Evening star., 1946-03-15
Daily AirmaiI Flights
To Troops in Pacific
Resume Sunday

New steps to speed delivery OF air.
mail to armed forces in the Pacific
were announced late yesterday a.
Senator Austin, Republican, of Ver-
mont called the Senate's attention
to a virtual breakdown in the serv.
ice as reported by soldier and by
B. M. McKelway, associate editor
of The Star, in an article Wednes-
day on how rehabilitation has
wrecked our war machine in the
Pacific.
q Giving top priority to service mai
In the Pacific, Secretary Patterson
ordered restoration and expansion
Of daily service to speed up deliv-
cries delayed by consignment OF
mail to surface vessels because OF
rapid rehabilitation of the all
forces. 1t. Gen. r. l.. George, CON-
mander of the Air Transport Com
mand, announced late yesterday
that beginning Sunday daily flight
service will be started to Hawaii
Guam and Japan, with United All,
Lines serving as prime contractor.
Praises McKelway Article.
Senator Austin told his colleagues
that on the day The Star published
"a remarkably graphic account Of
conditions witnessed by Mr.. Nickel
way he received a letter from a
young man 1 know very we'll
which confirmed Mr.. McKelway's
observations with respect to dis
rupted air mail service and its ef-
feet On morale.
The letter, mailed from a Pacific
Army air base at Iramagawa, was
placed in the Congressional Record
along with Mr.. McKelway's article
The Senator explained it had
taken the air mail letter 80 days to
reach him.
The soldier spoke for "thou-
sands Of American boys who, like
myself, are doing what our coun-
try asks of us" He asked the Sen
Rtors help in clearing up "the badly
muddled mail situation" because
"maik from home is one of the
servicemen's chief morale builders" "
Elapsed time on airmail, the soldier
SAID, sometimes stretches into
months"
Plan Not Then Effective.
Senator Austin suggested that a
plan announced by the War De-
partment February 20 for speeding
up the service through contracts by
the Post Office Department with
commercial carriers probably had
not gone into effect when the soldier
wrote his letter and the improve
ment may be being felt now"
During February alone, the War
Department disclosed, mail service
to the Pacific was curtailed so dras-
tically that more than 100000 air
mail letters for soldiers are now en-
route overseas by surface vessels.
The loss of maintenance personnel
to service the planes was a prime
reason for the disruption of the
air mail service.
Gen. George said sharp reductions
IN air mail time to and from the
three Pacific bases are expected to
result from the new arrangements.
A fleet of 40 four-engined C-54 Sky
masters of the Air Transport Com
mand and Is airline crews will be
used in furthering the Army's pro-
gram for on-time delivery of
soldiers mail overseas.
Currently, United Airlines is op-
Grating three daily trips for the
ATC between California and Homo
lulu. These will become part of the
expanded operations and all MAIN
tenance outside the United States
will be handled by the airlines.
| To Add Daily Shuttle.
This service will supplement- pres
ent military air facilities which pro-
vide for one flight daily to Tokyo
and another to the Philippines.
Keeping to this schedule has been
difficult.
Added 10 such military Nights
starting Sunday, will be four daily
round trips from Hamilton Field,
near San Francisco to Honolulu and
one flight from Honolulu to Tokyo.
On March Is, an additional daily
shuttle will be added from Hamilton
Field to Honolulu.
BY that date, it was claimed,
military and contract flights will
total eight daily round trips between
California and Honolulu, and four
daily round trips westward from
Honolulu, three to Tokyo and one
to Manila
johnson and Kwajalein Islands
will be intermediate stops between
Honolulu and Guam. Elapsed time
for the 7,000-mile flight from Cali
fornia to Tokyo will be approx
~ q to1Iy Al to,,rc