Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy Mitchell Court Martialed.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy ...: 

Tuesday, October 20, 1925. Coolidge orders Billy Mitchell Court Martialed.

President Coolidge directed the Department of War (the real one, not the one that "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth claims to run, to court marital Col. Billy Mitchell for insubordination.

Frankly, Mitchel was clearly insubordinate, albeit correct in his view.

It's admirable, though, that Mitchell was willing to go down for his views.  I wonder how many senior officers in the service today would be willing to do so?

Coolidge issued this statement, on this day:

I have several questions here relating to an Arms Conference, rather a Limitation of Arms Conference. These are hypothetical questions and I don’t want to undertake to commit the Government in any way in advance of specific questions. I think I can repeat what I said at the last conference – that it was exceedingly gratifying to have the European nations make the agreements which they made at Locarno. The Department was expecting to receive the text today – I think they are published. I have conferred with Secretary Kellogg about them and he will make, or have made, a careful analysis and study of them in the Department. At the time the Dawes plan was entered into it was thought necessary to secure the active cooperation of American citizens in order to reach an agreement, but the great outstanding fact there was that an agreement was finally made. This Locarno agreement is a step in advance of that, and aside from the details of the agreement it seems to me that the great outstanding and satisfying fact is that it is a very clear indication that public opinion in Europe has become sufficiently settled that the suspicions and hatreds that were generated by the war have been sufficiently dissipated so that the actual political representatives of the governments were able to get together and make an important agreement of this kind. I should perhaps have said when I was speaking of the Dawes agreement that one of the fundamental things about that was that it was not made by the political representatives of the governments at that time, but was made by experts that were called in that didn’t have any political considerations at stake. It seems to me the present agreement is exceedingly encouraging on account of that feature. Of course I regard it also as encouraging on account of what it has done. It has been well said that it is perhaps the most important action taken in Europe since the signing of the Armistice. Now, I had been waiting for something of that kind before taking any active steps about considering the calling of a Disarmament Conference at Washington. I think I told the newspaper conference some time ago that a very large part of the considerations that have come before a Disarmament Conference relate peculiarly and almost entirely to Europe. That would be so in relation to any land disarmament. We have reduced our land forces so that that isn’t an American question, and while I would like to have an Arms Conference here because it could include both land and naval forces, yet I wouldn’t want to take any step that would be construed or in effect embarrass the European nations in solving their own problems of land disarmament. I wouldn’ t want to make the slightest criticism of any action they were taking that pointed in that direction, or have our Government say or do anything that would in the slightest way embarrass the bringing of that proposal to a successful conclusion. Now that is about the only attitude I can express at the present time. It is possible for the European nations to hold a Disarmament Conference that to my mind would be exceedingly useful, and which might make agreements that would be of great benefit not only to the European nations but to all the world. If they can do that I hope very much that they will. If the question of naval limitations is to be considered, then I suppose it would be necessary to include America, and it was for that special reason that I thought there would be greater hope of reaching a successful conclusion if an Arms Conference was held in this country. But I can’t answer those questions in advance of whether we are going to have a conference here, whether we would attend a conference abroad, until specific proposals have been made. When they are made, why then we will see whether it is best to accept them. Nor can I say whether we should want to call a conference here until there has been a preliminary sounding out of nations it would be proposed to invite, in order to find out whether such a proposal was agreeable to them. I might restate too the well known and what I hope is becoming the historic attitude of our Government, of desiring to do everything that we can, without jeopardizing our own interests, to help the European situation. We have realized all along that it would be useless to have any thought over there that there must be a constant reliance on us. I think I have stated in some of my addresses that we couldn’t help people very much until they showed a disposition to help themselves. I think that disposition is becoming more and more apparent abroad every day, and it is a rising of a condition that is exceedingly gratifying to those that want to help and those that want to see the European situation progressively developed.

I haven’t any information about any proposed action by the War Department in relation to Colonel Mitchell, and any information that is to be given out about that would come from them.

I haven’t made any statement or taken any action relative to a further extension of leave to General Butler. I think you are all familiar with the letter that I sent to the Mayor about a year ago and its contents. I don’t feel called on to make any statement about it or take any further action until the Mayor has acted.

These inquiries seem to be pretty much all in relation to the situation abroad which I have discussed, and the leave of General Butler which I think I have covered. If you want to have any more information about that why consult my letter which was made public about a year ago.

