Evening star., 1925-04-19
PLEDGES
TEAM WORK IN AIR
New Assistant Chief Has
Faith in Gen. PatriCk's Abil-
ity to Perfect Service.

A rather tall, heavy, sun-taDned
brigadier general will walk into his
office as assistant chief of Army Air
Service next week, and proceed TO
carry out the orders of Maj. Gen. Ma
son M. Patrick, chief of the Army Air
Service
This addition to the Munitions
Building will be James f. Fechet,
known throughout the Army Air
Service now as col. jim" and soon
TO be Gen. Jim" And when he sits
down to his desk, just vacated by
Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, who
walks from the Office with the rank of
colonel and goes to Texas, whence
Gen. Jim came, the public need not
expect new air policy.
I'm here to carry out Gen. Pat
rick's ORDERS" declared Col. Fechet
yesterday. l believe Gen. Patrick can
make this the best Air Service possible
and 1 hope to help him do it.
Has Been Pilot for Years.
From the manner of his speech, the
flash of his eyes and his white teeth
against Texas-tanned face furrowed
with deep lines, the impression is
given that the American public can
rest assured no one can put anything
over" on Gen. Jim. He's an air man
who has been pilot for many years
and the kids" in the Air Service will
testify that he's a good one, too.
The two greatest issues and ques-
tions before the Army Air Service
were commented on briefly by Col.
Fechet to The Stars representative.
The separate Air Service proposition
finds Col. Fechet an advocate of 1t,
but, in his own words, "if it is a good
thing it will work itself out in time
h1
1t. In the old days there was no sep
arate Army and Navy; the Secretary
of War had control over what Navy
there was. Now look at the Navy to-
day. Time demanded a bigger Navy
and that 1t be under it's own control"
Way Promotions Work
The other proposition, which is
scheduled to be before Congress at the
coming session in the form of a bill
a separate promotion list for the Army
Air Service-will find Col Fechet
ardently supporting it. 'I'll work for
it and if they need me to talk about
X before Congress I'll gladly go. The
single list today does not work as
well as it used to. Now when an air
service major is killed, his number on
the promotion list is filled by an Of
fcer from some other branch We
create the vacancies and in the
majority of cases the other branches
profit by it as far as promotion is
concerned
When 1t was apparent that Gen.
Mitchell would not be reappointed the
younger officers drew up a list of can
didates of their choice, and it can be
said authoritatively that in virtually
every case Col. Fechet's name led the
list. Il don't know of another man
I'd rather see get the job" was and
still is the universal statement
throughout the service.
Liked BY Younger Men.
The younger officers of the Air Serv-
ice (and that means almost the entire
service) are not strong for military
rank, pomp and ceremony, and when
a man like Col. Fechet comes ins their
midst they do not have to stiffen up.
speak in serious tones and yes, yes"
the officer along. When Col. Fechet
goes out to fly he may wear the
dirtiest pair of unionalls that can be
found. A stranger would mistake him
for hard-boiled sergeant While he
looks hard-boiled and is hard boiled
when he is right, he's perfectly willing
TO be shown when he's wrong and act
accordingly-to wit, the following in
stance:
At Kelly Field, where he recently
was in command, he sent out orders
to have his plane warmed up as
he wanted to go for a hop. A short
time later he went out to the line
attired in the dirty unionalls. In the
cockpit rubbing up" the motor was
a new mechanic. Col. Fechet walked
up and asked If it was ready, and the
mechanic. failing to recognize his
commanding officer, snapped out: Get
away from here. This is the COM
manding officers ship. If you're GO
ing to fly with him, come back in
20 minutes. Then it'll be ready"
Gave Mechanic Surprise.
IAN right" said the colonel and re.
turned to his office. A sergeant stand
ing nearby walked up to the mechanic
after the colonel had left and said:
Say, do you know who that was you
were talking to?" The mechanic
thought it was private who was to
fly as ballast with the c. o. That's
Col. Fechet, the commanding officer
of this field" said the sergeant to
the mechanics surprise.
At the end of 20 minutes back came
the greasy unionalls and the me-
chanic was profuse with apologies.
The colonel laughed and the incident
was closed.