Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-27
Aviators Disappear
Without a Trace

pljghts that have bcfa1lcn other army
and navy fiers and the searches that
were made for them.
While army officials have long given
m hone that the fiers would be found
alive, the belief is still family adj
tcred to that their bodies and the wreck
Of their plane may be eventually re-
covered. However, declare army of11-
GERS who have flown over that wild
part of the country, the chances are
slim. Either Of the two regions in
which the officers may have been forced
to land is a desert waste. That sec
ton to the east Of Tucson. where
plane believed to have been theirs was
Hast seen, is extremely rocky and
mountainous. Searchers could look for
months without coming upon the ra-
vino in which the wreckage could lie
hidden for long time, they say. The
sands of the desert to the west and
! south of the city are so fine that
slight breeze would be sufficient to
cover the wreckage under dune IN
short time.
The hope that the officers could have
been rescued by Indians has also been
abandoned because the region Is
sparscly inhabited and any Indians
who might have found them would GER
long since. For many days fleet OF
planes secured the region, flying as low
! and as far as was compatible with
| safety. but no trace of the lost OH
GERS was discovered. The report that
| their charrcd Bodies were seen lying
in a gorge near the PapagO 1ndisn res
| crvation, near the border line. was
found incorrect by troops OF cavalry
that aided in the search.
The single hope now held by the Off
GERS comrades is that some day they
may find the remains to afford them
proper burial.
| The loss of the two officers and the
long search for them recalled to navy
aviators the loss in March, 1921. OF
five mon from the Pensacola Air sta
ton who set out in a training flight IN
a free balloon. Quartermastcr &. h.
| Wilkinson was pilot and had with him
four enlisted flying students. While
! there was no storm in the vicinity at
| the time and weather conditions were
compa ratively good neither the balloon
nor its passengers were ever seen again
| 1t was first feared they had been blown
out to sea and a squadron of seaplanes
and several dirigibles, aided by fleet
| of vessels secured the nearby waters
| for miles without discovering trace.
| Then trappcrs in the everglades re-
! ported hearing voices in the swamps
at night and the searching airships
made flights for days over them but II
that region held the secret Of the TRACE
dy it refused to deliver it. despite a
second report of voices heard there.
For weeks the search was continued.
but no trace ever was found Months
| afterward, what was believed to be the
| remains OF a wicker balloon basket
was sighted far at sea. and it was nm
| ally believed that the fate of the hiers
had been met there.
| Investigators are even yet trying to
| clear the identity of the man whose
bones were found in the everglades
recently, with evidences indicating he
may have been an army fier. No clue
has been found, however. and army
records show no flicr lost there who
was not recovered.
/ Raymond White. who as a student
| flicr spent almost week of perils
and starvation in the everglades will
never forget his adventure. Flying
from Caristrom Field. Fla. on a test
! flight, he landed at Okcechobee but on
the return was forced down By eXhaus-
ton of his gasoline and crashed into
| the almost impenctrable cypress
swamps. Seeing no possible landing
place he aimed for a tree, and tumbled
10 the ground practically unhurt. But
that was only the start of his expert
ence. Mosquitoes were so thick and
voracious he had to cover face and
arms with grease from his ship: he had
no matches to build a signal fire and
was forced to take to trees at night to
avoid animals he heard proving about.
He finally made his way. subsisting on
herbs and grasshoppers. to Seminole
Indian camp and was sent by them to
a distant farm house where. after a
week. his comrades found him in an OK
cccdingly weakened condition.
Captain c. w. Dannman and 1t. f..
J. Ncrhuyden were two other fiicrs
who lost their lives in a free balloon.
They started in the national balloon
race from st. Louis, in 1919. and were
never heard from until their bodies
were washed up by the waters of Lake
| Huron.
| While many other ficrs. of both the
army and navy, have been "lostrin va
rious sections of the country for two or
three day stretches, all were found,
and aviators declare the number of
mon actually lost is very small COM
| pared with the increasing amount of
! lying. Records of the Army Air Ser
vice SHOW more such accidents than do
those of the navy, but this. it is point
cd out is the result of the fact that
! arny fllcrs have to cover incredibly
bad flying country, mountains and
desert. while navy flying. for the most
part is confined to the coasts where
succor generally is near. Most of the
army's losses of that sort have oc-
CURED in the desert sections of the
southwest, where the officers are en-
ploNod in the border patrol
The most tragic of these occurrences
in army record was the loss of Lieu
tenants +. b. Watcrhousc and c. H.
Connolly. who lost their way in a
rainstorm while on patrol and were
| forced to land far south in southern
| California on the shores of the Gulf
| For nineteen days they were without
food and constantly growing weaker,
| then when finally aided by two, Mexican
fshcrmen they were taken almost with
in sight of food and friends and bru-
tally murdered and robbed. At one
| tImc. one of the fleet of rescue planes
came as close as 60 miles to where
the plane had landed.
On another occasion, Licutenants
Davis and Peterson were lost in tho
desert along the Rio Grande. and al
though they declared they had not been
IN Mexico territory, they were can
,urcd by Mexican bandits almost in
sight of aid, and held for ransom for
| some days. They were forced to I'M
dcrgo many privations and were about
to be Killed when the ransom was paid.
LIT. Alexander Pearson. who achieved
tame IN trans-conticntal flights and
racing records, was forced down in
Mexican territory. and while he was
making his way back to civilization on
foot, the. fleet of scarchers had finally
given him up as lost He found a dilapi