Harsh Words

Anger breeds anger. Colonel William Mitchell, former Assistant Chief of the Army Air Service was angry and spoke his mind. The War Department heard his words and grew angry. Reports had it that he would be court-martialed or at least severely reprimanded.

Aroused by the loss of the PN9 No. 1 plane flying to Hawaii and the wreck of the Shenandoah, following in short order one on the other, he issued a lengthy statement saying: "I hope that every American will hear it." The War Department certainly did. Exerpts:

"These accidents are the direct result of the incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense by the Navy and War Departments. . . The lives of the airmen are being used merely as pawns in their hands.

"The airmen themselves are bluffed and bulldozed so that they dare not tell the truth in the majority of cases. . . .

Pierson & Skeel. "We were stirred to further action by the killing of Lieutenant Pierson and Captain Skeel in the dilapidated racing airplanes during last October's are meet. "This was caused by an arrangement between the Navy and Army that the navy should take the races one year and the Army should take them the next year, thereby equalizing propaganda, not service. Instead of building new airplanes, our men were given the old crates to fly at those terrific speeds. Of course they came to pieces, as they were designed for only one race two years before. This was done in spite of the fact that we had sufficient money to build new ships according to entirely advanced patterns and new safety factors.

Hawaiian Flight. "To get publicity and make a noise about what it was doing with aircraft, this so-called Hawaiian flight was arranged for. Three airplanes were built to participate in it. These showed nothing novel in design and were untried for this kind of work. One never got away from the Pacific Coast, another flew a few miles out and was forced to land in the water, and one was lost on account of being out of gas somewhere on the high seas.

"Patrol vessels were stationed every 200 miles, a distance entirely too far apart for an experimental flight of this kind with such primitive flying machines as the PN-9s are. Double or triple this number of vessels should have been there. In fact, the whole Pacific fleet should have been placed there, instead joy riding around the Antipodes.

Shenandoah Disaster. "I do not

know what exactly happened to the poor Shenandoah; she was an experimental ship, built in this country. I believe she was about 50% overweight in her structure. She had broken away from her mooring mast--an inefficient way of handling airships, anyway--last spring and her whole structure was badly strained.

"I believe that the number of valves in the gas bags containing the helium had been diminished so as to save helium gas, which is expensive in money but which made the ship more dangerous to the crew.

"What business has the Navy over the mountains, anyways? Their mission is out in the water-- not only out in the water but under the water, out of sight, away from the land. That is why we have the navy.

MacMillan Expedition. "What other thing has the Navy done this summer? After borrowing some airplanes from the Army, that were entirely inadequate to the work in hand, they went on the

MacMillan trip to the Arctic. More propaganda!!

"As far as can be learned, from a distance, they had a cat and dog fight all the way up and back, between MacMillan, the pilots and the Navy Department, and, of course, got nowhere and did nothing. . .

The Price. "To make a long story short, we are utterly disgusted with the conduct of our military affairs applying to aviation Our pilots know they are going to be killed if they stay in the service, on account of the methods employed, in the old floating coffins that we are still flying.

"As far as I am personally concerned, I am looking for no advancement in any service. I have had the finest career that any man could have in the armed service of our United States. I have had the great pleasure of serving in all our campaigns from the Spanish War to the present and of commanding the greatest air forces ever brought together on the planet. I owe the Government everything the Government owes me nothing.