August 19, 1919. Trouble on the road and a big welcome in Salt Lake City, Trouble on the Border.
Salt Lake City in 1908.
While plagued with mechanical troubles, the Motor Transport Convoy made good time, doing 73 miles from Ogden to Salt Lake City in 8.25 hours. Upon arrival, the command was treated to a parade attended by dignitaries.
The large celebratory nature of the arrival reflects the fact that upon arriving in Salt Lake the command had arrived at the first substantial city since leaving Cheyenne in eastern Wyoming, or perhaps even since leaving Omaha in eastern Nebraska. They were arriving toward the end of their trek and while perhaps the worst was yet to come, getting to Salt Lake was a major accomplishment.
While the arrival of the Motor Transport Convoy was obviously a big even in Salt Lake and elsewhere, the big news on that day is that American troops were back in Mexico.
The occasion had been the holding for ransom of two American military aviators. A portion of the ransom had been paid and then the 8th Cavalry crossed the border at Marfa in pursuit of the Mexican bandits.
Perhaps somewhat ironically, on the same day the U.S. re-adopted the briefly adopted star roundel for its aircraft. It had done this early in World War One but abandoned it in favor of one more closely resembling the device used by the British and the French, which made sense at the time. Now it re-adopted its earlier insignia, just in time for the aviators to join the pursuit of their own captors in support of the 8th Cavalry, although the insignia used by those aircraft is unknown to us.
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