Benjamin Foulois
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois | |
---|---|
(Grand Officer) Congressional Air Force Medal of Recognition |
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois (December 9, 1879[1] – April 25, 1967) was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright brothers. He became the first military aviator as an airship pilot, and achieved numerous other military aviation "firsts". He led strategic development of the Air Force in the United States.
Early life
Benjamin "Benny" Delahauf Foulois was born on December 9, 1879, in Washington, Connecticut,[2] to a Franco-American pipe-fitter and a Boston-born nurse.
Early military service
At age 18, he used his older brother's birth certificate to enlist in the Army to support the Spanish–American War, but arrived in Puerto Rico just weeks before the armistice was signed. As an engineer, he fought off the rampant tropical diseases, and after five months, was shipped home and mustered out.[3] On June 17, 1899, Foulois enlisted again, using his own name, as a private in the Regular Army and was assigned to the 19th Infantry, where he ultimately achieved the rank of first sergeant, with service in the Philippines on Luzon, Panay, and Cebu. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on July 9, 1901.[4] Foulois returned to the United States in 1902 and transferred to the 17th Infantry. This regiment served in the Philippines from 1903 to 1905, and Foulois served in Manila, Cottabato, and Mindanao, where he participated in engagements against the Lake Lanao Moros, successfully hunting down and defeating combatant tribal leaders,[5] and as topographical officer for the regiment, participated in surveying and mapping expeditions.[citation needed]
Foulois attended the Infantry and Cavalry School at
In all future warfare, we can expect to see engagements in the air between hostile aerial fleets. The struggle for supremacy in the air will undoubtedly take place while the opposing armies are maneuvering for position...[6]
He forecast the replacement of the horse by the airplane in reconnaissance, and wireless air-to-ground communications that included the transmission of photographs. As a result, the CSO selected Foulois for the aeronautical board designated to conduct the 1908 airship and airplane acceptance trials.[7] After having selected the Thomas Scott Baldwin airship as the winner of the trial, Foulois was selected as the first military crewman. He took his first flight on August 18 as engineer-pilot, while Baldwin controlled the rudder at the aft end.[citation needed]
Aviation duty with the Signal Corps 1908–1916
Aeronautical Division
Foulois' first aviation assignment was duty with the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps, where he operated the first dirigible balloon of the U.S. government. The crash of the Wright Military Flyer, procured at the same time by the Army on its final test flight, September 17, 1908, claimed the first US military airplane fatality, First Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, and also injured Orville Wright.[8] After one year, Foulois had concluded through his experience, understanding of military dirigibles in Europe, and talks with Tom Baldwin, that no military future existed for lighter-than-air aircraft. In expressing this opinion to the Army General Staff, Foulois recommended no more purchases of dirigibles, the first of his many disagreements with the military establishment.[9]
The
Foulois and Lieutenant
Duty in Texas
While waiting to repair the airplane, the Signal Corps decided to seek a more favorable climate location for flying during the winter. Foulois was directed to report to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, where he was directed by CSO Allen to "teach yourself to fly."[11] He did so, and at 9:30 a.m. on March 2, 1910, on the Arthur MacArthur parade field made four flights on S.C. No. 1, which included his first solo takeoff, first solo landing, and first crash.[12] Over the next 15 months, Foulois modified S.C. No. 1's elevators at the instructions in correspondence from Orville Wright, and demonstrated the use of the Wright B aircraft for aerial mapping, photography, and reconnaissance, and the use of the radio while airborne. To end the requirement of using a 60-foot launch rail to take off, he drew up plans for and installed wheels in place of skids, and equipped the S.C. No. 1 with the first seat belt, using a four-foot leather cinch obtained from the cavalry saddlery.[13] According to Foulois: "The second flight I made after crashing the first time I took it up I got almost thrown out; landed; the artillery officer came up there and I told him, Fred, I wanted to get a belt to keep me in that damn plane. He said, whaddya want? and I said a strap about four feet long, something I can lash myself to the seat with. That was the first safety belt invented."[14] As the result of repeated crashes and repairs, many caused by Foulois being "ground shy" (the result of his having no formal training in landing an airplane), S.C. No. 1 became unflyable, and in February 1911 the Army leased a Wright Model B from Robert Collier. Because Foulois was unfamiliar with the type, the Wright Company sent Philip O. Parmalee to instruct.[citation needed]
In early 1911, the United States gathered much of the Regular Army in South Texas as a show of force to Mexican revolutionaries, forming the "Maneuver Division". On March 3, 1911, Foulois and Parmalee made the first official military reconnaissance flight (without crossing the border), looking for Army troops between Laredo and Eagle Pass, Texas, with a ground exercise in progress. Two days later, returning from a cross-country flight, they accidentally shut off the engine, and in trying to restart it, crashed into the Rio Grande. Neither was injured and the airplane was eventually repaired and returned to Collier.[citation needed]
Foulois was joined in April by three students from the Curtiss Aviation School in San Diego, including Capt.