Last edition:

Friday, October 16, 1925. The Locarno conference ended with several agreements in place and an atmosphere of optimism.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, Diplomacy, Europe, Locarno Conference

Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transco...:

Monday, June 23, 1924. First dawn to dusk transcontinental flight.

Protype of the excellent Curtiss P-1.   The P-1 was the first of a series of "hawk" biplane fighter aircraft manufactured by Curtiss that would serve right up until the eve of World War Two.

1st Lt. Russell Maughan made the first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States.

Landing at Crissy Field in San Francisco one minute before technical sundown, he had started the day off at Mitchel Field, Long Island and had flown his Curtiss P-1 across the country with stops in Dayton, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salduro

Maughan was a significant early military aviation pioneer who has appeared on this site before.

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, June 18, 1924. The Cummins Incident.

Labels: 1920s, 1924, Denmark, Diplomacy, Mexico, United Kingdom, USSR

Blog Mirror: Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part IV: Shanghai, China

 

Around the World in 175 Days, 1924: Department of State Contributions to the U.S. Army Flight Around the World: Part IV: Shanghai, China

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, February 10, 1944. Offloading Piper at Saidor, Wellingtons in action, Inaugurating flights to the Keys, and a disaster.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, February 10, 1944. Victory at Saidor: 

Thursday, February 10, 1944. Victory at Saidor

The landing at Saidor concluded on January 2, Operation Michaelmas, resulted in an Allied victory on this date.  The Australians and the Americans had linked up, and the Huon Peninsula was mostly occupied.

Offloading of Piper Cub used in Operation Michaelmas.

The Minekaze was sunk off of Formosa by the USS Pogy. 

The Red Army took Shepetovka, Ukraine.

The U-545 was scuttled after being crippled west of the Hebrides by a Vickers Wellington.  T he U-666 disappeared in the North Atlantic.

On the same day, American Airlines Flight 2 crashed into the Mississippi River. All twenty-four passengers and crew were killed.  The cause of the crash was never determined.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, May 3, 1943. The crash of Hot Stuff claims the life of Gen. Andrews.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, May 3, 1943. The crash of Hot Stuff claim...: 

Monday, May 3, 1943. The crash of Hot Stuff claims the life of Gen. Andrews.

Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews, for whom Andrews Air Force Base is named, died in the crash of the B-24 Hot Stuff in Iceland, when it went down in bad weather.

He had been on an inspection tour in the United Kingdom.

Only the plane's tail gunner, SSgt George A. Eisel, survived the crash.  Eisel had survived a previous B-24 crash in North Africa.  He'd live until 1964 when he died at age 64.  Married prior to the war, he and his wife never had any children.

Hot Stuff was the first B-24D to complete 25 missions, well before, it might be noted, the B-17 Memphis Belle did the same.  Hardly anyone recalls Hot Stuff, as the Army went on to emphasize the Memphis Belle following the crash of Hot Stuff and the death of all but one of its crew.  Of note, Hot Suff, predictably, had a much more salacious example of nose art than Memphis Belle, and it's interesting to speculate how the Army would have handled that had the plane been popularized.  At any rate, the story that Memphis Belle was the first US bomber to complete 25 missions is a complete myth.

Andrews was the CO of the ETO at the time of this death.  A West Point Graduate from the class of 1906, he had been in the cavalry branch from 1906 to 1917, when he was assigned to aviation over the objection of his commander.  A prior objection had prevented his reassignment in 1914.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, May 2, 1923. Beginning of a historic and perilous flight.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, May 2, 1923. Beginning of a historic a...: 

Wednesday, May 2, 1923. Beginning of a historic and perilous flight.

U.S. Army Air Service pilots Lt. John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly commenced the first nonstop North American transcontinental flight on this day in 1923.  Their flight in a Fokker T-2 took them from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, San Diego in 27 hours with much of the nighttime flight through storms in uncertain territory.

Fokker T 2 (F.IV).

McCready, who had joined the Army in 1917, held a string of early aviation records but left the service in 1926 and became the head of the Aviation department of Shell Oil.  He reentered the Air Force in 1942 and held several combat commands, leaving again in 1948.  He died in 1969 at age 91, an accomplishment in and of itself given that he was an early record-breaking aviator.

He is the only three time recipient of the Mackay Trophy.

