All American Pathfinders Explained
The All American Pathfinders aeroplane unit was a squadron with 13 aircraft and associated road vehicles used in the "1919 Air Service Transcontinental Recruiting Convoy"[1] from Hazelhurst Field to California that began on August 14, 1919.https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/08/14/118156967.pdf The convoy was en route to California simultaneously with the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy and included a "Balloon and Airship section" and a "Searchlight and Field Lighting section" (the convoy commander, Major Ora M. Baldinger, operated the unit as a "mobile army post".)https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA081EFA385C1B728DDDA90994D0405B898DF1D3 The convoy was over 1/2 mile long and was "to secure accurate information to be used in connection with the carrying of mails by airplanes, and for military purposes, as well as commercial purposes."[2]
Airfields used by the squadron included:
- August 16, Gettysburg Battlefield—drill ground of the former Camp Colt, Pennsylvaniahttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ddslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZvwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7231,5164457&dq=1919+convoy+pittsburgh&hl=enhttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ddslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZvwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6430,5155351&dq=1919+convoy+gettysburg&hl=enhttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dNslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZvwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6378,5115676&dq=1919+convoy+gettysburg&hl=en
- Columbus, Ohio—9 Curtiss planes used the field http://www.google.com/search?q=1919+pathfinders+curtiss&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers#q=1919+pathfinders+curtiss&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zkUJTrjSHozQsAOB0-mJDw&ved=0CBMQpwUoBg&source=lnt&tbs=cdr:1%2Ccd_min%3A%2Ccd_max%3A1919&tbm=nws&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=5bb2b649f3cdcf9c&biw=1600&bih=727
- August 28, Shillington, Pennsylvania near Reading—2 Curtiss JN4 and a big Curtiss photographic plane were behind the main body of the convoy.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dYQtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=lpsFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4105,3695862&dq=1919+pathfinders+curtiss&hl=en
Notes and References
- News: July 23, 1919 . Army Orders . . 2011-04-06 . Grower, 1st Lt. R. W., to Hazelhurst Field, to accompany the Air Service Transcontinental Recruiting Convoys, then to station in this city..
- News: September 12, 1919 . Flying Circus of All America Coming to Montana . Google News Archive . . . 2011-04-06.
