Imperial Valley press., 1942-06-07
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

OF Flying Tigers who, using bunch
of obsolete planes on the Burma
and China fronts, destroyed more
than 500 Jap aircraft in the last
six months.
General Chennault is hot be-
carse the Army has had tough
time deciding what to do with
him. the general being i'm the
unfortunate position of Gen.
Billy Mitchell, man who
knew more than his superiOrs.
Mitchell was court -martialed
out of the Army. disgraced.
Chennault was dealt with more
gently. He was retired for phys
icaI defects, disability in the
line of duty" Unofficrially it
was said to be a case of general
breakdown, upset nerves, deaf
ness and bad eyesight. That
was in 1887.
Chennault had to go to China
and teach his ideas to volunteers,
proving his theories in actual COM
bat under terrific handicaps to
win recognition in the United
States, to be promoted from the
captaincy at which he had been
retired, to temporary rank as a
brigadier general.
But even this does not salve over
the issue, for long before Chennault
was a brigadier general in the US
Army, he had been made a briga-
dier general in the Chinese army,
responsible only to Chang Kai-
shek. Now China's Central News
Agency reports the AVG will be-
come US. Air Corps pursuit
squadron on July 4, with Chennault
remaining in command-and also
becoming commander-in-chief OF
American forces in China
TEAM WORKER
The alternative is that he comes
back to the us. to ram his the
ories of combat down the throats
of tacticians who. less than 10
years ago, wouldn't permit Chem
nault to teach his advanced ideas,
! though he was at one time chief
instructor of the Pursuit Section
in the Air Corps Tactical School
at Maxwell Field, Ala.
Chennault has been funda-
mentally a teacher all his adult
life. He was born at Commerce,
Tex. i'm 1890, attended Louisi-
ana State University, LouiSi-
ana State Normal and a bust
| ness college. He taught at the
business college one year and
was a high school principal for
four years. During World War
l he signed up for Officers
Training School, was commits
stoned i'm infantry and then
transferred to aviation section
of the Signal Corps.
He never saw action in France,
but stayed in the Army and served
at various posts, including Hawaii.
Brought back to the United States
as captain in the late 1920S, he
was assigned as an instructor at
the primary flying school, Brooks
Field, Tex, for two years, and as
director of flying until 1880, when
he was sent to the Air Corps Tao
|
Va, as a student. On graduation,
he was kept on duty as an instruc-
tor and when the school was moved
to Maxwell Field, Captain Chen
nault went with it
1t was at Maxwell Field that
Chennault organized "The Three
Men on a Flying Trapeze," with
Lieuts. H. S. Hansell and j. H. Will
Hanson, Chennault's ideas on how
aerial warfare should be taught and
fought were beginning to take
shape. BaSically, the ideas were
that two or three airplanes, work
ing together were better than one
PAID WITH DEMGTION
To prove his ideas workable,
Chennault lined up his three Planes
! in V formation, took two 30foot
lengths of rope and tied the inner
wing tips of the outside planes
to the adjacent wing tip of the
| leading, center plane Thus tied
together, the three planes perform
ed in unison all the loops, rolls,
| tuTllS, SPINS anu UlNco OIliCl oCullO
flyers performed solo.
Chennauit was made ma
jor, but still wasn't permitted
to go all-Out in teaching his
revolutionary tactics. Two years
later he was denoted to cap
tain and retired out of the Ar
my, an old man of AZ, consider
ed no good for flying.
There has been some agitation
| to have Chennault brought back
to the United States to supervise
the training of pursuit squadrons,
according to his ideas. The JapS
would probably love it, but num-
Der of Army brass hats would have
to 20 bit red in the face If he
were. Either way, the Chennault
| tactics are the hottest thing in the
air today and you will hear much
more about them as the war grows
older.
WASHINGTON AIR
Army Air Force electrically heat
ed flying suits arc designed TO keep
plane crews warm in temperatures
down to so below zero A new steel
alloy used as substitute for alum