Southern Oregon Miner, Thursday, September 14, 1944
GOD IS MY
CO-PILOT
C o l. R o b e rt L . S c o tt
T k r story (but ta r: la IM * young Rob
e rt Srolt m l M feel of ra a v a i from the
aide « a ll of a Holy Rollers* tent la Ma
eon, Ga.. and deride« to use It for the
«tag roverlag of a gilder. He pulls off
from a roof and rrasbea <1 feel
to the ground. He fell Into a Cherokee
rose bush. which probably saved his
life. H r now goes la for building scale
model planes and wins a Boy Scout avia
tloa m erit badge. At an auction tale he
buys his Brst plane for I7J. He plans
on going to West Point but meets with
many difflrultles. He goes to F t. Me
Pherson and enlists In the regular arm y
as a private. Three months la te r he be
gins his training In the Fourth Corps
Area, West Point prep school.
CHAPTER II
Scott put in six months of study
there, for there were some eight
hundred of us soldiers trying In com
petition for about fourteen vacan
cies. As luck would have it that
year, these fourteen were cut to
eight.
Once again West Point
seemed a long way off. I got down
to business then; I would shut my
self in my room and almost memo
rize the lessons, especially every old
West Point examination as fa r back
as 1920. The study bore f r u it
I
kept at the top of the class and in
March took the dreaded exam ina
tion.
One day, some weeks after the
annual competition for entrance
from the Regular A rm y. I was w a lk
ing guard duty. I was called from
Post Num ber One, around the
guard-house; I had just heard the
fa m ilia r call. ' ‘Num ber One — two
prisoners," and had replied. "Turn
’em in.” The General had sent for
me.
As I stood before him my
heart felt as though it would best
out through m y blouse. He smiled
and spoke.
"Son, you have won in the West
Point competitive examination and
I want to tell you you’re starting
out on the same road I started out
on a long tim e ago. It's the great
est school in the world—but learn
some common sense too. I ’m send
ing you on furlough until you report
for duty at the M ilita ry Academy.
Congratulations.”
The world was never so sweet. 1
gained two inches in the chest that
day.
Thus, in July of 1928, I walked
through the sally port with m y suit
case and began the routine that is
fa m ilia r to nearly everyone. I had
heard of the strict discipline of West
Point and the difficulty of studies
for one handicapped by a Southern
accent. M y year of hard work had
m ade me hate books again, but I
resolved that after the work I had
gone to I most certainly would not
be kicked out or “ found," as we
say in Kaydet slang. I rem em ber
m y father's ambition for me. He
was of course proud of my appoint
m ent, and used to wonder why I
didn’t rank about number one in
m y class. During my Plebe year,
which was easy, because I had just
about learned the first year’s work
at the prep school, he used to w rite
and tell me that while it wasn’t too
disgraceful to be number fifty in a
class of over three hundred, he
couldn’t see why I didn’t study a
little more and get up into the first
twenty. Well, as the first year went
by and I got into the more difficult
studies, I went lower and lower in a
class that dwindled finally to some
two hundred and sixty. During the
last year, when I was very fa r
down. Daddy would w rite:
Zestes &reatAnytimt*
W N U. R t L t A & t
At that Instant the professor stood
up and said he would wait five sec
onds for me to begin the recitation
correctly. I tried again and was
ordered to sit down.
ing the explanation I gathered that
someone who lived there in the town
spoke English. This of course was
pleasant news, for I was, after all,
a lonely tourist in a very foreign
land. They now sent a small boy
to bring back this connecting link
between us. I waited and waited,
while they all pointed and jabbered
•b o u t me. F in ally the steak cam«,
and got cold while my mouth w a
tered, but I felt 1 had to w ait and
ask the Am erican if he would eat
with me. At last there was a com
motion at the entrance, and I turned
anxiously to see my Am erican
friend.
The zero I received dropped me
from the first section to the last.
Furtherm ore, I found im m ediately
that in this last section the sub
jects for monographs were not se
lected by the cadet, but were as
signed.
