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6

American army as I had seen it. Those West Pointers may have known their business better than I gave them credit for. Anyhow the First Division got along surprisingly well after I had left it. It was sent first to a quiet sector of the front just to get broken in.  Then in May it staged the first offensive action by Americans, attacking and capturing the village of Cantigny in Picardy. Cantigny was a mere fly-speck on the big battle map, in comparison with the areas overrun by the Germans in their offensives of that spring. But the action helped allied morale.

An order came through for me to report to the Second Aviation Instruction Center at Tours. I did not have to take the long wagon ride back to Gondrecourt. A small branch railroad passed through Morley, where our battery was billeted. I took a train from there to Bar-le-Duc, where it joined the main line of the Chemin de Fer d l'Est.  After an overnight stop in Paris I arrived next day at Tours. I was just 40 miles from Saumur, which I had left less than a month before.

I don't remember the exact date of my arrival at Tours, and I have lost the order that sent me there. But I do have a copy of Special Order No. 94 of the A. E. F., which announced that I was on duty requiring me to participate regularly and frequently in aerial flights, from January 24, 1918. So that was the date of my first flight, and I must have arrived at Tours a day or two earlier. The magic words in that order entitled me to an increase of 25 per cent in pay from that date. The order was dated July 13, 1918, which meant that I collected extra back pay thereafter. There were 21 other names beside mine on that special order. Some of them did not live long enough to collect their back flying pay.