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"Next to get publicity and make a noise about what it was doing with aircraft, this so-called Hawaiian flight was arranged for. Even if it had been successful to Honolulu, it would have meant little, either commercially or strategically, compared to what a flight to Europe or Asia would. Three airplanes were built to participate in it. These showed nothing novel in design and were untried for this kind of work. One never got away from the Pacific coast, another flew a few miles out and was forced to land in the water and one was lost on account of being out of gasoline somewhere on the high seas.

Flays Patrol Plan.
"Patrol vessels were stationed every 200 miles, a distance entirely too far apart for an experimental flight of this kind, with such primitive flying machines as the PN-9s are. Double or triple this number of vessels should have been there. In fact, the whole Pacific Fleet should have been placed there, instead of joy-riding around the Antipodes. As it was, when these slow-moving airplanes, going about 75 miles an hour, were first sighted from the destroyers, the destroyers should have steamed out full speed in the direction the airplane was going. This would not only indicate the proper course to the plane, but would place the destroyer closer to it in case of accident. As the airplanes were only moving at about 75 miles an hour, a destroyer could have been speeded up to within 30 miles of that speed.
"Why, if they expected to run short of fuel, as indeed they might, did they not make arrangements for refueling the airplane while it was in the air, by another airplane, as we have repeatedly done? Why did they carry a crew of five, when the weight of two men in fuel might have carried the ship through?
"What happened to this really good-for-nothing, big, lumbering flying boat, when its brave navigators began to run short of gasoline over a heavy sea? The probability is that they held her up as long as they could. As they neared the water, caught by a sudden gust, she might have been thrown into a stall and gone down straight under the waves. I hope that some passing fisherman may have picked them up as our Lieut. Wade was picked up in the North Sea.

Says Islands Unimportant.
"Our Navy did not find him either; all it did was to smash his plane when it was turned over to them by the fishermen. After all, the Hawaiian Islands are not a vital area with our present methods of national defense. 
"Then the disaster to the Shenandoah-killing Capt. Lansdowne, the last of our really experienced airship captains; a splendid man, with his companions, following in the wake of Capt. Mabry and Capt. Maxfield, our airship commanders who have gone before.
"I do not know exactly what happened to the poor Shenandoah. She was was an experimental ship, built in this country. I believe she was about 50 per cent overweight in her structure. She had broken away from her mooring mast-an inefficient way of handling airships, anyway-last Spring, and her whole structure was badly strained. I believe that the number of valves in the gas bag containing the helium had been diminished so as to save helium gas, which is expensive in money, but which made the ship more dangerous to the crew. The Shenandoah was going west on a propaganda mission for the Navy Department to offset the adverse publicity caused by the failures in the Pacific and the Arctic. Note-Propaganda and not service is the keynote in these undertakings.

Sees Navy Off Path
"What business has the Navy over the mountains, anyway? Their mission is out in the water, not only out in the water but under the water, out of sight, away from the land- that is why we have the Navy.
"No accurate meteorological arrangements are available for aircraft in this country. The Weather Bureau is under the Department of Agriculture and primarily organized to turn out weather reports affecting onions, cabbages and other crops. While this is very necessary, it is a complete failure as far as we are concerned. I say this after having flown across mountains and bucked their storms hundreds of times.
"The Shenandoah, 50 per cent overweight in her structure, had members strained last Spring, possibly some of them disintegrated from the action of the non-freezing compound in the radiators of her engines wherever this liquid dropped on them, and with the valves in her helium gas bags reduced, strikes a storm. She is caught in an up current of air. Due to her excessive weight, her reserve buoyancy is low. She is carried high up by this current and her gas bags begin to expand, due to the altitude. The crew valves her in an attempt to allow the gas to escape, but the automatic valves, reduced in number, do not allow the escape fast enough; the pressure of the expanding gas on the structure tears the ship to pieces. Some of her crew go to eternity. Those that do not, escape by miraculously good fortune.

Storm Warning Not Given.
"No notice of the storm was received in time to avoid it. Her survivors are muzzled by the Navy Department, pending a whitewash board. Are all these thing so or are they not? I am down here in Texas and have not all the data at hand, but I am sure the facts are practically as stated.
"What results? The Navy Department announces that this shows that America cannot be reached by hostile aircraft. What has that to do with it? The way that America will be reached from Asia is by the way of Alaska.
"The water that has to be crossed is scarcely wider than the English Channel. The route from Europe is by the same course that the round-the-world flyers took to Iceland, Greenland and North America, whenever a country gets powerful enough to undertake the operation. What has the loss of a seaplane near Honolulu and an airship over the mountain to do with it?
"The impression is given to the public at large that the Shenandoah was a modern ship, properly constructed, properly operated and completely equipped. This was not the case. It shakes the people in airship transportation because they are not given the exact facts on the subject. This is not an argument necessarily for the maintenance of many airships by the Government, but it is a demand for the facts in the case so that we will not be hindered in the commercial development of this splendid aircraft on account of the accident to an airship due to incompetence in the Navy Department, and the criminal negligence in the ordering of this trip. If we took the safety valve of a locomotive off to save water in the desert and it blew up, killing the engineer and passengers, would we say that railways were no good in deserts and go back to camels?