The new instructor gave
me the battle of Sandepu—some in
significant engagement in an insig
nificant war. I looked for days in
the lib ra ry for data on the battle,
and finally found about one p ara
graph devoted to It in the Encyclo
Through the door waddled a dark,
paedia Britannica. It was Sandepu, dirty little man—evidently a form er
H aikoutai, or Yen Kai-W an. fought fruit-vendor in New York. He saw
during the Russo-Japanese W ar of me. stopped his Croatian talk, threw
1904-05.
out his arms, and cried, “Son of a
HIP ahoy—here comes the navy
walking right into our doll fam
A person with my imagination and beetch! Son of a bectchl” To my
in itiative, I reasoned, would sim ply discomfiture, that was the only Eng ily and sure of captivating all
But I hearts. He's a pal of younger and
waste his talents on such a small lish he seemed to know.
battle. I therefore decided to cre halved my steak with him and pat older.
a o o
ate a fictitious battle. This extra ted him on the back as he tried to
A popular toy or mascot easily made.
work mattered not. for I had noth talk, and in the end I guess his com
Pattern 7O7fl contains a transfer pattern of
ing but tim e, having been placed in patriots really thought their friend doll and clothes; directions; list of ma
spoke
Am
erican
anyway.
I
could
confinement for getting the zero in
terials.
Due to an unusually large demand and
history. I worked out an elaborate hear them calling me Americanski.
“ I M firsla»
0 , , ‘ * foods'*-
• Kellogg’. Corn
nearly .11 th . pro
of the whole grain declar
to human nutrition.
__
.
I
VERONICA LAKE
co.
•• .
speaking:
Co-Starring in "S O P R O U D L Y WS H A IL ," a Paramount Pkluroi
S
I continued on. keeping clear of
plan for the battle and introduced
the subject in a m anner that I knew the tourist routes, and finally, after
would attract attention to even a | a forty-five-day trip from Cherbourg,
last-section monograph. I dedicated I rode into Constantinople. Here 1
the work of art to the officer in came close to getting in a real jam .
charge of Field A rtille ry . Lieut. Back through my life I had concen
Pete Nuby— a contraband nickname trated on scouting, archery, and fly
of a very tough officer. I illustrated ing—anything but girls. I could re
the monograph with pictures of New m em ber crossing the street to keep
York street cleaners and wrote un from having to talk to them. But
der them that they were Japanese that real bashfulness was far behind
soldiers waiting to go over the top me. Now I had about gone to the
at the R iver Ho in 1905. Lastly 1 other extrem e; I had found dates in
tied the book in red ribbon at least Paris, Venice, and other cities, and
six inches wide, completed with a had had a fine time.
Before reaching Turkey, I had
been warned by the head of the
Am erican Express in Sofia that I
should be very careful in Istanbul
and should confine myself to the
Americanized Turks in and around
the Pera part of the city. They told
me above all to stay clear of Ga-
lata—the old Greek and Turkish sec
tion. As luck ruled, however, my
first acquaintance was from G alata,
and that night I headed for the city
of the veiled women.
General Henry H. Arnold, chief of
the United States A rm y A ir Forces,
to whom this story is dedicated.
bow larger than the monograph. I
doomed m yself in the last p ara
graph by saying that I had dreamed
I had observed the battle, but had
been awakened by reveille, which,
as Napoleon declared at the battle
of Maloyaroslavets, is a hideous
noise in the middle of the night. All
of which went to prove. I contended,
that history could he made in sleep,
and it therefore did not require an
“ engineer” to be a historian.
