Lieutenants flying and non flying, follow up

[Marian]

Back in May 2015 I wondered why some of the Oxford cadets were recommended for commissions as 1st Lts. Aviation Reserve non flying.

Just today I came across a couple of cables between Pershing and Washington that explain this odd status:

Pershing’s cable 726-S (March 13, 1918) describes the situation of the approximately 1400 aviation cadets in Europe, some of whom had waited up to five months already for flying training and who might have to wait another four. “All of those cadets would have been commissioned prior to this date if training facilities could have been provided. These conditions have produced profound discouragement among cadets.” To remedy this injustice, and to put the European cadets on an equal footing with their counterparts in the U.S., Pershing asks permission “to issue to all cadets now in Europe temporary or Reserve commissions in Aviation Section Signal Corps. . . .” Washington approved the plan in a cable (995-R) dated March 21, 1918, stipulating that the commissioned men be “put on non-flying status. Upon satisfactory completion of flying training they can be transferred as flying officers.”

There was a lot of grousing about the slowness of commissions in cadets' diaries and letters (and in War Birds). It's interesting to learn that Pershing had their backs after all.

best,
--Marian