Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-03
AVIATION
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

have made him we'll known
to WaShingtonianS. Commercial
aeronauticS is rewarding the abil-
ity of most of these men as the
Army never could-in the absence
of the Furlow bill.
These are by no means all the
great pilots who have left the
Army because of the inadequate
Air Corps promotion system.
Lieut.. Donald Duke, chief OF the
airWays section of the Air Corps,
is on two months leave He is
flying a commercial line in the
tropics and will resign from the
Army when his leave expires. d.
Lieut.. Leigh Wade, Lieut.. Leslie
P. Arnold and Lieut.. Harry H. Og-
den, three of the round-the-WOrld
pilots, saw the light prior to 1928
and now are grazing the realm of
commercial aviation. Other Air
Corps luminarieS accompanied
them, the list of designations in
Guiding Lieut.. Harold r. Harris.
chief test pilot of the Army Air
Corps materiel section, Wright
Field, and first Army aviator to
save his life by an emergency
parachute jump; Lieut.. John A.
Macready, one-time holder Of the
worlds altitude record and one Of
the two men who made the first
nonstop flight across the United
States: Lieut.. CorlisS c.. MoSeley,
winner of the first Pulitzer trophy
race: Lieut.. John P. Van Zandt,
former professor of physics at
Stanford University; Capt. H.
Wier Cook, one of the country's
leading war aces. who shot down
three planes and four balloons;
Capt. Arthur r. Brooks, who
brought down six planes. and
Lieut.. Edward M. Haight. who has
five victories to his credit.
All these men were Regular
Army flyers. They adopted the
Air Corps as a life career. That
they were forced out in order to
make a living for themselves was
matter of sincere regret to most
of them.
Reserve Situation as Bad.
The situation in the Air Corps
Reserves is just as bad and for the
same reason. The ranks OF the
first Reserve group, which in
cludes the pilots available for i'm
mediate service in time OF emer-
gency, are being depleted by resig-
nations.
These designations will continue
until the Furlow bill, or something
like it, becomes law. There Is
plenty of room in commercial
aeronautics for really good men,
and if Congress does not want to
see the remaining Air Corps vet
Grams pass out of the service it is
considered essential that the Fur
low bill be brought out of the COM
mittee pigeon-hole and sent to the
President for the signature which
will complete its enactment into
law.
The cause of dissatisfaction in
the Air Corps is the single" pro-
motion list adopted for the entire
Army. The Air Corps, being the
Army's newest corps, naturally is
far down on the list. AS a result,
when a major in the Air Corps
and there are only too few Of them
Leaves the service a captain In
one of the senior ServiceS-the In
fantry or Artillery or what not
goes up to fill the vacancy they
claim. In the Air Corps a captain
or first lieutenant takes over the
duties, but not the pay, Of the
major. Because of the hazards Of
flying duty, 40 per cent of the
vacancies of the entire Army occur
in the Air Corps.
There are scores Of Air Corps
captains and lieutenantS who are
performing the duties and charged
with the responsibilities of col
onelS, lieutenant colonies or
majors. The Army regulations
provide that Air Corps SquadronS
shall be commanded by majors.
There are nearly so of these squad
ronS in the various branches Of
the Air Service. Are they COM
manded by majors? They are not.
Only three of them have majors
in command, and these majors
happen to be in command only
because they are in command of
the fields at which the Squadrons
are stationed and so can be COM
PEELED to assume both dutieS-at
no increase in pay. The rest of
these squadrons are commanded
by captains and even first lieu
tenants.
Walk through the halls of the
War Department. You will see
over the doors of the various bu-
reauS and sections Of the Infantry,
Artillery, Cavalry, Engineers and
other time honored branches of
the Army the names of colonies,
lieutenant colonies and majors in
charge. Then go through the Air
Corps wing of the building. Over
the doors of officers charged with
the same duties you will see their
names. They are preflXed by the
titles captain" and lieutenant"
There are few scattered majors;
taken from the under offlcered
Squadrons in the field.
Air Corps officers, naturally, feel
these things keenly. They can
crash and die in the line of duty
so as to create vacancies for the
promotion of Infantry, Artillery
and Engineer off1cerS-but they
cannot give adequate voice to their
resentment except by resigning.
And so they resign, and will con-
tlnue to resign, until they are
given what they consider simple
Justice in the matter of promo
tions.