The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-07-22
America Spreads
Her Wings
{ WNU Fesfure-Throuxh special arrangement
with Golfers Weekly
By Robert Mccormick

(WNU Feature Through special srrsnremeHf
with Golfers Weekly
In less than II months our army
air force has grown from nothing
into one of the mightiest fighting
outfits the world has ever seen, with
bases speckled over the globe like
pepper on fried egg. Every line
Of it was designed around a CEN
trail idea that it must have a posi-
tive part in destroying enemy re-
sistance. 1t was patterned for
bombing the heart out of the enemy.
for subduing enemy aircraft, and for
attacking enemy ground and sea
forces. These things it would do, not
in any one battle or one spot. but
in all American battles wherever
they might come.
The production of airplanes more
than doubled. got up to better than
5000 month. The types of COM
bat planes being manufactured we're
cut to less than dozen, but each
of these had specialized purpose
Many got their first battle tests in
the last IL months.
Level Off a Glacier.
These ships appeared at bases in
the Caribbean, in Alaska, in Brit
ain, at points all through the Pacific
and Africa and the Middle East and
India and China. A glacier was
leveled off to make an airport in the
Far North. An American engineer
dropped by parachute into the mid
die of the Sahara, armed with a
pocketful of money, rounded up ma
tive labor and built an airfield.
Measure Distance by Hours.
Between these isolated spots, grew
UP an AAF air-transport system that
became bigger than all the prewar
commercial airlines Of the world put
together. The air transport COM
mand became larger than the en-
tire air corps was before the war,
and it flew more miles than all the
worlds airlines before the war.
1t stopped measuring dis
tances in miles. India became
10 hours away, instead of $4,000
air miles; England became 10
hours away, instead of $500
miles; Africa DO hours, instead
of $500 miles.
Lieutenant General Hap Arnold,
chief of the AAF, flew back from
Australia in IS hours, compared with
the conventional ship-sailing time Of
80 days. The air transport COM
mand shuttled great people around
like suburban commuters. Mrs.
Roosevelt flew to London and back,
Madame Chang Kai-shek flew here
from China, Harry Hopkins flew
| hither and thither with loose-jointed
freedom, the Hartman mission flew
to Russia and back, Wendell Willkie
moved all over the globe.
Climax Comes With Casablanca.
The climax came when the Pres
ident himself-w hadn't flown on
domestic airline since he took Of
fce-broke all the rules by letting
the army fly him to Casablanca to
confer with Churchill. 1t wasn't
simply matter of picking the Pres
ident up and putting him down. The
Secret Service had to 60 first, high
ranking army and navy officers had
to be taken along, and extraordinary
protection had to be given each one.
When Mr.. Roosevelt did do away
with precedent, he did it in big
way, knocking off 5,488 miles in the
air.
The army, and civilians as
well, got used to seeing young
men in their tWenties and early
thirties wearing the eagles of a
full colonel. The youngest OF
these officers is Col. Charles M.
McC0rkle of North Carolina,
who was graduated from West
Point in June, 1896, and became
a colonel on November is, 1912.
He was n years old.
Other Sources Contribute.
New training schools turned out
quantities of at-home pilots, navi-
gators, bombardiers, gunners,
ground crews, mechanics, radiomen
and all the other specialized per-
sonnet necessary to such gigantic
business. Wright Field erected
building big enough to test 4O-foot
pr0peffers; aircraft engines Of more
than 1000 horsepower appeared;
swanky hotels were taken over at
Miami Beach, Atlantic City and Chi
cago to house AAF cadets in train
ing; stretches of desolate land in all
parts Of the country were set aside
as bombing ranges, emergency
landing strips appeared along Amer
lean highways.
American parachute troops were
flown nonstop 800 miles from Eng
land to Africa troop-carrying Gid
ers we're developed; General Kenney
moved enough supplies and troops
into New Guinea to enable the
American forces to start a hammer
ing offensive at the Japs-and al
most all of both men and material
went by air.
AAF officers took over control of
large sections Of the entire army.
Lieut.. Gen. Frank Andrews headed
up the European theater of opera