San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-31

The Naval Air Service has its IN I
finished mystery. Now the Army Air |
Service has its. One morning five naval
balloon pilots left Pensacola, Fla, on a
training flight. They have never been
seen since. What their fate was no
one knows. No one may ever know.
Until Col. Francis Z. Marshall and
Lieut.. c. L. Weber suddenly dropped
out of sight in the mountains of Ari-
IONA few months ago, no one had ever
been lost from the Army Air Service and
not been found. Army officers are now
beginning to believe that the fate of the
lost filters may never be known.
| The search for Colonel Marshall and
Lieutenant Weber was carried out on
an extensive basis. During the war
Colonel Marshal was popular figure
in San Antonio and was well known in
both civil and military circles.
The hope that the officers could have
been rescued by Indians has also been
abandoned because the region is sparse
| ly inhabited and any Indians who might
have found them would certainly have
made their presence known long since.
| Fer many DAYS a fleet of planes secured
the region flying as low and as far as
was compatible with safety, but no
trace of the lost officers was discov-
cred.
Heard Voices In Everglades.
The single hope now held by the Off
GERS comrades is that someday they
may find the remains to afford them
| proper burial.
/ The loss of the two officers and the
long search for them recalls the loss in
March, 1921. of five men from the Pen
H.. nNNt IN q
training flight in free balloon. Quar-
| termaster G. X. Wilkinson was pilot
| and had with him four enlisted flying
i students While there was no storm in
i the vicinity at the time and weather
conditions were comparatively 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 Eeaplanes and sew
sral dirigibles, aided by fleet of YES
sells secured the nearby waters for miles
without discovering a trace.
Then trappers in the everglades re-
ported hearing voices in the swamps at
night and the searching airships made
flights for days over them but if that
region held the secret of the tragedy 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
wicker balloon basket was sighted far
at sea. and it was finally believed that
the fate of the filters had been met
there.
Lived on Grasshoppers.
| Investigators are even yet trying to
clear the identity of the man whose
bones were found in the everglades re-
Gently, with evidences indicating he may
have been an army flier. No clue has
1 been found however. and army records
show no flier lost there who was not re-
covered, 100 4. ...-.s-
4 tRaymond White, who as a Student
flier, spent almost week of perils and
starvation in the everglades. will never
forget his adventure. Flying from Carl
strom Field Florida, on a test flight,
| he landed at Okeechobee. but on the
return was forced down by exhaustion
Of his gasoline and crashed into the al
most impenetrable cypress swamps. See.
| ing no possible landing place he aimed
| for a tree, and tumbled to the ground
practically unhurt. But that was only
| the start Of his experience. Mosquitoes
were so thick and voracious he had to
cover face and arms with grease from
| his ship; he had no matches TO build
signal fire. and wa forced to take to
| trees at night to- avoid animals he heard
proving about. He finally made his
way, subsisting on herbs and grass.
| hoppers, to a Seminole Indian camp and
was sent by them to a distant farm
house where, after week, his comrades
found him in an exceedingly weakened
condition.
Lost in Rainst0rm.
Can't c. w. Dannman and Lieut.. Il.
| ]. Verhuyden, were two other filters
! who lost tLeir 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 HUI
| ron.
While many other filters, Of both the
army and navy. have been - in var
| ious sections of the country for two or
/ three day stretches, all were found. and
ayiators declare the number of men act
| ually lost is very small compared with
| the increasing amount of flying. Rec
ords of the Army Air Service show
more such accidents than do those nt the
| navy but this. it is pointed out, is the
| result of the fact that army. filters have
/ TO cover incredibly bad flying country,
| mountains and desert. while navy tly-
| ing, for the most part, is confined 10
| the coasts where succor generally IS
near. Most Of the army's losses of that
sort have occurred in the desert sec
| lions of the Southwest, where the Of
ficers are employed in the border patrol.
The most tragic Of these occurrences
| in army records was the loss of Lieu
tenants F. Il. Warehouse and Z. ii.
tConnolly. who lost their way in RAIN
storm while on patrol and were forced
| to land far south in Lower California
on the shores of the Gulf. For nineteen
days they were without food and con-
stantly growing weaker, then, when
finally aided by two Mexican fisher
men, they were taken almost within
sight of food and friends and brutaliy
murdered and robbed. At one time, one
of the fleet of rescue plan came as
close as 60 miles to where the plane had
landed.
Held for Ransom.
On another occasion Leutenants
Davis and Peterson we're lost in the
desert south Of the Rio Grande. They
we're flying along the border following
the Rio Grande through Brewster coun,,
ty. Just at the point of the Big Bend
a river flows into the Rio Grande from
chihuahua. Mexico. The aviators took
| tba Maxican river as their course in