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Milling, Thomas DeW.

Air Corps News Letter #4
April 28, 1933 - Vol. XVII.

The announcement of the publication of War Department orders recently, directing Major Thomas DeW Milling to proceed to his home to await retirement, was received with genuine regret in aviation circles. Major Milling has been in ill health for some time, and his inability to remain further in active service is a distinct loss to the Air Corps.

This pioneer Army flyer was born in Louisiana, March 31, 1887. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in June, 1909, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Cavalry.

Detailed to the Signal Corps as a 1st Lieutenant in 1911, Major Milling was ordered on April 21 of that year to proceed to Dayton, Ohio, to undergo a course of instruction in operating the Wright airplane. Upon the completion of his instruction under the Wright Brothers, he was ordered to the Aviation School, College Park, Maryland, for duty, the government having leased a thousand-acre tract at that place for aviation instruction purposes. The first airplane was received at College Park on June 16, 1911. Altogether four airplanes were received at the College Park Aviation Field - a Wright biplane, a Burgess-Wright, a Curtiss 4-cylinder and a Curtiss 8-cylinder plane. During his stay at College Park, Major Milling made a number of flights from that field to Washington Barracks, D.C. and return.

In the fall and winter months, the School was operated at Augusta, Ga., but in the Spring and Summer of 1912, operations were resumed at College Park. In August, 1912, Lieut. Milling with Lieuts. Arnold, Kirtland and Foulois participated in Regular Army and National Guard maneuvers in the States of New York and Connecticut and established several aeronautical records.

Following the transfer of the Aviation School from College Park to Texas City, Texas, in 1913, Lieut. Milling, on March 28th of that year, with Lieut. Wm. C. Sherman as passenger, made a cross-country flight of 240 miles from Texas City to San Antonio, Texas, in 3 hours and 50 minutes. Upon arriving over San Antonio, Lieut. Milling remained in the air for more than 30 minutes, thus establishing a new American duration record for pilot and passenger of 4 hours and 22 minutes. At that time this was considered a remarkable performance. The plane used was a Burgess Tractor, powered with a 70 h.p. Renault engine.

From 1913, when the Signal Corps Aviation School at San Diego, Calif., was established, up to the time of America's entry in the World War, military aviation was confined to only a few localities - in Texas and New Mexico along the Mexican Border and at Fort Sill, Okla. Following the opening of the Flying School at San Diego, Lieut. Milling was placed on duty thereat as Officer in Charge of Flying. In the fall of 1913 and spring of 1914, he traveled in France, Germany, Austria and England, attended aviation schools in those countries and made a study of aeronautical conditions.

Returning to the United States in the latter part of 1914, he served with the 1st Aero Squadron at Galveston, Texas, and later comman ded [[commanded]] an aviation detachment on the Mexican border at Brownsville, Texas. During the latter part of 1915, he served with the 1st Aero Squadron at Fort Sill and San Antonio, and conducted tests on the first automatic camera used in an airplane.

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