Existing comment:
Early Aviators:
In 1908, the Army accepted its first airplane from the Wright brothers. A group of aviation enthusiasts from the New York National Guard, 1st Company Signal Corps, organized an "aeronautical corps" at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. In 1910, the unit raised $500 to finance its first aircraft. Beckwith Havens was recognized as the first Guard aviator. In 1912 he flew with the Army in joint maneuvers.
A formal program of American military aviation was virtually non-existent in 1917 when America entered World War I. Only 26 pilots and 250 obsolete aircraft were available in the army. The Guard provided the Army with a major pool of aviators. Approximately 100 Guardsmen, half of them from New York, qualified or were in training. The fledging [sic] service entered the War in the spring of 1918. The burden of combat fell on 1,500 pilots in 45 operational squadrons who destroyed 781 enemy aircraft and 73 balloons. The Guard contributed four aces to the war effort: Major Reed Chambers of Tennessee, Captain Field Kindley of Kansas, Major Reed Landis of Illinois, and Lt. Matins Stenseth of Minnesota. |