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[[image]]
[[photo credit]] By Frank Johnston - The Washington Post
[[caption]] Georgia (Tiny) Broadwick watches memorial review. [[/caption]]

ships in Boston Harbor and on nearby forts. 

"I hit 'em all," he said yesterday with a chuckle.

Friends at the convention claimed Waite was the first person ever to drop "bombs" from an airplane.

His own narrower claim is that he "was the first to use an airplane for dropping missiles on battleships in port." 

Observers at the time "kidded us," the self-taught flier added with a smile. "They said it wouldn't amount to anything."

Even after World War I, in which most of the Early Birds served either as military pilots or instructors, flying remained a novelty, noted William Diehl, 79, of North Bergen, N.J.

Diehl, who claims to be the first to have carried passengers on a regular basis, recalled that many of them were sick persons who believed flying could cure them.

After going up once, he said, "they used to come back for more."