Tells of Own Experience.
"An interesting sidelight might be thrown on the development of airships in this country. When I came back from the war in 1919, I attempted to get airships for the purpose of making them into airplane carriers. That is, having airplanes take off from them and land on them, so that they could get out in the middle of the ocean if necessary and attack hostile vessels in case of war. I obtained permission immediately from the then chief of staff, Gen. March, and the then Secretary of War, Baker. I sent Maj. Hensley to Europe with money to get the ships. We had even gone so far as to order the gasoline to Germany for the voyage of the ship to this country. 
"Mysteriously the order was rescinded—all work was stopped—it was said at the time that it was against the provision of the treaty, which I do not believe was the case. Work had already been begun on the frames by the Germans. This was the ZR-3, rechristened the Los Angeles, which the Navy obtained recently, six years after I ordered it. What has it been used for? Nothing but parading around the country. It is evident that whenever an airship is developed as an airplane carrier the necessity for any naval surface airplane carrier may be done away with. Is this the reason the Navy has the Los Angeles?
"The Germans are the only people who have had real experience with airships. They had many a disaster before they learned how to handle them. I have seen German Zeppelins years ago in terrific storms. A storm has little effect on an airship properly constructed and ably handled.
"What other thing has the Navy done this Summer?  After borrowing some airplanes from the Army that were entirely inadequate to the work in hand, they went on the MacMillan trip to the Arctic.  More propaganda!  As far as can be learned from a distance, they had a cat and dog fight all the way up and back, between MacMillan, the pilots and the Navy Department, and of course got nowhere and did nothing.  Is there an airman who does not know that with the little jitneys they took up there the pole could not be reached?  Another example, says the Navy Department, of the incapacity of aircraft.
"At last the great anti-aircraft tests took place.  A battleship goes out into the sea.  She takes the airship Shenandoah and has her tow a target at 33 miles an hour at a known altitude, in broad daylight and on a certain course.  Some officers have told me that the dirigible was heading into the wind of an intensity of many miles an hour and that therefore the target was almost standing still in the air.  The Navy shoots at it all day long in this position and hits it a few times and publishes to the people of the United States the wonderful results obtained to impress them with the fact that battleships can be protected by anti-aircraft guns, which is absolutely and entirely false.  What is our Navy for?  Presumably it is to control lines of sea communication on the high seas.  What is it actually?  It is entirely and completely outpointed by Great Britain in the Atlantic.  What can it do across the Pacific as at present organized? Nothing--against an insular Asiatic power whom you all know.
"The Navy has about $1,500,000,000 invested in Navy yards. The upkeep and depreciation of these amounts to about $150,000,000 a year. How many of these are useless and how many are of any profit? Probably not many. Suppose we took $50,000,000 of this and applied it to the development of aircraft and submarines under competent airmen and submarine men? What could we do with it?

Cites Cost of Ships.
"Every time a battleship is built the ship itself, when it is completed, may cost from $50,000,000 to $70,000,000. It has to be protected by submarines, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft, the total cost of which is around or over $100,000,000, so that every time a battleship is built the expenditure of $100,000,000 is necessary. I believe a battleship today is a useless element in the national defensive armament of the United States. Suppose we had even one-half of the cost of a battleship to use in the development of our aircraft and submarines. These are only a few of the things which must be brought up before the people and the coming Congress.
"The Navy, to maintain its position, keeps asking for more aircraft, which it cannot use legally, because the legal defense of the land is intrusted to armies. In spite of the legal restrictions, however, but to keep control of aviation and not let it get away, the Navy Department continually gets more money from Congress by its Washington lobby, so as to keep the political support of the aircraft manufacturers and, possibly, some others interested in them.
"This year the Navy's estimate for the aircraft amounts to $37,360,248. They only have one aircraft carrier, the Langley, which can go about half as fast as a battleship and which is an obsolete collier. It can hold 36 small airplanes. They are building two aircraft carriers which can hold 60 to 70 planes. These are practically obsolete before they are completed
"Where is the $37,000,000 for aircraft going? It is going into land aircraft, which have nothing to do with the Navy's operations on the seas and which will be used as a political lever for the maintenance of their existing system.

Navy Asks More Than Army.
"The War Department, that now is intrusted by law with the aerial defense over the land areas of the United States and its possessions, including the protection of navy yards, ask for $24,582,000. Consider how foolish this is. The Navy, an organization charged with going to sea and which must operate from surface vessels, which, as a matter of fact, are practically obsolete now and which will afford no real protection to the country in case of an air attack, asking for two-thirds more than the Army does, which acts from land bases and is specifically charged with the defense of the land areas. The amount allotted to the Navy for new aircraft is three times as much as the Army.
"Now let us turn to the War Department. The War Department has done nothing this Summer to develop air power and has undertaken to prove by tests that anti-aircraft guns can protect cities, which is known everywhere to be false. They have fixed up a scheme to give constructive hits when the guns firing do not hit the targets at all. The firing has been at targets towed at a constant altitude, over courses which have been flown hundreds of times, at greatly reduced speeds and never in excess of 75 miles an hour. Even this was only because the wind was helping the plane along and under weather conditions that have been ideal. In spite of all this preparation, the results have been laughable.

