The Washington times., 1920-04-20
"A ASEPARATEAIRS SERVICE

Ia PARA'IEAlhS SGhN v LIE
1 JACQUES M. SWAAB.
Gen. William G. Haan and Col.
Edgar S. Gorrell take the army OF
! fetal point of view Of the Air
Service and say that the army
! shall control its air troops as an
I, integral part Of itself Ike arhi-
iery and infantry.
General Haan has two main
! faults: :,
First-He is a general who had
high rank before the Air Service
was developed, therefore he Is now
an outsider who speaks without
knowledge of Air Service work
ings.
Second-He is an old army man,
which means that, like all other
army men who speak the thoughts
of the machine, he advocates
nothing new, but, in typical army
fashion, contents himself with
staggering along underithe weight
Ct antiquated equipment.
One of the main faults display
ed during the war was the lack OF
/; liaison between the air units ard
the ground troops-due entirely
to the incompetent training OF the
ground troops who never were
T. taught to recognize the allied
countries insignia carried by their
iaeroplanes.
! Then, too, some ground troops
lwho knew that we carried insignia,
looked for the red, white and blue
! star insignia whereas we had al
ways carried red, blue and white
, circles, one inside of the other.
Those two officers are quoted as
saying in the New York Times OF
Sunday, January IL:
"The best evidence from all ma
tional and international sources
(fliers, non-fliers, scientists, mill
tary and commercial reports, mill
tary men of great experience and
even the New and Curry bills for
the separation Of the Air Serv-
ice from the army and navy) is
that in so far as the operation
of aircraft over land is concern
ed, decisive action cannot be ac-
complished by such craft against
a hostile army. That is, it cannot
now, nor can it, as far as can be
foreseen, within a considerable
length Of time, be considered as
other than a coordinate combat
branch Of the team called army
with which it must not only Co
operate, but by the commander of
which it must be completely con-
trolled as is the infantry, the
cavalry, or the artillery.
at is hardly necessary under
the circumstances to say that, the
air forces being coordinate
branch, it is absolutely essential
that the air units which are to
operate with the army in time OF
war must be completely controlled
by the army commander in time cf
peace as are the other branches
of his army
} Such a statement merely con-
vinces q pilot that either the army
men merely make up speeches for
the sake Of talking, or are so
short sighted that they cannot see
the handwriting on the wall.
As aeroplanes develop they will
not alone be made to carry tremen-
, dous loads Of destructive mate
rails, but inventors will devise
methods of destruction from planes
(which will startle the world,
During the past war q dropped
bomb destroyed a munitions dump,
factory, heavy artillery, and
even submarines at will.
What viii the improved plane
with its increased carrying capac-
fly and new internal machines do?
Il will drive the navy under the
seas and lay the earth so barren
that II will be uninhabitable.
But, Of course, TO make such
aero-success possible, aviation
must I've taken out Of the hands Of
tho jealous army general staff,
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