Oalkey G. Kelley had a long flying career as well.  He also retired in 1948, passing away at age 74 in 1966.  Both men retired to California, although McCready was from there.

First Jump. October 20, 1922

Lt. Harold R. Harris bailed out of a Leoning PW-2A over Dayton, Ohio, being the first U.S. military pilot to make an emergency parachute exist from an aircraft.  The aircraft crashed at 403 Valley Street without injuring anyone.

Harris.  He wasn't the first man saved by parachute, contrary to what this caption states.  Balloon crews had used them during World War One and passengers in disabled aircraft had used them before this day in 1922 as well.  He was the first aircraft pilot to use one.

Harris was a test pilot, and unlike many in that field, he lived a long life, serving in the military twice as well as having a role in commercial aviation.  He died at age 92 in 1988.

The crash site.

Indeed Crimean pilot Pavel Argeyev, who had served in the French and Imperial Russian militaries, died this day in an aircraft accident in Czechoslovakia, which he was flying as a test pilot.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, September 1, 1942. Casper Air Base gets the thumbs up.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, September 1, 1942. Miscarriages of Justice.: According to the Wyoming State Historical Association, on this day in 1942 official approval was given to commence use of the Casper Air Base, which had been constructed in an incredibly small amount of time.  The existing county airport was Wardwell Field, the Casper area's second airport (the first was in what is now Evansville).  Today, what was Casper Air Base is the Natrona County International Airport, which actually uses at least one fewer runway than was constructed by the Army in 1942.  Wardwell Field's runways, in contrast, are city streets in the Town of Bar Nunn.

Bell UH-1 with Nose Mount

This is a UH-1, a "Huey", in Casper, Wyoming painted in old Vietnam War era camouflage.  It's fitted with a nose mount, which can house cameras and electronic devices.  Nose mounts were fitted to UH-1s during the Vietnam War, and they continue to be offered for commercial UH-1s.

The odd thing about this helicopter is that even though it retains the USAF or US Army Vietnam era camouflage scheme, it lacks national markings, which most surplus aircraft which retain military paint schemes do.  Additionally, I could not see a registration number on it anywhere.  That may be because I took this photograph from a distance, with an iPhone, and it could be painted in black on the dark green aft of the helicopter.  It obviously should have this painted on it.

When I happened to arrive at the airport on the day this photo was taken, a crew was standing by it as the refueling truck was getting ready, and they were having their photograph taken.  I thought they were a military crew, but I wasn't paying much attention.  UH-1s are no longer in common US use, but the UH-1N is still used by the USAF in connection with nuclear missiles and missile silos, and that variant does in fact often have the nose mount fitting, although it should have USAF markings and this old camouflage scheme would be a surprise.

First "Crop Dusting". August 3, 1921.

On this day in 1921, crop dusting, spraying pesticides by air, was performed for the first time in an experiment involving the U.S. Army and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

First crop dusting being conducted.

The first flight featured Army Air Corps pilot John A. Macready and aircraft engineer Etienne Dormoy who performed the test with a Curtiss JN4 over a field outside of Troy, Ohio.  Lead arsenate was sprayed to attack caterpillars.

Dormay left, Macready right.

Macready would complete an Army career prior to World War Two, leaving the service in 1926, but was recalled to serve in the Second World War.  He retired from the Army Air Force in 1948.  He was a legendary pilot at the time and had many firsts while in the service, including being the first Air Corps pilot to parachute from a stricken aircraft at night.

June 20, 1941. The Army Air Corps becomes the Army Air Forces.

On this day in 1941, expressing its growing significance and the need to increase its autonomy, the United States Army Air Corps became the United States Army Air Forces.

The date I learned here:

Today in World War II History—June 20, 1941

The evolution had been occurring for some time so the increased degree of separation from the rest of the Army was not surprising.  None the less, it stopped short of full separation, as Air Force would not become a separate branch of service until 1947.

May 28, 1921. An early disaster.

Showing both the rapid advance of air travel, as more people were able to fly, and in more comfort, than before, and that aircraft remained very much an unknown in some ways, the deadliest air accident up to that time occurred when a Curtiss Eagle of the U.S. Army's Air Service crashed in a severe thunderstorm at Morgantown, Maryland.

Curtis Eagle.

All seven occupants were killed.  The plane was serving as an air ambulance.