Foulois blamed Beck for improper repairs to the craft, and also questioned his ability to command, but the investigating board, of which both Foulois and Beck were members, ruled that Kelly's death resulted from landing at too high a speed and striking the ground with a wingtip when he attempted a turn.[15] In any event, the army shut down all aviation training at Fort Sam Houston and sent pilots and airplanes to College Park, Maryland, where its first aviation school was about to commence. Beck was ordered there as the instructor on the Curtiss machine in June, but Foulois remained on duty with the Maneuver Division until July 11, when he was reassigned to the Militia Bureau in Washington, DC.[16]
Return to aviation
Foulois was assigned as Officer In Charge, Signal Corps and Corps of Engineers Units in the Organized Militia. On April 29, 1912 his Signal Corps commission was discharged and he was nominally returned to the Infantry, but remained with the Militia Bureau, where he was able to continue flying periodically at the aviation school in College Park. In July 1911, the Army adopted as its standard to be a military pilot the licensing requirements of the
On November 19, 1915, Foulois led the 1st Aero Squadron cross-country flight of six Curtiss JN3s from Post Field,
World War I
From March to September 1917, General Foulois was charged with the responsibility for the production, maintenance, organization, and operations of all American aeronautical material and personnel in the United States. In March, he worked with Major General
In October 1917, he was transferred to France, and had the same responsibilities in France, the
"Just when things had begun to work smoothly, a shipment of aviation officers arrived under Brigadier General Benjamin Foulois, over one hundred in number, almost none of whom had ever seen an airplane. … As rapidly as possible, the competent men, who had learned their duties in the face of the enemy, were displaced and their positions taken by these carpetbaggers."[23]
Foulois responded:
"... this extract is proof of Mitchell’s disregard for facts" and "While Mitchell had every right to have an opinion about me and my staff, his attitude toward us made our jobs doubly difficult. The seeds of insubordination had already been sown when I relieved him, and his memoirs prove how distorted an opinion he had of himself as an expert on air matters."[24]
Creation and deployment of tactical squadrons lagged badly behind the schedule Foulois had promised Pershing, and the supply situation for the Air Service was not improving. Friction between Foulois' nonflying staff and the aviators in command of the instruction schools and the combat squadrons grew to the point of extreme inefficiency. In April 1918, Foulois tried to enforce a cooperative spirit from his own staff without success. In May, he requested relief from his position as Chief of Air Service and recommended to General Pershing that Mitchell should be replaced. Pershing appointed
Three months later, when a major loss of coordination between offensive units and replacement units occurred at Toul, Foulois again requested relief from his position, this time to again be in charge of Air Service logistics, to straighten out the snarled lines of communication before the major offensives in the fall. He also recommended that Mitchell replace him as Chief of Air Service, First Army. Foulois briefly became Assistant Chief of Air Service, Zone of Advance, but that position was eliminated when the Service of Supply created a forward headquarters near the front in addition to its main headquarters in Tours, and Foulois became the Assistant Chief of Air Service, Service of Supply.[28]
Rise to Chief of the Air Corps
After the
In August 1919, Foulois appeared before the Frear subcommittee hearings on aviation during the war, and before the Senate Military Affairs Subcommittee considering the Crowell Commission report (which advocated an independent air force) in October. He testified with stinging accusations toward the Army General Staff and Franklin D. Roosevelt, the assistant Secretary of the Navy.[30][n 3]
Having stirred up Washington, Foulois heard that a military attaché was needed in Europe with aviation expertise. He was sent in April 1920 to The Hague as assistant air attache, with observer duties in Berlin. At the same time his wife asked him for a divorce, which was decreed in 1921. (Ella Foulois later became the wife of General
