Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps - Punitive Expedition

Punitive Expedition

Following Villa's raid on Columbus, New Mexico, on March 9, 1916, the 1st Aero Squadron was attached to Major General John J. Pershing's Punitive Expedition. It consisted of 11 pilots, 84 enlisted men (including two medics), a civilian mechanic, and was supported by an engineer officer and 14 men. Eight Curtiss JN-3s were disassembled at Fort Sam Houston on March 12 and shipped the next day by rail to Columbus, along with the squadron's 12 trucks, one automobile, and six motorcycles. The JN-3s were reassembled as they were off-loaded on March 15, the date the first column marched into Mexico. The first observation mission flown by the squadron, and the first the first American military reconnaissance flight over foreign territory, was flown the next day and lasted 51 minutes with Dodd at the controls and Foulois observing.

On March 19, Maj. Gen. Pershing telegraphed Foulois and ordered the squadron forward to his base at Colonia Dublán to observe for the 7th and 10th Cavalry Regiments. The ground echelon moved forward by truck, and the eight JN-3s took off at 17:10. None of the eight aircraft made Dublán that evening: one turned back to Columbus because of engine problems, and one was destroyed by scavengers after a forced landing in Mexico. Four that landed together at Ascensión (about halfway to Dublán) flew on to Dublán in the morning, where they were joined by the plane that had returned to Columbus and one that had landed on a road at Janos.

The squadron returned to Columbus on April 22, where it expanded to a roster of 16 pilots and 122 enlisted men. It flew liaison missions for Pershing's force using detachments in Mexico until August 15, 1916. The 1st Aero Squadron flew a total of 540 liaison and aerial reconnaissance missions, flying 19,553 mi (31,468 km) with a flight time of 345 hours 43 minutes. No observations were made of hostile troops but the squadron performed invaluable services maintaining communications between ground units deep inside Mexico and Pershing's headquarters. During this expedition, a solid red star on the rudder became the first national insignia for United States military aircraft.

Their airplanes did not have sufficient power to fly over the Sierra Madre Mountains nor did they perform well in the turbulence of its passes, and missions averaged only 36 mi (58 km) distance from their landing fields. The planes were nearly impossible to maintain because of a lack of parts and environmental conditions (laminated wooden propellers had to be dismounted after each flight and placed in humidors to keep their glue from disintegrating), and after just 30 days service only two were left. Both were no longer flight worthy and were condemned on April 22. Congress in a deficiency bill voted the Aviation Section an emergency appropriation of $500,000 (twice its previous budget), and although four new Curtiss N-8s were shipped to Columbus, they were rejected by Foulois after six days of flight testing. Although recommended for condemnation, they were shipped to San Diego, modified, and ultimately became training aircraft.

A new agency was also created within the Aviation Section, the Technical Advisory and Inspection Board, headed by Milling, and staffed by pilots who had attended engineering course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and civilian engineers, including Donald Douglas. The Board recommended a new squadron be equipped with Curtiss R-2s, which used a 160 hp (120 kW) engine.

The first two were delivered on May 1, 1916, and the remaining 10 by May 25. They were assigned Signal Corps numbers 64 to 75. The R-2s were equipped with Lewis machine guns, wireless sets, and standard compasses, but their performance proved little better than that of their predecessors. Pilots were quoted by name in both the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune as condemning their equipment, but Pershing did not pursue the issue, noting they had "already too often risked their lives in old and often useless machines they have patched up and worked over in an effort to do their share of the duty this expedition has been called upon to perform."