Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 208, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1918 — YANK AVIATORS WINNING FAME [ARTICLE]

YANK AVIATORS WINNING FAME

Progress So Rapidly in Italian Camps They Amaze Instructors. MANY GUARD ITALY’S COASTS Their Watchful Eagerness Is of Great Help in Spotting Sneaky Submarines—All Are Anxious for Action. American Navy Aviation Camp, Somewhere in Italy.—Back there at home you have all heard by this time of the thrilling exploits of American aviators on the Piave river—the army aviators who dropped their bombs on the frail Austrian pontoon bridges and helped turn the enemy invasion into a disastrous retreat It is now permitted to announce that American naval aviators are also aiding the Italian defense. For more than three months now these bronzed boys of ours, skimming the air in their flying boats, have kept their constant vigil of coast patrol along the Italian seashore, watching for the stealthy moving blur beneath the waves that means one of ;the foe’s submarines, scanning the horizon for the specks which might be overbold Austrian destroyers, or rising beyond the clouds that screen the enemy’s seaplanes.

As a matter of fact, American naval flyers are co-operating with the navies of all the great allies in Europe. Numberless “eyes” are required down the long coasts from the North sea to the Mediterranean, and the United States is furnishing its share as fast as possible. This work, of course, is all under Admiral' films, but there is special headquarters for American naval aviation, under Capt. EL L Cone, in Paris. This system of American co-opera-tion has been developing since last August, and naturally will extend in the future as our naval forces grow. In France naval aviators were the first to fly beneath our flag. But in Italy the effort of the American navy is comparatively new. The number of our men now there is a matter of military information —therefore a secret. But there are enough to have done plenty of useful work.

Our Flyers Relieve Italians. The work falls into two branches — i the taking over of the actual operaitlon of coastal air patrols from the 'ltalians and thus relieving Italian flyjers for other duties, and the training of our own men for further endeavor iln the same direction. Of course, the men who are actually operating above waters are finished aviators, most of whom learned the game in !the naval flying schools which have i sprung up since the war along our town Atlantic coast. But the chaps who ‘are gei.ing their instruction in Italy iare rapidly “catching on.” The American training school lies on the shores of a charming Italian lake circled by picturesque hills. Right rbeside it is another training camp for ( Italian naval flyers, and the candidates in both camps have developed a ready camaraderie. Our camp ends in

a little public square which, in honor of the Americans, npw boasts, a new name—the Piazza degil Stati Unit!. Here the two flags—the red, white and blue and the green, white and red —float all day together. At dawn and sunset they are raised and lowered side by side before uniformed squads representing each nation. It is a bit of symbolism that counts. Americans Make Swift Progress. The lot of splendid American boys at our camp, most of them fresh from college, are getting on in a way that is Inspiring. Many of them are already “solo flyers” and will soon be “turned out” equipped for active service. They are up at dawn, all of them, and more anxious about the weather than they used to be at home on the morning of the big intercollegiate football game. You see, every man is trying to squeeze in as many flying hours as the day will hold in order to pass quickly to his first “brevet.” Each is on tiptoes to “take a hop.” This is naval air slang for a trip in the air. Their talk is all a jargon of

motors and planes, of “spirals,” *»r “peaking-her over,” or “straightening her out,” and it falls more familiarly from their lips than even the homegrown patter of the baseball fiend. The Instructors are all Americans and they are certainly on the job. This shows in the spirit of endeavor and swift progress among the men. Many of these students have seen service in France in other branches. Np wonder their hearts are now in this bigger opportunity. They are well cared for. They sleep in comfortable new barracks and have their meals at an officers’ club, though you often see a man with his coffee and bread clear down on the beach so he won’t miss the chance of a “hop.” Inside the barracks they have fixed it up as much like home as they could, with bits of pictures and mementos tacked up on the walls, and on days when the skies are tangled with storm the college flavor comes out more than ever. For then all the young heads are bent studiously over books, “cramming on N. and A.” —navigation 'and aviation.