Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-11
Chief Of the Worlds Greatest Air Unit,
Pete Ouesada Is Hard Man to Ground

flyer who now ranks with them In the
air hierarchy of the present war-Lt.
Gen. Carl Spaatz-were the team who.
in the Question Mark, set an endur-
ance record of more than $50 hours.
keeping their plane in the air by taking
on gas through hose from a refueling
ship.
Interlarded in the generals years Of
peacetime training came more foreign
assignments than fell to the lot of the
average young flyer.
In 1880 he was assigned as Assistant
Air Attache to the United States En-
bassy in Havana, where he acted az
personal pilot for Ambassador Harry F.
Guggenheim.
He returned to the United States in
1882, but soon afterward fell heir to an
even more colorful assignment. He was
given leave to accompany the American
Museum of Natural History's expedi-
ton, under the leadership of F. Trubee
Dawson, former Assistant Secretary Of
War, to Africa to bring back some rare
types of elephants. The Dawson ex-
petition was joined in Africa by Mr.. and
Mrs. Martin johnson, the famous big
game hunters.
Although 1t. Quesada's official Job
was to pilot the expedition on various
exploration trips, he found time also to
join in the big-game hunting. The ex-
petition returned with five elephants
also a hair-raising tale Of an elephant
stampede through their camp In the
middle of the night.
In 1888 the then Capt. Quesada went
abroad third time as a member OF
the American Air Mission sent to Ar
gentina to train its infant air corps. He
returned to this country in 1910 bearing
an Argentine scroll which proclaimed
him Military Aviator Honoris Causa"
Commands Greatest Air Unit
Along with these zestful assignments
Gen. Quesada also found time In the
1905 to lay the sound professional and
technical foundation which today quail
fies him to command thousands OF pilots
in what, numerically at least, is the
worlds greatest air unit. In 1885 he was
detailed as a student in the Air Corps
Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala,
and followed that course with q more
advanced one at the Command and
General Staff School at Fort Leaven-
worth, Kans., graduating there in 1887.
Assignment to Leavenworth Is re-
garded in the Army as a clear indi-
cation that the higher-ups in the War
Department have picked a man for
eventual duty as a general officer.
War clouds in Europe already were
beginning to appear on the horizon
then, and Gen. Quesada, following his
assignment In Argentina and return
in 1910, was given q series of highly
important missions.
After an assignment in the War De.
partment where he learned the over
policies Of the high command, he wa,
sent to England in 1941 as a military
observer. The German "blitz" was ther
in full swing, and a number of All
Corps officers were sent over to observe
the f1rst-hand effects of big-scal
bombing.
He returned to duty at Mitchell Fielt
and, on the outbreak of war here, wa
assigned as commander of the 33d In
terceptor Control Squadron, which hac
the vital task of protecting New Yorl
City from raiders. Later in the yea
he was shifted to command the 33'
Fighter Group, based at Philadelphia
but in October returned to New Yorl
as wing commander of the LIST Fighte
Command.