Foulois gathered the equivalent of a railroad boxcar full of valuable documents, drawings, technical bulletins, magazines, books, blueprints and reports. By having talked with more than 180 individuals, he had a valuable collection of German aviation knowledge. However, he wrote: "I only hoped that it was being put to good use in America. To my eternal regret, it wasn’t. The lack of an air intelligence collection system, inexperience on the part of the military intelligence officers in regard to aeronautics, and a lack of appreciation for the potential value of the fruits of German genius caused much of the material I sent to end up unopened in a warehouse and later sent to the trash heap."[32]
After many years, Foulois achieved his desire to command a flying unit, and was assigned command of
In December 1927, when
On December 19, 1931, following Fechet's retirement, he was appointed Chief of the Air Corps by President Herbert Hoover, which carried the rank of major general. Foulois had already appeared before Congress on 75 occasions to testify on military matters. During the next four years, he was in constant communication with Congress on the future of the Air Corps, during a time when economic hardships were forcing severe budget cuts. While this initially resulted in a solid base of support from supporters of aviation, it eventually proved a two-edged sword: when he lost their support in 1934–1935, his position as Chief of Air Corps became untenable.[citation needed]
Coast defence had traditionally been a primary function of the Army, with the line of demarcation the range of its coast artillery guns. The range of aircraft ostensibly confused the issue and opened a competition between the Air Service and Naval Aviation for the mission, and thus for further development of its service. A compromise reached between the Chief of Naval Operations and General
Foulois served as Chief of the Air Corps during the
Retirement
The 1934 Rogers Subcommittee investigation into improper contracting and procurement awards charged Foulois with violations of law in awarding contracts, mismanagement of the
He accurately warned of the buildup of German air power, and the need to build a strong air force and to take defensive measures to protect the East Coast. Prior to World War II, he ran New Jersey's civil defense program. In 1941, Foulois ran as a Republican for New Jersey's 2nd congressional district, losing to four-term Democratic incumbent Elmer H. Wene.[38] When World War II broke out he would have returned to active duty if offered a combat position. When the War Department offered him only a staff job, he demurred and opted to devote his energies to New Jersey Civil Defense. He continued to write and speak for 17 years from his home in Ventnor City, New Jersey.[citation needed]
His wife Elisabeth grew very ill and Foulois had difficulty paying for her care. Generals Carl Spaatz and Ira Eaker interceded with Air Force Chief of Staff, General Thomas D. White, to allow Foulois to live at Andrews Air Force Base. In return he would tour the world as a senior spokesman to promote Air Force issues. Thus, in his eighties he traveled 500,000 miles (800,000 km) by air, emphasizing national security to the men and women of the U.S. Air Force at home and overseas.[citation needed]
In 1963, Foulois appeared on the television quiz show
Foulois had worked for 18 months with Carroll V. Glines on a biography of his life, though he died before the publicity tour could take place. The book, titled From the Wright Brothers to the Astronauts, was published in 1968. The biography was republished in 1980 for sale to libraries; only 400 copies were produced. A new edition of the biography, re-titled Foulois: One-Man Air Force, emerged in 2010.[citation needed]
As one of the longest living of the first military pilots, Foulois saw the steps into space of the
Pronunciation of Foulois
Asked how to say his name, he told The
Legacy
- General Foulois was enshrined in 1963 in the National Aviation Hall of Fame
- General Foulois is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
- The Foulois House is a lodging facility on Fort Sam Houston, Texas, named in his honor.
- The Benjamin D. Foulois Creative and Performing Arts Academy in Morningside, Maryland, is named in his honor.
- General Foulois received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1965.[39]
Senior Pilot Badge | ||
Army Distinguished Service Medal | Mexican Border Service Medal | World War I Victory Medal |
-
Legion of Honour medal
See also
Footnotes
- Footnotes
- ^ Beck was senior to Foulois in rank and all other service aspects (commissioned time, infantry seniority, Signal Corps seniority) except aviation experience.
- ^ Pershing appointed Patrick to bring order to the Air Service AEF, which was described as "a tangled mess" under Foulois.
