Viewing page 97 of 200
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
MILLING, T. DEWITT, BRIG. GEN. USAF. - BIOG FILE - FOLDER NO. ITEM NO THREE AIR VETERANS STILL COMMAND NEW YORK WORLD TELEGRAM NEW YORK, N. Y. NOVEMBER 8TH, 1927 [[newspaper clipping]] Milling Always a Flyer Incidentally, Major Milling is the only officer in the Air Service who has followed flying without interruption since the day he was first assigned to these duties. Major Arnold was out of flying from 1912 to 1916. About the same time when the army was experimenting with the Wright plane in an effort to encourage aviation, a plane was purchased from Glen Curtiss. Lieut. Paul W. Beck, who later died, an Lieut. G. E. M. Kelly, later killed in a plane wreck in Texas, were assigned for instruction with the Curtiss plane. Within a short time Capt. C. D. F. Chandler, now a Lieutenant Colonel, retired, an Lieut. R. C. Kirtland, now a Lieutenant Colonel on the General Staff, were assigned to College Park for duties in connection with the erection of hangers for the planes and general work. Lieut. Arnold instructed Capt. Chandler in flying and Lieut. Milling instructed Lieut. Kirtland. Lieut. Beck was ordered to College Park with the two Curtiss planes and was on duty at that point. Lieut. Foulois was soon relieved and the Wright plane which he had handled was presented to the Smithsonian Institution and is there to-day as the first of a collection of planes. In 1911 Major F. M. Kennedy Infantry, was assigned to the school at College Park to have charge of the buildings and for other duties in connection with aviation. Adventures of Milling In this same year Lieut. Milling had his first crash in a plane, falling about fifty or sixty feet without serious injury. His second crash came in 1913, near Marblehead, when the plane which he was piloting, with Norman Prince as a passenger, went dead. He turned it so that it glided down from about 2,000 to within 175 feet of the ground. When it was about this distance from the ground he turned it into a spiral as it crashed to the ground dived through the mass of wires without serious injury to either Prince or himself. Prince was killed in the World War with the Lafayette Squadron and was one of the noted aces of the War. Training was continued at College Park during the summer of 1911. In the fall the planes were removed to Augusta, Ga., where training was continued through the winter. The group again trained at Augusta in the following winter. In January , 1913, the four or five planes then owned by the Army were transferred to Texas City on the Mexican border. In 1912 Lieut. Milling made the first successful attempt at night flying, dropped the first bombs from the plane, tested the Lewis machine gun, which the War Department refused to purchase and later became one of the most valuable weapons in the World War and also attempted observation for artillery fire at Fort Riley, Kan. These achievements marked the turning point of aviation as a military asset. Prior to that time Lieut. Milling took part in a tri-State race in the vicinity of Boston and landed after dark by the aid of bonfires. Civilian flyers were his only competitors. He also established an endurance record, with two passengers, by flying 1 hour, 54 minutes, 43 2-5 seconds. Later, in Texas, he established an endurance record, with one passenger, by remaining in the air 4 hours and 22 minutes on a trip from Texas City to San Antonio. ARMY AIR SERVICE Veterans Still Holding Executive Posts [[image- black and white photograph of Maj. Milling]] [[caption]]- Major T.D. MILLING[[/caption]] [[image- black and white photograph of Lt. Foulois]] [[caption]] Lieut.Col. B.D. FOULOIS[[/caption]] [[image- black and white photograph of Maj. Arnold]] [[caption]] Major H.H. ARNOLD[[/caption]] [[/newspaper clipping]]
