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[Illustration: GEN. WILLIAM MITCHELL, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE AMERICAN AIR FORCES AT THE FRONT]
LUCK ON THE WING _Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy_
Major, Air Service, U. S. Army. Distinguished Service Cross. Croix de Guerre Française. Recipient of two special citations by General Pershing for conspicuous bravery and exceptionally meritorious service. Operations Officer U. S. Air Service, First Army Corps at Château-Thierry and of First Army Observation Wing at St. Mihiel and the Argonne.
NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE
COPYRIGHT, 1920. BY E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
If any one should be interested enough to inquire as to the reason for my becoming a sky spy, an aërial observer, a deuce, or whatever one chooses to call it, I should certainly speak the truth and affirm that it was not the result of calm, cool and deliberate thought. I have always had a holy horror of airplanes and to this day I cannot say that I exactly enjoy riding in them. My sole reason for flying now is that I am still in the Air Service and there is not an excuse in the world for a young man being an air officer if he does not spend a part of his time in that element. Every boy in his own heart wants to be a soldier whether his mother raises him that way or not: as a boy and as a man I wanted to be an infantryman. Upon being commissioned in Infantry following the First Officers’ Training Camp, I was about to have a lifetime’s ambition gratified by being placed in charge of a company at Camp Lewis, Washington, when along with two hundred other new officers I was ordered to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for assignment with the Missouri and Kansas troops. I had been enthusiastic over the infantry, I liked it fine, and most of all I wanted to train my company and lead them into action. Arriving at Fort Sill, we found that the troops had not arrived and would not come for at least a month. Meanwhile we stagnated and lost our pep. The papers were full of the pressing need of help at the battle front and still all around I could see nothing but destructive delay. It was the old call of the individual—for though my heart was set upon the ideal of training my own men for the supreme test yet I could not stand the delay. I was determined to get to the Front and with that as my paramount ideal, I would take the first opportunity that would lead to its realization.