Evening star., 1935-12-29
BY Joseph S. Edgerfon.


chubby-faced Connecticut boy,
small and youthful for even
his 18 years, rode into New
York on battered bicycle from his
home in Washington Depot, ITO miles
away, and applied for enlistment in
the Navy at the receiving ship
Vermont.
He was rejected as too small, too
light and lacking IN experience. Dis
heartened, he wandered around the
metropolis while the Spanish War
fever grew following the sinking of
the Maine. Finally, he climbed the
stairs to an Army recruiting Office and
q few minutes later not only was in
the Army but in a war as well.
So began the military career Of the
worlds foremost airplane pilot in
point of continuous flying duty-a
career which will come to an end on
December 81 with the retirement from
the service of Maj. Gen. Benjamin D.
Foulois after more than a quarter of
g century of active flying.
AS a boy, Benny Foulois became
thick and thin-and he has had his
full quota of hard knocks-Benny
Foulois has remained a good soldier
He goes out of the service with
reputation among his comrades-in-
arms as man who rose from buck
private to the chief Of a great combat
service through his unceasing loyalty,
his courage in the face of physical
danger and his even greater courage
In the face of moral stress and trial,
and through his untiring devotion to
duty.
He was the first aviator in the
United States Army and for a time
was the whole Army aviation service
OF the handful of airplane pilots in
America when he first earned his
wings, FouloiS is the only one left
flying today. Not only has he con-
tinued his flying but, up to the last
month of his service in the Army,
he has kept himself up to date, grow
ing with the growth of aviation, fly
ing always as his own pilot and, when
occasion demanded, outlying even his
juniors.
He began his career as a doughboy
and he made bright mark for him
self in the Infantry. He transferred
to the Engineer Corps and added
fresh luster to his name. He attained
his real brilliance in the Air Corps,
however, and has gained lasting re-
uown for his work over a period of
. quarter century in molding the
destiny of Army aviation.
The flying general is one of the few
living men who live to tell of ex-
periences in flying the early airplane
of rs years ago, and so far as is
known is the only one of the pilots
of quarter century ago left on active
flying status. There are in the Army
Air Corps one or two officers who joined
Foulois as airplane pilots early in the
game and who still are flying. One
of them, Henry H. Arnold, now is
brIgadier general and wing COM
mander in the new General Head
quarters Air Force. But they are
Junior to him as pilots by some
month.
ON JULY 7, 1898, shortly after his
enlistment, Foulois was sewing on
his sleeve the chevrons of corporal of
Company g, 1st United States Volun-
teer Engineers, and as a corporal he
went through the Spanish War, serv-
Ing in Puerto Rico.
Corpl. Foulois liked his taste of the
Army, and when the war was over,
he enlisted in the 10Th United States
Infantry, on June II, 1899, at Camp
Meade. First Sergt. A. L. Gunther
took him in hand and later led him
into the Philippine Insurrection. When
Foulois became chief of the Army Air
Corps, four years ago, he found Gun
ther, now retired Army captain, in
charge Of the Air Corps headquarters
supply office, right under his own office.
He was a young kid" Gunther
reminisced, "but mighty nice and al
ways willing to do anything. I can
see him yet, with pack on his back,
one Of the first out of the trenches
when we charged the Ftlipinos. He
got to be a corporal by and by, but
he had hard time, too. The captain
used to raise hell with him"
FouloiS again was in Company G in
the 10th Infantry, and in this company
he served as private, corporal, quarter
master sergeant and first sergeant, un-
til July 8, 1901 He was ambitious, how
ever, and while serving in the ranks
took an examination for commission
In the Regular Army. He received his
appointment as second lieutenant of
Infantry on July 9, 1901, accepted. and
IN August began his first tour of duty
as an oficer in the Philippines, where
he served until June, 1902. He got
plenty Of hard fighting, participating
IN the campaigns in the Islands of
Luzon, Pansy and Cebu and against
the Lake Lanao Moros in Mindanao.
The 18th returned to the United
States In August, 1902, and Lieut..
Foulois took his first peace-time sta
tion in Vancouver Barracks, Wash.
He was not there long. In July, 1908,
Foulois again was aboard an Army
transport bound for the Philippines,
where he remained for two years, most
of the time in Mindanao and in the
Eulu Archipelago in the campaigns
against the Lake Lanao Moros, the
Rio Grande Valley Moros and the
Jolo Moros. the 1ercest and most war