page_title: Augustus Post
section_title: Special military service in aviation
hierarchical_section_title: Augustus Post / Promoter of aviation expansion / Special military service in aviation
caption_attribution_description: English: The president and several members of the Aero Club of America wrote to Secretary of State Lansing to recommend sending Augustus Post to Britain and France to help train military aviators in World War I.
context_page_description: Augustus Thomas Post Jr. was an American adventurer who distinguished himself as an automotive pioneer, balloonist, early aviator, writer, actor, musician and lecturer. Post pursued an interest in transportation of every form. In 1898, when Post was 25, following his time at Harvard Law School, he circumnavigated the globe by rail and steamship. He then bought one of the first cars ever made and helped found the Glidden Auto Tours, an automotive distance drive and competition used to promote a national highway system. He was the original founder of what is now the American Automobile Association, first known as the Auto Club of America. He established the nation's first parking garage, the first bus service, and also received the first driving tickets in New York.
  In 1907 he was one of the first civilians to descend in a submarine. Two years later he became the thirteenth man to fly solo in an airplane, and was an original founder of the Aero Club of America. In that capacity he served as official timer for Orville Wright's historic 57-minute flight at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908.
context_section_description: Anticipating U.S. entry into World War I, Post wrote an essay in 1915 entitled “The Aeroplane in War and its Future in Peace,” in which he tracked the progress, in less than one hundred years, from the use of balloons for reconnaissance in the U.S. Civil War to the emergence of heavier-than-air craft in the war then spreading across Europe. He began, “Battle lines, once horizontal, are now vertical." Months after the essay was published, Theodore Roosevelt wrote to the Aero Club of America endorsing their work, and the leaders of the ACA wrote to Secretary of State Robert Lansing advising that Post be sent to Britain and France to help train military airmen. Post was an expert on Curtiss planes, which became the workhorses of the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War I. Lansing approved the assignment.
  Post's fluency in French and German made it possible for him to gather information and send home detailed reports and observations on the relative strengths and weaknesses of allied and enemy aircraft. He noted that the French were struggling to catch up to the Germans with their "flying tank" and he commended American aviators for honing their “group flying,” using a V formation to encircle enemy craft and gain a strategic advantage. He also noted the usefulness of blimps employed by the French along their coast to spot submarines to a depth of 65 feet.
  
  Later in life Post was often referred to as “Major Post” or “Colonel Post.” These titles were not associated with his special military service; they were honorary designations conferred by the New York Police Department for his work in helping establish an NYPD aerial unit.
  In addition to his service in Britain and France, Post was also a member of the Four Minute Men, a group of volunteers who worked for The Committee on Public Information, an independent government agency dedicated to promoting national awareness of and support for military actions. The volunteers gave four minute lectures at public venues, from town hall meetings to movie theaters to restaurants. Post's contributions as a Four Minute Man, specifically educating the public on the capabilities of aircraft for war and peace, earned him a certificate of honor for his service. It was conferred by the CPI's national director, William H. Ingersoll, with the endorsement of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy.
  During World War II Post returned to his wartime efforts to encourage youth to join the military air service. For example, he spoke to and encouraged Jewish aviators training at the Jabotinsky Aviation School in Rockaway, New York in 1941.
caption: The president and several members of the Aero Club of America wrote to Secretary of State Lansing to recommend sending Augustus Post to Britain and France to help train military aviators in World War I.
exif: {}