aero squadrons at the front but none are known to have flown in combat.Ĭlick on the following links to learn more about enlisted pilots.Ĭlick here to return to the World War II Gallery. During World War I, 60 enlisted mechanics earned wings in France and ferried aircraft from French factories to U.S. By April 1917, 26 other enlisted regular Army personnel had become pilots. Carl Crane revolutionized aviation by developing a system of flying by instruments that made all-weather flight possible. Ocker (1914), who was commissioned in 1917. Lamkey became the second on record, but he purchased his discharge and flew in Mexico for Pancho Villa. On July 18, 1914, Congress authorized the training of enlisted pilots and William A. Some of the bravest soldiers in the war were pilots, who had no choice but to still keep fighting without almost any option to retreat besides a faulty parachute.

Yet in USAF history about 4,150 pilots trained and flew not as commissioned officers but as enlisted men - almost 3,000 rated pilots and nearly 1,150 liaison pilots. Lahm's message announcing that one of the two new aviators he had trained was a corporal. 'It is not the policy of the War Department to train enlisted men in flying aeroplanes. *Artifacts from this exhibit have been temporarily removed for conservation.

Myles lagree navy pilot world war 2