Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence

by Robert P. White and WHITE ROBERT P.

In 1918, at a critical juncture in World War I, Mason Patrick was selected to command the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force. In this assessment of his career, White credits Patrick, rather than his more vocal second-in-command Billy Mitchell, with ensuring the survival of the Air Service at a time when it faced critical internal and external pressures. He explores how, while Mitchell played the role of the attention-grabbing publicist,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560989432
• ISBN13: 9781560989431
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Smithsonian Books (DC)
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Rescues a Deserving Air Advocate from Obscurity

The U.S. Air Force reveres Billy Mitchell, the combative general who advocated strategic bombardment as the critical mission of the service and worked tirelessly for independence from the army. His efforts eventually brought his cashiering for insubordination in 1925. Virtually unknown to later generations, but ultimately more important for Air Force independence, was Mason Patrick, who served as Army Air Service chief of staff through much of the 1920s. "Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence" tells the story of how Patrick worked quietly through the 1920s to prove the worth of air power. This fine book tells the story of Mason Patrick from his birth during the American Civil War to a Confederate surgeon. Patrick became a career army officer after graduating second in his West Point class in 1886, numbering among his classmates John J. Pershing. He rose through the army's ranks and in 1918 Pershing appointed him head of the Army Air Service. With dissention between air officers and the rest of the service running high, in no small part because of Billy Mitchell, Patrick worked to smooth relations, to ensure the continued capability of the Air Service, and to position it to eventually become a separate service. That independence came in 1947, long after Patrick had retired and passed on, but his role in paving the way was central to the move. Indeed, Patrick crafted the Army Air Corps Act of 1926 that established the Army Air Corps as a part of the service equal to the Corp of Engineers or any other critical component. He also pursued the development of strategic bombardment, supported by pursuit operations, that found fruition in World War II. Since this mission did not require close coordination with ground forces, Patrick believed there was no reason it had to be part of the army. This theory became the backbone of the Air Corps' campaign for an independent Department of the Air Force. This very fine book chronicles the place of Mason Patrick in this quest for independence. It is a valuable addition to the literature on the history of the Air Force.