Survive as a World War II Soldier - Chapter 78



Only Noblemtl

#078

After giving my father-in-law the ultimate inaugural gift in the form of the metric system, I took a short vacation.

Actually, it’s good that my father-in-law became president, but in fact, he was a bit nit-picky in many ways.

The Republican Party’s real power controversy was definitely burdensome, even though it was addressed head-on with the theory that the people were pigs and dogs.

There were personal reasons for that too.

“Dad, dad.”

Mary was so cute.

A doll-like child walks and even talks…

Wow. I think I know why seniors with daughters get misty-eyed when they talk about their daughters.

Anyway, Mary, who was so small when she was first born that it was scary to even hold her, was growing up so quickly.

Already 3 years old.

I realized that I had been so busy with work that I hadn’t been able to properly watch this cute and lovely baby angel grow up.

You might wonder what kind of joke this is, since I wasn’t posted abroad for a few years like other guys, but…

How many things have I done so far?

How can I leave work alone and be so polite when my subordinates are working overtime all night?

So, I also had to work like a local official in the Army General Staff.

“I took a vacation. It might be difficult to go far, but should I go somewhere close by?”

“Really?”

Anna’s eyes widened in disbelief at my words.

“Peck. Peck.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of Mary jumping up and down, shouting “good” even though she didn’t know what it was.

I would have liked to take a year-long vacation and travel around the world, but it was an impossible dream.

First of all, Anna is too young.

‘There’s no way the wicked slave owner would let me go.’

Roosevelt was always trying to get me to take off my clothes and work harder for me.

“Mary is young, so going overseas is too much for her. Should we go to a warm place in the south and rest for a while?”

“Okay. I haven’t been out of Washington since Mary was born.”

“Oh, oh. That’s right.”

Unlike Nana Anna, Mary had never left Washington since she was born.

That family trip was great.

“Chi-Chi-Pho-Pho”

When she first got on the train, Mary was startled by the sound of the whistle and burst into tears, but soon she was happily imitating the sound of the train.

It was February, but Florida was warm.

It wasn’t warm enough to swim, but it was warm enough to walk around without a thick winter coat.

“Dad, what’s going on?”

“Crocodile. It’s dangerous. Don’t go near it.”

“Oh? Hit. Hit.”

“what?”

“What the hell is Mary? Huh? What the hell?”

One day, while enjoying a vacation, I burst into laughter at the sight of Mary throwing a tantrum, saying she wanted to ride an alligator she saw on the riverbank, and also went sightseeing in the nearby desert.

“what’s this?”

I was drinking my morning coffee and listening to the newspaper, and my eyes widened at the article on the front page.

“An Army Air Corps aircraft crashed?”

##

Sending messages quickly through the sky is something that mankind has been doing since ancient times.

Mr. Pigeon, who even served in World War I.

But in the case of the Western world, there were too many variables.

Airmail has a long history, with machines also being used.

However, the era of airmail actually began after the development of the airplane.

The beginning of airmail in the United States was Earl Ovington’s flight in 1911.

The Army Air Corps became deeply involved in the development of airmail, as the needs of both the post office and the Air Corps coincided.

The post office needed immediate aircraft and pilots to deliver mail, and the Air Corps figured that novice pilots could learn long-distance flying skills by delivering mail.

The airmail service, which had been operated under government supervision for a while, was transferred to the private sector.

Originally, it started with the government taking the lead, but when it seemed like it could make some money, everyone would rush in and call for privatization, right?

During the boom times of the 1920s, numerous airlines sprang up in the United States, and they entered the airmail market.

As a result, airmail became a familiar service to Americans.

It was always the case that flies would swarm anything that seemed like it would make money.

As always, when there’s a fly in the ointment, there’s bound to be some shady dealings.

“There is a problem with the contracts made with airlines during the Hoover administration!”

A careless remark at a drinking party leads Lewis, a passionate journalist, to dig up the airmail contracts of the Hoover administration.

And this led to the suspicions that later became known as the Airmail Scandal.

“Oh! The Hoover administration gave excessive subsidies to airmail.”

“So there was a reason for everything.”

“Where should I dig properly···.”

“Couldn’t something as amazing as the Teapot Dome come out?”

“Hoo.”

The Democratic Party, which joined forces to give those guys a big shit, even launched an investigation committee.

however,

“It’s nothing special.”

