Evening star., 1925-09-05
Prospect of Guardhouse Can
not Silence DenunCiation of
Chiefs Criminal NegIi-
gence," Colonel Says.
HOLDS BOTH SERVICES
IN INCOMPETENT HANDS
Department Administration Is Al
most REASONABLY Weak, officer
Says, Assailing Policy He
Blames for Loss of Airship Shen-
andoah in Storm.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN ANTONIO. Tex, September 5.
Predicting that he would be placed
under military arrest by Monday be-
cause of his assertion, Col. William
Mitchell. air officer of the Sth Corps
Area and former assistant chief of
the Air Service, today issued a state
ment denouncing the War and Navy
Departments in connection with the
disaster to the Shenandoah and the
loss of the PN-9. No l. on the at
tempted hop to Honolulu.
The statement, Col. Mitchell said.
was issued after mature deliberation
and after sufficient time has elapsed
since the terrible accidents to our
naval aircraft to find out what hap
pened."
These accidents are the direct re-
suit of incompeIency. criminal negli-
gence and almost reasonable admin
istration of the national defense by
the War and Navy Departments" he
wrote.
Real Flyers BulIdozed"
Charging that both departments
have gone to the utmost lengths to
keep down development of aviation,
and to maintain aeronautics as a part
of the two departments, Col. Mitchell
said all aviation policies are directed
by non-fying officers who know
nothing about flying and that Lives
of airmen are being used merely as
pawns in their hands,
THE airmen themselves" he con-
tinued, are bluffed and buldozed SO
that they daren't tell the truth, know
ing full well they will be deprived of
their future careers, sent to the most
out-of-the-way places to prevent their
telling the truth and deprived of all
chances for advancement unless they
subscribe to the dictates of their
Notifying bureaucratic superiors.
The conduct of the War and Navy
Departments has been so disgusting
in the last few years as to make any
self-respecting officer ashamed of the
cloth he wears"
Col. Mitchell declares that the de-
termination of the members of the
flying service to place the issues
"squarely up to Congress and the
people" dates from the killing of
Lieut.. Pierson and Capt. Skeel in
the dilapidated racing airplanes dur
ing last October aerial meet"
Charges Race Fixed.
This was caused" he said, by an
arrangement between the Army and
the Navy that the Navy should take
the race one year and the Army
should take it the next year, there
by equalizing propaganda, not serv-
ice
The recent maneuvers of the fleet
in the Pacific are declared to have
been nothing more than a parade
of our Navy" reported to have cost
from S50,000, 900 to $50, 900, 900, which
demonstrated the futility of surface
vessels. He declares that in war the
fleet steaming to the Philippines
would have been constantly beset by
submarines and that IF any vessels
survived the submarine attacks,
crossed the ocean and came within
hundreds of miles of the hostile coast
they would be sent to the bottom
forthwith by airplanes.'
Regarding the Hawaiian seaplane
fight, the colonel declared:
Next, to get publicity and make a
noise about what it is doing with
aircraft, this so-called Hawaiian flight
%VaS arranged for. Even if it had
been made successfully to Honolulu, it
would have meant little either com
mercially or strategically, compared
10 what a fight to Europe or Asia
to participate in it. These showed
nothing novel in design and were
untried for this kind of work. One
never got away from the Pacific coast,
and one flew a few miles out and was
forced to land in the water, and one
was lost on account of being out of
gas, somewhere in the high seas.
Assail Patrol Plans.
Patrol vessels were stationed
every 200 miles, d distance entirely
too far apart for an experimental
fight of this kind with such primitive
flying machines as the PN-9's are.
Double or triple this number of yes
sells should have been there In fact,
the whole Pacific fleet should have
been employed there instead of joy
riding around the Antipodes."
He asked, 'Why, if they expected to
run short of fuel, as indeed they
might, did they not make arrange
ments for refueling the airplane while
it was in the air?" and why a crew
of five was carried when the weight
of one or two could have been replaced
by additional fuel.