Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Gen. William Mitchell, Commander-in-Chief of the American Air Forces at the Front
LUCK ON THE WING
Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy
SOME WORDS IN EXPLANATION
If any one should be interested enough to inquireas to the reason for my becoming a sky spy, an aërialobserver, a deuce, or whatever one chooses to call it,I should certainly speak the truth and affirm thatit was not the result of calm, cool and deliberatethought. I have always had a holy horror of airplanesand to this day I cannot say that I exactlyenjoy riding in them. My sole reason for flyingnow is that I am still in the Air Service and there isnot an excuse in the world for a young man beingan air officer if he does not spend a part of his timein that element. Every boy in his own heart wantsto be a soldier whether his mother raises him thatway or not: as a boy and as a man I wanted tobe an infantryman. Upon being commissioned inInfantry following the First Officers’ TrainingCamp, I was about to have a lifetime’s ambitiongratified by being placed in charge of a company atCamp Lewis, Washington, when along with two hundredother new officers I was ordered to Fort Sill,Oklahoma, for assignment with the Missouri and Kansastroops. I had been enthusiastic over the infantry,I liked it fine, and most of all I wanted totrain my company and lead them into action. Arrivingat Fort Sill, we found that the troops hadviiinot arrived and would not come for at least a month.Meanwhile we stagnated and lost our pep. Thepapers were full of the pressing need of help at thebattle front and still all around I could see nothingbut destructive delay. It was the old call of theindividual—for though my heart was set upon theideal of training my own men for the supreme testyet I could not stand the delay. I was determinedto get to the Front and with that as my paramountideal, I would take the first opportunity that wouldlead to its real