The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-05-05
Air Force Officials Spread Thin
as Service Speeds Up Expansion
OPIotsaYear Program swamps smaTrained Personnel
sc, 600 PiIots-a-Year Program S
BY PAUL HARRISON

ELL 1GkO, Ala, Way
5-That tribute to the Raj by
Winston Church - about 20
many owing 20 much to 90 few
could be applied pretty well
to our own air corps these days.
Because it's q tremendous Job
that must be done by smaller
and smaller groups Of veteran
flying officers and technicians In
the swift expansion Of avia-
ton training.
This 10 headquarters Of the
Southeastern Training Dis
trict, which will contain nine
basic and advanced schools plus
seven civilian-operated Army
supervised elementary schools.
Nearly all are in some stage Of
operation. making this the bud-
est flight training region In the
United States. Naturally there
just haven't been enough Air
Corps officers to staff the mush-
rooming program nor enough
veteran mechanics to carry on
the normal schedule Of mainte-
nance.
But they all say proudly that
there have been no compromises
with safety and scarcely any
with efficiency. Harder, longer
work is the answer, with no
complaints about overtime or
multiplicity of jobs. I talked with
one squadron commander who
until that morning had figured
he couldn't possibly spare an
other officer or non-cOm. But
he had just got an order to send
almost half Of his trained per-
sonnet a the nucleus of q new
school being started in Georgia.
And now he was grimly doubl-
ing the duties of the few veter-
ans who would be left.
Another officer, newly assign
ed to q field in Georgia, told me
that he now has these official
designations: engineering officer,
technical inspector, operations
officer, adjutant to the COM
handing officer, military intelli-
gence and public relations off,
Ger.
At Gunter Field, where state
hospital building has been made
into q military headquarters, q
captain with half q dozen diff
ferent Jobs finds it especially ap-
propriate that his office Is q
former padded cell.
STILL ROOM FOR
ARMY RED TAPE
But they still find time for a
little of the old Army red tape.
I was told Of lieutenant who,
in the capacity Of supply officer,
wrote q formal request regard
ing the storage of some material.
Then, in the role of engineering
officer, he formally disapproved
his suggestion.
Nearby Gunter Field, on an
other side of the city of Mont
gomery, is a basic school of
about the same size and purpose
as famed Randolph Field in
Texas. But this one isn't SO
fancy.
The first class was sent to
Gunter on December 2, and had
to be quartered in tents and fed
in relays from a field kitchen.
The site for the permanent
buildings was a sea of mud; the
field itself was a shallow lake
half the time, and there were no
hangers for the planes. But the
class flew and graduated.
I'm some ways it has been bet
ter for us than q more comfort
able set-up", said Brig. Gen. w.
r. Weaver, commanding the
Training Center. I'VE have been
under typical wartime conditions
hacking fields out Of farm
lands and using small auxiliary
fields that have produced more
capable flyers. We've pretty well
learned to lick the weather, and
over at Gunter. you'll still see
mechanics servicing their planes
out of doors"
OFFICERS COME
FROM OTHER SERVICES
Expansion of the cadet train
. ing system has gone ahead SO
rapidly that every officer-flyer
has been needed on the line to
supervise the work Of the newly
commissioned instructors who
regularly are being ploughed
back into the schools as teachers
as soon as they graduate from
them. Consequently officers
from a1nnASt evprv branch Of the