F o r the story of Sandepu, I im ag
ined that I went down to a Southern
city to inspect the A rm y's first a ir
craft. This was a tree balloon—the
latest invention of 1905. Becoming
weary, I went to sleep in the basket
of the balloon. But a storm must
have tom the craft from its moor
"You just stay there. Son, just
ings, for when I looked down I was
stay th ere.”
being blown to the East across the
Atlantic. F o r days we drifted over
I still heard the planes flying over
ocean and continents, until, coming
and try as I would, I could concen
close to the hilly ground, I used the
tra te on nothing but the A ir Corps.
first air-brakes ever known. They
In 1930 I wrote an essay on fly
were composed of one m ile of gov
ing, and it almost got me kicked
ernment red-tape and the anchor
out. You see, in M ilita ry History
worn by the captain of the "goat"
you have to w rite a monograph on
team of 1904. (This was readily in
the strategy employed in one of the
terpreted by the professors, for the
m a jo r battles of the world. I had al
traditional football game of the year
ways liked m ilita ry history and had
is one played between the first th ir
been in the first section of that sub
ject. (A t the Academy each stu ty men in the Second Class, called
dent is in a section commensurate the “ engineers," and the last thirty
with his scholastic standing.) M y men, known as the “ goats.” I was
presence in that group permitted me of course in the last th irty ; I had
to choose my battle. I had had a been Goat Captain, and had worn
grandfather killed at Bull Run, and the anchor sewn on my football
I therefore selected the first Battle jersey.) These improvised airbrakes
worked, and the anchor caught on a
of Manassas.
hill which I identified from maps as
There was, as usual, many a slip.
the hill of Chan-tan Honan—the the
Before I was able to write the story
ater of the Russo-Japanese War.
we were perm itted to travel to the
From this vantage point, swinging
West Coast to play Stanford in foot
in the balloon, I watched the two
ball. Coming back under the cha
arm ies in battle. M erely rank face-
grin of defeat, I did not bother to
tiousnesi, I adm it, but even then
open my books, believing that even
I was completely air-minded.
West Point would not expect a stu
I was reported for submitting a
dent to recite within one hour of
his return from California. But I facetious monograph in m ilita ry art
reckoned without the rigidity of the and for casting reflections on the
Academ y. Our train arrived across Engineering D epartm ent.
the Hudson at Garrison at 6:55, and
In the sum m er of 1932, after being
we marched into History at 7:55. 1 graduated and commissioned a sec
was im m ediately assigned to recite ond Lieutenant of Infantry,- I went
on the battle of Valm y. I did not to Europe. In Cherbourg, France,
know what w ar it was in, and there I bought a motorcycle and set out to
fore knew nothing concerning it. To ride to Constantinople. The one-cyl
say that and get a zero, however, inder Soyer took me down through
would be fatal and in fact could Paris, then Southeast into Switzer
mean disciplinary action. 1 there land, and over the Simplon Pass to
fore resorted to the time-worn West Ita ly . I spent some tim e in Venice;
Point tactics of evasion—known as then I went up through the dust into
"bugling.”
Jugoslavia.
Going to the blackboard with an
One day I had ridden some four
a ir of confidence, I stood at atten hundred miles into the town of Novo
tion with pointer in hand and be Mesto. Tired and d irty from the
gan, "Sir, my duty for today is to heavy dust of the roads, I went to
explain the battle of Valm y. Napo the best-looking of the hotels, and
leon declared after this engagement after some delay in m aking myself
th a t the forces of an arm y must understood among Serbians and
concentrated for battle . .
Croatians, I ordered beefsteak. Dur-
be
Tins Sailor Bov Has
Gal in Every Port
Well, even with right ideas the
men in that q uarter had the wrong
idea.
I saw the danger just in
tim e, and even then I had to jum p
through a window—glass and a ll—
into an alley. I can hear the yells
even these years afterwards as I
ran through G alata back to Pera for
m y motorcycle. Stopping at the ho
tel just long enough to check out, I
was off in more dust for Scutari and
East in Asia to Ankara.
So raising the veil of a Moslem
fem ale shortened my stay in Con
stantinople. Even in my return to
the West from A nkara, I found a
way to dodge the city on the Helles
pont by getting a Black Sea steam
er and crossing North of Istanbul to
land at Varna in Bulgaria. From
here I crossed the Danube at Rust-
chuk and went to Bucharest.