Lex Anteinternet: March 19, 1941. Training, threatening, and planning.

Lex Anteinternet: March 19, 1941. Training, threatening, and planning.:  

March 19, 1941. Training, threatening, and planning.

 Camp Beauregard, Louisiana.  March 19, 1941.

The British government formed a Battle of the Atlantic Committee on this day.   The German, and as we recently saw Italian, U-boot campaign against shipping was the single greatest threat to the British war effort at the time, and the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of the war.

The Germans gave Yugoslavia an ultimatum to join the Axis, or face war with it.  

An interesting aspect of the German war effort was that at this point it was tied up trying to save the Italians in North Africa and massing troops in Bulgaria, which it has muscled into an alliance, in preparation for invading Greece to save the Italians there. The British, in the meantime were outfighting Italy everywhere, except in the North Atlantic, and had landed troops in Greece to assist that country.  In spite of this, however, the Germans were preparing to invade the Soviet Union.  Logic, or at least caution, would have dictated rethinking that.

While here seems to be some confusion as to the date (it was either today, or the 22nd), this date is frequently attributed as being the activation date for the 99th Pursuit Squadron.  It was activated without men assigned to it, which was common.  It soon had them however, and this was notable as it was an all black pilot unit.  The unit went on to become the famous Tuskegee Airmen.

First 99th class in 1941.   The trainers are Vultee BT-13s.  Note the B-3 flight jackets which are frequently, but in accurately, principally associated with bomber crews.

Potomac Park including Hains Point, as well as the Naval Air Station Anacostia (upper left) and the Army Air Service's Bolling Field. October 9, 1920.

 

Lex Anteinternet: November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died. (Air Mail Item)

Lex Anteinternet: November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.:

November 9, 1919. Edgar S. Paxson died.

And the Army Air Corps, which was responsible for air mail, had acquired a new twin engine aircraft for that purpose, shown here at Bolling Field outside of Washington, D. C.

Curtiss JN-4D, Denver International Airport

I have passed underneath this Curtis Jenny hundreds of times, but I never fail to take note of it.  Surprisingly, for one reason or another, I apparently never took a photograph of it until just the other day, even though I have photographed another biplane that's hanging from the ceiling at the Denver International Airport.

Jennies were surprisingly large, as this photo demonstrated.  Obsolescent at the time of hteir introduction, they none the less formed the backbone of the early American military airborne fleet and saw service in the Border War, as it came to be known to the Army, which of course wasn't a full war but threatened to become one. 

After World War One JN-4s were sold off and they became a common barn stormer aircraft.  There are a surprisingly large number of them left around today, a few of which still fly on rare occasion.

Oberg Pass.

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Which occurred as part of the 1919 Air Derby.

This crash, discussed elsewhere, is usually referenced as occurring "west of Cheyenne".  It is west of Cheyenne, but the pilot was following the Union Pacific Railroad and a much better description would have been north west of Laramie, or even south of Medicine Bow.

Blog Mirror: Small planes, big mountains: Retracing the 1919 ‘Air derby’

Small planes, big mountains: Retracing the 1919 ‘Air derby’

Lex Anteinternet: October 8, 1919 The Sox Take Another, Aviators Take Off. And Wool.

Lex Anteinternet: October 8, 1919 The Sox Take Another, Aviators Tak...:

October 8, 1919 The Sox Take Another, Aviators Take Off. And Wool.

On this day, the Sox won again, and with Cicotte pitching.

This caused real concern among the gamblers.  Prior to the series commencing the common thought that the Sox could win two Series games back to back simply by willing to do so, and now it appeared that was true. The Sox were back in the game and it looked like they might take the series.



As a result, Lefty Williams was visited by an enforcer of the gambler's that night and his family was threatened.  The order was that the Sox were to lose the next game.

While the Sox appeared to be rallying, news of the giant air race, with varied accounts as to the number of aircraft in it, started taking pride of place in the headlines.  The race had already been marred, however, by early loss of life.

Cities on the Lincoln Highway that had only recently hosted the Army Transcontinental Convoy now were getting set to look up and watch the air race.

And there was news of a woolen mill coming to the state, something that would well suit a state that, at that time, had millions of sheep.



The Gasoline Alley gang went golfing.

Lt. Austin's attempted flight from the Canal Zone to Washington D. C., October 6, 1919.