National Defense: Wings of Gold

John Mishanec, 24, of Olean, N. Y., studied forestry at Syracuse University, graduated this year. Blond, moony Jack Croft, 21, of Trenton, N. J., majored in economics at Lehigh University, also took his degree this year. Albert Scaturo, 22, of Brooklyn, N. Y., started out to be a teacher, got a Columbia University degree this year. Last week Messrs. Mishanec, Croft, Scaturo and 14 other young men of similar ages, backgrounds, prospective vo cations, acquired the rating and emoluments ($114 per month, with allowances) of second-class seamen, U. S. Navy. They slept in double-decker beds, jammed to gether in the neat, small Naval Air Reserve Station at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Airport. They stepped to the commands of a leathery Marine Corps sergeant. They scrubbed, greased, cranked, shoved, other wise manhandled a yellow Navy training plane, performed such other menial tasks as their sergeant required.

They were delighted to. If they survive a month of elimination training at Floyd Bennett, they will become cadets and learn to fly for the U. S. Navy at its great Pensacola Training Station. In the mean time they will have received ten hours of dual flight instruction, will get doused with water after they solo. If they then survive seven and a half months at Pensacola, they will acquire the Navy’s wings of gold, the rank of ensign, monthly pay of $125 to $205. Then all they will have to do is keep their wings clean, fly from shore stations or aircraft carriers for three years, refrain from marrying for at least two years.

Except for a few Annapolis midshipmen who elect to join the naval air service, the U. S. Navy recruits its pilots through the Naval Reserve. At 13 Reserve air stations—Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Opa Locka (Miami), Kansas City, Glenview (Chicago), Seattle, etc.—an ever-increasing tide of would-be fliers is rolling in. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announced that three more Reserve stations would soon be opened (at New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta), also supplied some details about the Navy’s expanding air training program.

Pensacola is now geared to take 150 a month (Floyd Bennett alone has 200 on its waiting list). With $45,000,000 to spend on new training facilities, the Navy by mid-1941 expects to have Pensacola up to 300 a month; a new, $25,000,000 station at Corpus Christi, Tex. up to another 300; a station at Jacksonville up to 200.

The Navy is finicky about its pilot material. Of 800 who applied last June at the Floyd Bennett Station, only 400 were seriously considered, only 70 finally got on the waiting list. These had to be between 20 and 27, have at least two years at an accredited college, be sound in wind

& limb. Around 70% of those originally selected qualify for Pensacola: 70% of the remainder survive the shortened but still tough course there.

Many a willing youngster with more patriotism than schooling has lately wanted to know why the Navy (and the Army) take only collegians for air service. Stock answers are two: 1) the Army and Navy are picking prospective officers as well as fliers; 2) military fliers now must be engineers, meteorologists, navigators.