The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-07-05

tion Squadron of the Thirty-Fifth
Division Missouri National Guaro,
and was commissioned first lieu
tenant soon afterward.
The squadron was stationed on
Lambert Field. Every Sunday was
spent in flying. We had a number
of j. N. training planes and one
T. WIS.,, which was the command
ing officers personal ship.
The organization was composed
mainly of pilots, who had flown
during the war, but after the
Armistice had gone back to civil
ian life. Their only method OF
keeping in training was by flying
National Guard planes in their
spare moments and attending camp
two weeks each year.
Two nights and one day each
week were devoted to military SER
vice by these officers and the en-
listed men under them. Their pay
was small and most of them lost
more from neglect of their business
than they received for their mill
tary services. The remuneration
was hardly considered. However,
they joined the Guard for two
reasons: First, because of the OPP
portunity it offered to keep in fly
ing training; and second, because
they considered it a patriotic duty
to keep fit for immediate service in
case of national emergency.
Appropriations were not large
and often insufficient, but although
at times it required part of the
squadron's pay checks, the ships
were kept in the air.
The National Guard squadrons
offer an excellent opportunity for
young men to get a start in avia-
ton. Instruction is given each
week, covering practically every
branch of military aeronautics, and
practical flying experience is OBJ
tanned both in the air and on the
ground under actual operating con-
ditions.
Each year a few members of the
squadron are sent to the army
schools at San Antonio for flying
training, and upon returning these
men take their places in the COM
missioned personnel of the organ
ization.
The Inauguration of our Air
Mail service was to take place on
April Is, and as spring drew near
we were kept busy making prelimi
nary preparations. The De Havi-
lands were to he completed and
tested; a ground organization built
up; the terminal airports decided
upon, and facilities for taking on
and discharging the mail arranged
for, in addition to the untold de-
tail arrangements which go to
make up the organization of a sue
cessful airline.
Contract air mail routes are To-
Gated by the Post Office Depart
ment and are so arranged that the
mail service can be improved by
use of air transportation over 9TH
er means of communication.
The route is opened for bids and
the contract awarded to the lowest
bidder who is responsible and in
position successfully to carry on
operations.
The contractor can bid any
amount up to three dollars per
pound of mail and is paid by the
pound for the actual amount car
ried over his route.
Our route, between st. Louis and
Chicago was operated on a sched-
ule which saved one business day
over train service to New York. A
letter mailed in st. Louis before
three-thirty P. M, was rushed to
Lambert Field by fast mail
truck, transferred to the plane
which was waiting with engine
turning over, landed on the Air
Mail Field at haywood, Illinois, at
SEVENTEEN, transferred to one
of the Chicago-New York overnight
planes, retransferred at Cleveland.
Ohio, and was in the Post Office
in New York in time for the first
morning delivery.
All ANSWER COUIu NC lloiACu az
New York in the evening and he
delivered in St. Louis before noon
on the following day. If sent
through the ordinary mail it would
not arrive until one day later
The advantages of air transpor-
tation are most apparent over long
distances. The air mail flies from
New York to San Francisco in
thirty-six hours, whereas a train
requires nearly four days to make
the same trip.
The United States, through the
efforts of the Post Office and the
Department of Commerce, is being
covered with network of air mail
routes, and it is only a matter of
the public using this service be-
fore nearly every city in the coun-
try will be served by airplanes.
(To be Continued)