Evening star., 1942-02-19
Army Turning Out
WarpIane Navigators
By the Hundreds
UnheruIded and Unsunq'
Experts Trained in 4
Schools Over Nation
BY DEVON FRANCIS,
Wide World News.

BY DEVON FRANCIS,
Wide World News.
MIAMI, Fla, Feb. 19.-One way
to make a man mad is to kick him
on the shins, and another way Is to
beat him to parking space, but
down here among the murmuring
palms and the hammocks they have
figured out brand-new one.
Just walk up to any one wearing
an olive drab uniform on the
grounds of the University of Mi
ami and say:
II know you are studying to be an
airplane navigator, but after all is
said and done, navigator doesn't
have much to do, does he?"
Charlie Lunn, who is teaching the
subject, says all his students are
youngq gentlemen, and they won't
take you out in the alley and aim a
haymaker at your chin until after
school hours.
Times Have Changed.
You can't make one of the stu
dent air navigatorS of the United
States Army Air Forces angry as
easily as you used to. Times have
changed since August, 1910.
But after all, the newest branch of
training designed to give the United
States air superiority over its Axis
enemies has men who get riled up
when people ignorant of their place
in the scheme of military things
come around asking foolish ques-
tions.
The United States would not be
waging air war over several OF the
worlds vast oceans if it were not
for the navigators.
The fly unheralded and unsung.
They don't pilot the warplanes.
They don't drop bombs. They don't
even shoot at enemy aircraft, ex-
cept maybe in pinch.
But if 1t were not for the naviga-
tors we could just as well take all
those new bombing planes and make
them into hot dog stands.
Work in Cubicle.
Every big bomber taking off on a
mission has a navigator working in
a little cubicle, smaller than an
ordinary Office desk, back of the
pilots compartment. A crewman as
signed to the same duties rides
along in the bombers and transport
planes being flown across the North
and South Atlantic
Every Flying Fortress which took
part in those raids on japanese war
ships and transport ships in the
Macassar Strait had fellow perched
back there behind the pilots, poring
over maps and navigation charts.
Unsung, sure, but the rest of the
crew-the pilots, air gunners, radio
men and bombardiers-would be lost
in space without him. When the
men up front turn around and say,
Position, please" that's when the
navigator shines.
Trained by Hundreds.
Today the Army is training air
navigators by the hundreds. Just
how many are in school, and the
number it is proposed to put in
school, is secret. 1t will be safe
to say, though, that there will be
plenty of navigators for the job at
hand
The navigators' school established
for the Army by Pan American Air
ways at the University of Miami is
one of four now in operation. 1t
was set up after an almost acci-
dental conversation between Lunn
and Delos c. Emmons, now the lieu
tenant general in command of the
Arny's forces in Hawaii, in mid
Atlantic in 1889. Well come to that
In minute.
The other schools, at Albany, Ga;
San Antonio and Sacramento, Calf,
were established by the simple ex-
pedient of blowing into the educa-
tional system a third of the gradu-
ates of the initial classes here. It
worked fine.
Distance Big Factor.
Obviously the chief factor which
makes air navigation so important
to the Army is the position of the
United States in relation to its enc
mics. Two of our foes are on the
continent of Europe. The other one
is in Asia. The war must be carried
to fronts thousands of miles away.
When we fly warplanes abroad they
wing through an awful lot of space
they could get lost in.
Then there is another factor:
Bombing planes constitute the Of
fensive striking power of an air
force. Intercepter pursuits, observa-
ton planes and even transports are
playing their roles, but it is on the
bombers that the high commands
of the Army and the Navy depend
for Furnishing blows which will win
the war. Our bombers must travel
hundreds of miles from secret bases
to unload their explosives on enemy
bases and lines of communication.
Some one has to be aboard to see
the planes get where they are head
ed for and, just as important, get
back.
Lunn Likes His Steaks Rare.
Charlie Lunn. the major domo of
this first of the Army's air naviga-
ton schools, is a pretty good sized
man who likes his steaks rare and
can roar at a good joke. He took
up navigation at 16 and at the age
of Is held a sea captains license.
Eight years ago he Joined Pan
American Airways. He helped sur
vey both the Atlantic and Pacific
air routes, and as chief navigator
for the company once crossed the
Atlantic % times in period OF a
year. He has taught about $500
men how to navigate in the air.
Back in Aqoeon, just after the Eu-
ropean war began, Lunn was on a
Lisbon-bound Clipper with Gen.
Emmons. The Army was far from
being unaware of the value of air
navigation-or avigation, as they
call it around here-but instruction
In it was not general. AS a matter
of fact, the modest size of what was
then known as the Air Corps did
not lend itself to such specialization
as avigational training.