- Charles Menoherto the Frear hearings. Menoher testified that in his opinion the enthusiasm of aviators for an independent air arm stemmed from a desire for personal promotion. Foulois was asked to comment and acidly defied the General Staff to produce one officer who had ever done anything constructive for aviation.
- Citations
- ^ Fogerty, Robert P. (1953). "Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 1 – A thru L" (PDF). Air Force Historical Research Agency. pp. 604–608. USAF historical studies: no. 91. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 31, 2021. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
- OCLC 40298151.
- ISBN 0-405-12211-X.
- ^ Foulois, p. 25.
- ^ Foulois, p. 37.
- ^ Foulois, p. 44.
- ^ Foulois, p. 50.
- ^ Foulois, p. 56.
- ^ Foulois, p. 59.
- ^ Foulois, p. 65.
- ^ Foulois, p. 70.
- ISBN 978-0-8117-2169-1.
- ^ Foulois, p. 74.
- on February 26, 2019.
- ^ Correll, John T. (2007). "The First of the Force" (PDF). Air Force Magazine. 90 (August). Retrieved 2012-05-31.
- ISBN 0-912799-34-XOCLC 12553968, p. 47
- ^ "Vassar Miscellany Weekly 18 February 1916 — Vassar Newspaper & Magazine Archive".
- ^ Foulois, p. 129.
- ^ Foulois, p. 141.
- ^ Foulois, p. 146.
- ^ Foulois, p. 157.
- ^ Foulois, p. 160.
- ^ Mitchell, William (1960). Memoirs of World War I: From Start to Finish of Our Greatest War. New York: Random House.
- ^ Foulois, p. 161.
- ^ Tate, Dr. James P. (1998). The Army and its Air Corps: Army Policy Toward Aviation 1919-1941, Air University Press, p. 19.
- ^ Foulois, p. 171.
- ^ Foulois, p. 175.
- ^ Foulois, p. 176.
- ^ Foulois, p. 185.
- ^ Foulois, p. 188.
- ^ Foulois, p. 191.
- ^ Foulois, p. 194.
- ^ Foulois, p. 214.
- ^ Foulois, p. 229.
- ^ Foulois, p. 260.
- ^ Foulois, p. 261.
- ^ Foulois, p. 265.
- ^ Staff. "Foulois to Seek Congress Seat", The New York Times, August 5, 1942. Accessed September 9, 2012. "Benjamin D. Foulois of Ventnor, retired Army Air Corps chieftain and civilian defense coordinator for South Jersey, was designated here tonight by Republican leaders to run for Congress in New Jersey's Second Congressional District".
- American Academy of Achievement.
References
- "Air Force Link Biography of Major General Benjamin Delahauf Foulois"
- "Benjamin Foulois: National Aviation Hall of Fame"
- "Benjamin D. Foulois school" Archived 2012-09-18 at the Wayback Machine
- "Baseball stunt with Foulois and Babe Ruth"
Further reading
- Borden, Norman E., Jr. (1968). Air Mail Emergency. 1934: An Account of Seventy-Eight Tense Days in the Winter of 1934 When the Army Flew the United States Mail. Freeport, ME, Bond Wheelwright. OCLC 3352697
- Cagle, Eldon, Jr. (1985). Quadrangle: The History of Fort Sam Houston. Austin, TX, Eakin Press. ISBN 0890154635
- Cornelisse, Diana Good. (1992). The Foulois House: Its Place in the History of the Miami Valley and American Aviation. Dayton, OH, History Office, Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. OCLC 25648580
- Foulois, Benjamin D., Glines, C. V. (1968) From the Wright Brothers to the Astronauts: The Memoirs of Benjamin D. Foulois. New York, ISBN 0-405-12211-X.
- Frisbee, John L. (Ed.) (1987). Makers of the United States Air Force. Washington, Office of Air Force History.
- Jacobs, James W. (1984). National Aviation Hall of Fame (U.S.). Enshrinee Album: The First Twenty-One Years. Dayton, OH, National Aviation Hall of Fame.
- Shiner, John F. (1975). The Army Air Arm in Transition: General Benjamin D. Foulois and the Air Corps. 1931–1935. Ann Arbor, Ml, University Microfilms.
- Shiner, John F. (1984). Foulois and the U.S. Army Air Corps, 1931–1935. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History.
External links
- Media related to Benjamin Delahauf Foulois at Wikimedia Commons