My spirits had risen a little after
missing the Turkish knives in G a
lata, but here I found a cablegram
awaiting me. The Comptroller Gen
eral had ruled that the Economy
Act of June, 1932, affected all offi
cers on leave. He had decided that
I, like many others, was on leave
without pay.
My orders were to
report to the nearest American E m
bassy for duty; 1 rem em ber that
they were signed by McColl. I sent
my champagne back and ordered
beer, for the money for this trip
had been borrowed against my three
months’ leave pay.
Here I was,
thousands of miles from home and
Randolph Field, where my flying
training would start. If I reported
to some ground officer in Europe, I
would probably never get to fly.
Anyway, just to make sure, J
hopped on my motorcycle that nigh*
and headed for Texas by way of
Budapest — Linz — Bingen-on-the-
Rhine—and Paris. I sold the motor
cycle ir, Cherbourg and boarded the
Bremen for a quick trip home. I
had used pay that I was expecting
to get during leave, and I'd be pay
ing the bank for a long time. But
I resolved right then and there that
I would pay that money back from
the A ir Corps at Randolph Field and
not from some desk in an Embassy.
And so I came at last to the A ir
Corps Training Center at Randolph
Field, Texas.
current war conditions, slightly more time
Is required In filling orders for a few of
the most popular pattern numbers.
Send your order to:
Sewing Circle N e rd le rra ft Depl.
Bos 1Z17
San Francisco S, Calif.
Enclose IS cents (plus one cent to
cover cost of mailing) for Pattern
No__________ _____
N
a
m
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i s the*
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to o th powder
Gl Joe Probably Thought
Recount W as Fair Enough
He was a newly commissioned
lieutenant in the army, and in
clined to indulge in a little self-
importance. A private sauntered
by without saluting.
" I’ll teach you a lesson,” barked
the second lieutenant. "Stand and
salute me a hundred times.”
Miserably the soldier began the
performance just as a senior offi
cer passed.
"What sort of drill is this?” he
inquired.
The embarrassed lieutenant told
him.
"But surely,” said the senior of
ficer, "you are aware that you
yourself must acknowledge each
salute? Now please begin all over.”
I p r e fe r .”
A dentist’s dentifrice—
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ent with utmost gentleness.
1. Scrupulous cleansing. Your teeth have
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2.
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3.
Made by McKesson & Robbins,
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over 100 years' experience in making
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CALOX
* 0 0 1 h
SO « 0 I *
7ire$fone
GROUND GRIP TIRES
Give EXTRA TRACTION because
THEY CIEAN BETTER T
you been hearing or reading claims about tractor tire
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T TAVE
Its extra-long, triple-braced traction bars do not have "broken center
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wonder Firestone Ground
Grips clean so much better
in A L L soil conditions!
Firestone G ro u n d G r ip
Tires give you up to 215 t
inches of traction bar length
tractor. T h a t means extra pul
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and money you save!
I t ’s hard to describe my feelings
as I walked into the North gate of
that field and down the nearly mile-
long road to the Bachelor Officers
Building, where I was to report. It
seemed that all my life I had wait
ed for this moment. Now at last
the great day was at hand when I
would begin my government flying
training. There above me against
the blue Texas sky I could see the
roaring airplanes in their A rm y col
ors. As my feet carried me into the
field I could hear the rhythm of the
steps seeming to say in cadence,
"This is it! This is what I ’ve waited
for a ll the days of my life !”
In October, 1932, I was assigned
to Lieut. Ted Landon for prim ary
flying training. I imagine this as-
signment was about as momentous
for him as it was for me—for after
all I must have been quite a prob-
lem, with a ll I thought I knew about
flying and the eagerness with which
1 approached m ilita ry
aviatio.u
(TO BE CONTINUED)
e
"CALOX
see why more farm tractors
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Listen to the Voice of Firestone
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■i.