Evening star., 1943-05-18
Engineer Outfit
Defies Detection by
Effective Camouf|age
Men at Hidden Repair
Shop in Florida Live
Under Frequent AIerts
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
Star Staff Correspondent.

Star stan Correspondent.
ORLANDO. Fla, May 18-Be-
cause there is no war on this side
of the ocean, some elements of the
Army Air Force School of Applied
Tactics have to attack synthetic
problems, but the word synthetic
does not apply to a little group of
men located in Florida jungle area
not far from Leesburg, in the
AAFSAT area.
This group of air service men,
commanded by 1t. Col S. J. Zoller
of Brooklyn, N. Y, an Army veteran
of 10 years service. have set up
housekeeping in dense jungle, and
so well have they camouflaged their
heavy and involved equipment that
airplanes doing daily tactical ma
neuvers over this area have not yet
located them.
Ground straf1ng P-40s and P-51s
have roared tree-top high over their
camp, housing hundreds of men,
High flying Photographic planes
have pictured their area many times.
Tree top scraping A 20s have
knocked down bits of Florida pine
into their bivouac area as they
roared over. But while the high
command of AAFSAT knows where
they are, the boys who pilot the
planes haven't yet located them
And they've been in the dense
jungle for seven months. It's typical
of an air service outfit.
Services Many Fields.
When you go in or the ground
your eyes bulge that so much can
be hidden SO we'll Col. Zollers out
At services more than a dozen air
fields with food, equipment, arma-
ment, including even the biggest
bombs, handles aircraft crashes and
repairs airplanes and chemical war
fare installations.
The men live under actual combat
conditions. Daily they are alerted
to attack from the air. Constantly
they wear steel helmets and gas
masks. Every few yards is a slit
trench into which they can flop
when the air attack gong is sounded.
Constantly they are under simulated
air attacks and air observation.
Here in the shade of the Spanish
moss-draped live oaks and mag
nolias, an airplane which has been
almost destroyed can be completely
rebuilt. Here is an immense ma
chine shop. Here is everything an
alrplane needs to fly and to fight
1t is another of the amazing jobs
AAFSAT is doing here at this great
air center in Florida.
Camouflage Conscious.
The men are very camouf1age
conscious" explained Col. Zoller.
You will notice they have even
draped the truck windshields, they
show no reflection of light through
the trees" Drawn up under a
canopy of the moss-shrouded live
oaks were, scores of big trucks, from
the big l0-Wheeler down to jeeps.
All had been carefully camouf1aged
and hidden under trees.
The party of correspondents on
this tour of AAFSAT we're taken
down into typical command post,
a dugout 10 feet under ground.
There sat a captain at a desk
equipped withs complete communi-
cations. Across the door were two
gas blankets, just as they would be
in combat area.
The men live we'll, and eat we'll in
such picturesquqely named mess
halls as the Waldorf Astoria,
Shangri-La, and so on The camp
has a complete medical and dental
unit, even chapel. 1t has widely
dispersed bomb dumps, carefully
riveted against explosion. 1t has
everything an air service command
needs
Not long ago an engineer outfit,
commanded by 1t. Col Frank Mil
ner, a veteran of the engineers, who
has built portable airfields in the
Pacific, was at this Air Service Com
mand post. Orders came to this
engineer outfit to move out in the
Florida sand country some 20 miles
and set up an emergency airfield,
capable of expansion. One of the
AiSod lASli VA OAlC 10 LII.
R. Boggs, graduate of George
washington University and of the
Fort Belvoir Officers Candidate
School.
This outfit stripped for action.
Under a self-imposed schedule, they
set up a complete 4,000-foot steel
landing strip in seven days. Once
the ground was cleared, they laid
the steel mat in 35l2 hours of un-
ceasing work.
The job got an official commenda-
tion from Brig Gen. Hume Peabody.
commanding AAFSAT.
In C-53 of the Troop Carrier
Command we sat down on the steel
runway. 1t isn't as smooth as the
concrete runway of the big airfield
but for an emergency job it couldn't
be improved upon. These tough en-
gineefs are a crack outfit, COM
manded by group of smartly alert
officers.
In their spare moments they build
field tents, also carefully camou-
faged. They even have a post ex-
change where you could get a soft
drink to wash down the dust Now
they're busy preparing another land
ing strip 100000 feet long to handle
~ l.