Photograph from Collegiate Balloon School 

 ADJUSTING THE VALVE OF AN OBSERVATION BALLOON BEFORE ITS INFLATION 



. WITH HYDROGEN GAS 



the squadron as a whole may become a 

 smoothly running- unit of the larger 

 service. 



So, too, men for work as observers and 

 bombers to accompany all aviators except 

 the individual fighters have had to be 

 most painstakingly selected from men 

 possessing the two-sided physical and 

 mental requirements necessary and in a 

 proportion of three to every five aviators. 

 The best ages have been found to be from 

 2 5 to 35 >" Dut as the reports of these men 

 will dictate the movements of whole army 

 corps, it has been necessary to put them 

 through a special eight- weeks' course of 

 instruction to test and develop their keen- 

 ness of vision, power of deduction, and 

 ability in machine-gunnery, map-reading, 

 and aerial reconnaissance. 



Last, before coming to the aviators 

 themselves, is the twin service of the bal- 

 loonists. This question has presented pe- 

 culiar problems and has made necessary 

 a two-months' course of training in me- 

 teorology, gases, observation, instruction, 

 and flying. The balloonist, while not so 

 spectacular as the aviator, is only less im- 



portant, for with his range of vision of 

 eight miles and his constant telephonic 

 communication with the ground, he is 

 able to keep a most accurate time sched- 

 ule of every enemy movement and a de- 

 tailed record of all gun-fire. For hours 

 at a time he rides calmly and patiently, a 

 mile in the air, noting details which the 

 longer-winged, but more cursory, aviator 

 may overlook. 



MANY SPECIAL COURSES OP INSTRUCTION 



All these demands for all these differ- 

 ent kinds of men have put Uncle Sam 

 into the business of instruction in a way 

 that we little imagine. Special courses 

 have had to be built up, in addition to 

 those of the flying fields, for observers, 

 for bombers, for balloonists, for radio 

 experts, for photographers, for adminis- 

 trative officers, and for enlisted men, each 

 solving entirely new difficulties raised by 

 the new sciences in aviation and the adap- 

 tation of old sciences. 



So far, then, we have seen the need of 

 an intensive and specialized selection of 

 men for the various collateral work con- 



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