Says Reports Exaggerated.
"As an example of one of these performances, the War Department has taken the lid off for publicity in the second corps area-that means around New York- with the result that the Coast Artillery tells us the papers story in greatly exaggerated terms, whereas the chief of Air Service has been completely muzzled. An interesting example of some of the anti-aircraft target practice was the testing of the listen device for aircraft at Camp Dix, July 27.
"The umpire had told Capt. Hall, commanding the airplane bombers at Mitchl Field, that in the next anti-aircraft test he was at liberty to fly under conditions which would be used in war. Capt. Hale informed the umpire ahead of time that he would glide into the target. Before this, the Coast Artillery had had all their practice with planes that had flown over at a fairly constant altitude and with their motors open.
"The night of the test the planes got their proper altitude. Played around a little just out of range of the searchlights and just within range of the listening devices on the ground. The Artillery thought that this was easy because they picked up the planes far off and plotted their course absolutely; but all of a sudden sounds from the airplanes stopped. Five or ten minutes later, the bombers dropped directly on the target. All around not a sound had been heard before this. 

Ground Men "Furious."
"The fury of the ground officers, artillery officers and others was tremendous. The Air Service had not acted fair and had fooled them-all of which a kind enemy, of course, in war would never do! Discussion even went so far that it had to be pointed out that it was provided in our bombardment manual to attack a place in this fashion. This is only one instance of the ridiculous performance.
"So far, practically the only bombardment airplanes we have in this country have been used up towing these targets for ground shooting, which other airplanes could just as well have done. The actual cost out of Air Service funds appropriated will be approximately $200,000 by the time they are completed this Fall.
"Why are things done this way? The Coast Artillery sees that it is bound to be greatly reduced on the account of the fact that aircraft are a positive coast protection. The Coast Artillery now has about 92 stations. For the ten years prior to 1920 about $2,000,000,000 was spend on coast defense-not two millions, but two billions. What good are these coast defenses? None-except those in the immediate vicinity of large cities where a submarine might emerge at a close range and plant a few shells in the city.

Says Bombing Inaccurate.
"What could the saving do on these useless expenditures, if used by the troops of the mobile Army station in Texas and other frontier points, living in shacks unequipped with modern conveniences, cut down on every activity and rendered almost incapable in case the Constitution is menaced, of putting down insurrections or executing the laws when al other means fail, and patrolling our frontiers and holding our insular possessions? What would only a small part of this tremendous expenditure mean in the development of aircraft? Not one heavy bomb has been dropped by the Air Service line units in target practice for two years. Only about four or five modern sights are on hand with the bombing groups, and today, I, who know our personnel better than any living man, can only put my hand on two perfectly capable bombardment crews to handle our aircraft in case we are attacked.
"The other thing that the War Department has done this Summer is to study how the flyers' pay could-be reduced or taken away from them. Think of it, the whole effort of the War Department during the Summer has been to fool the people into thinking that anti-aircraft cannon are a protection and to keep the rightful flying pay away from the pilots.
"To make a long story short, we are utterly disgusted with the conduct of our military affairs applying to aviation. Our pilots know they are going to be killed if they stay in the service, on account of the methods employed in the old bloating coffins that we are still flying. Those that still remain have held on so long that if they got out they would starve. They don't dare open their mouths and tell the truth, because they and their families might be booted out to some obscure place. 

Praises Men in Service. 
No finer body ever existed in the make-up of our country than these men. There are many able men in the Army-these should be developing the ground Army in accordance with the needs of the Nation. There are many able men in the Navy-but the bureauocracies that both of these national services maintain in Washington have passed all bounds of national decency. They are deluding the public, sacrificing our national defense and not only wasting the money of our citizens but the lives of its ablest men, our flying officers.
"This condition must be remedied. It is not in the field of partisan politics, it concerns us all. The American people must know the facts, and with their unfailing common sense and ability, they will surely remedy it. 
"As far as I am personally concerned, I am looking for no advancement in any service."

Satisfied With Record.
"I have had the finest career that any man could have in the armed service of our United States. I have had the greatest pleasure of serving in all our campaigns from the Spanish War to the present and of commanding the greatest air forces ever brought together on the planet. I owe the Government everything-the Government owes me nothing. As a patriotic American citizen I can stand by no longer and see these disgusting performances by the Navy and War Departments at the expense of the lives of our people and the delusion of the American public.
"The bodies of my former companions in the air molder under the soil in America and Asia, Europe and Africa, many-yes, a great many-sent there directly by official stupidity. We all may make mistakes, but the criminal mistakes made by armies and navies, whenever they have been allowed to handle aeronautics, show their incompetency. We would not be keeping our trust with our departed comrades were we longer to conceal these facts. 
"This, then, is what I have to say on this subject and I hope that every American will hear it."