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CABLE ADDRESS: WACO

The Weaver Aircraft Company
INCORPORATED
GENERAL OFFICES. 203-204 OPERA HOUSE BLOCK

Lorain, Ohio, U. S. A.
CIVILIAN FLYING INSTRUCTORS
When America entered the war in 1917 in a state of unpreparedness no need of the army was more pressing than that felt for flying instructors to assist in carrying forward the enormous aviation program which had been planned. There were few officers in the army, who had any experience in flying, or who could take "a ship" up. 
     The War Department issued an appeal to all civilian flyers in the country to volunteer to render a special and peculiar service as flying instructors. The response as immediate; practically every professional and civilian flyer in the country volunteered. The occupation of these men was most hazardous; they not only taught the green flyers but they tested the new machines and the repaired machines Testing is among the most dangerous of the activities of the flyer. If there is anything wrong with the machine, or with the repairs to an old machine the tester is never able to make his report . The report is written by some officer who superintends the picking up of the results of the wreck. The actual instruction to flyers was contributed in the early days by these civilian flyers .Many of them were killed in various accidents; at present there are said to be only 35 civilian flying instructors left. 
   These men by a recent order , and without warning , have been discharged from employment in the aviation section. The government has taken the coldly correct position that having met the emergency in such that there is an ample supply of army instructors, there is no longer any need for their services. The CIVILIAN FLYERS have been prevented from securing commissions; they are about to be trued to private life without any future prospects, and without any acknowledgement of their service, beyond a curt order for an honorable discharge. The government has monopolized all aviation activities; ther is no longer any civilian or professional activity in the air. Tthe instructors, who volunteered so quickly on the appeal of the government, are turned loose without a thought of their future . It is probably "good business"for the War Department to release them cold , now that their work is done , but it does seem that some thing could be done to ameliorate the hardship thus visited upon men who rendered timely and valuable aid. 
          ( Montgomery , Ala., Advertiser Decem ber 14,1918.