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[[stamped]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamped]]

Mills reportedly remained with Kendrick and assisted in his passenger carrying business at Atlantic City through the remainder of 1915. Another Curtiss Flying Boat pilot, E.K. Jaquith of Chicago, Illinois, was also connected with this activity  there that fall. Reportedly Kendrick and Mills also continued their passenger carrying business at West Palm Beach, Florida over the winter months of 1915-1916.

In April, 1916 Mills Joined the newly formed Philadelphia School of Aviation at Essington, Pennsylvania as mechanic and Assistant Instructor. This new school was organized by Robert Glendinning, wealthy Philadelphia banker, clubman and aviation enthusiast, who had purchased a Curtiss Flying Boat and taken instruction at Hammondsport the previous year.  Walter Johnson was in charge of the school and Mills started the operations with him and assisted in establishing the school and arranging the facilities. On December 15th, 1916 Mills obtained F.A.I. Hydro License NO. 60 flying a Curtiss Model F Flying Boat with 100 H.P. Curtiss engine.

Mills remained with the school through 1916 and when the U.S. Army Signal Corps took over operations in early 1917 as a military training base Mills was returned and made a senior Civilian Instructor. Additional planes and instructors arrived and in two months over five hundred men were busy at the Field which had been placed under the military command of Capt. William Ocker. Among the civilian instructors there that summer, in addition to Mills and Walter Johnson, were Harry M. Jones, Robert Simon, Earl Beers, T.F. Maroney and R.J. Hutchinson. In November, 1917, the school moved south to Lake Charles, Louisiana for winter operations. 

In the spring of 1918 Mills was transferred to Mineola, Long Island, as a civilian instructor, then later was sent to Indianapolis, Indiana and was there at the time of the Armistice. For a time Mills remained at Indianapolis with the Government reconditioning Curtiss JN-4 planes and test hopping them in preparation for disposal sale.

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