“Damn. With this···.”

“If we do this, it will only backfire.”

“What should I do about this?”

There wasn’t any.

The airlines did try to get more subsidies, but that was it.

Colluding with each other on service prices, or padlocking individual pieces of mail to charge more.

There were minor corruption scandals, but there was nothing like the grand conspiracy involving key figures in the Hoover administration that Democrats had hoped for.

As things turned out, the private airlines that had been the subject of the investigation began to fight back.

“The contract we entered into is illegal? Then are you going to cancel it?”

“Do you know what the demand for airmail is like now?”

“What would happen if the airmail service were to be paralyzed immediately?”

When airmail first appeared, it was a luxury only available to the wealthy.

But as the service developed and government subsidies were provided, airmail had become one of the services that had become deeply ingrained in American life.

This can be seen from the fact that the volume of services has not decreased but has continued to increase since the beginning of the Great Depression.

Airlines, which know this fact better than anyone else, have come out as the opposite of the truth.

Naturally, Roosevelt was outraged by this situation.

“Are you saying I should just let this go?”

The reason airlines were able to maintain low fares in the first place was because the government provided huge subsidies.

There is no grand conspiracy, but it is not that there is no corruption, and I am angry at the airline’s behavior that is like a scapegoat.

It was at this point that a relief pitcher appeared: Secretary of War George H. Dunn.

“What are you worried about? Who started the first airmail service? The Army Air Corps.”

“!”

“If we have to spend government money anyway, wouldn’t it be better to give that money to the aviation industry?”

“Oh. I see.”

“Come to think of it, I heard that due to budget constraints, the training flight time for aviation units has been greatly reduced these days…”

Thus, Roosevelt announced that he would discontinue the airmail contract effective February 19th.

And he orders the Army Air Corps to be deployed for airmail.

Of course, it wasn’t something that was just pushed through without any thought.

In response to Secretary Dunn’s remarks, Roosevelt called in Air Corps Commander Flue and told him the situation and asked about the possibilities.

If I had been there, they would have called me, but since I was on vacation, it was Flua who was called.

And there, Flua,

“If you just leave it to me, I will do my best. Our Army Aviation Corps is ready for any mission.”

He shouts loudly.

Up to this point, I had also received a report.

Even though they are on vacation, isn’t it a matter of drafting the Army Air Corps for external missions?

Of course, I was contacted about the payment.

“What does Commander Pulua say?”

“It is quite possible.”

“Really? If that’s what the Air Force Commander says, then that’s what it must be. I understand.”

What do I know about flying?

I thought the same thing, since the commander of the Air Force, who was more expert than me, said that he could do it.

Besides, the Benjamin Pullua I knew was a pretty decent person.

So, Arnold was currently stepping down from his position as commander of the Air Corps to participate in a joint torpedo project with the Navy.

As a side note, Arnold wasn’t normal either, seeing as he resigned from his position as commander to go beat up those seals.

Anyway, the one who took charge of the Air Corps as Arnold’s successor was Benjamin Poulois.

Mitchell did not speak highly of Pluto, but rather called him incompetent and a mouthpiece.

But that was a pretty sound assessment, considering that Mitchell rarely received compliments.

At least you didn’t say that he was a bastard who should be killed or kicked out immediately.

What I particularly appreciated about Pluie was his strong wariness of Germany.

“We must not allow an air force in Germany.”

“Here’s the information I’ve gathered about Germany. If you ignore the Germans, you’ll be in big trouble later.”

So I wasn’t too worried about the Army Air Corps being put to work delivering airmail under the direction of the Postmaster General.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was a bad thing either.

“Because of the lack of budget, flight training is already lacking. In such a situation, why not make money and fly at the same time?”

“Oh. I see.”

“And wasn’t it our Army Air Corps that originally started this airmail service?”

“Oh, oh. That’s right.”

While the Army Corps of Engineers was busy building highways immediately after World War I, the Air Corps was carrying the mail.

So I said that without thinking much about it,

“But why did the plane crash?”

“that is···.”

It wasn’t even just one.

On February 22nd alone, two pilots lost their lives.

And on the 23rd, when I was hurriedly returning to Washington after hearing this news, another accident occurred with casualties.

“It’s not even a battle, but a mail delivery, and the plane crashes and the pilots die?”

That was nonsense.

In response to my shouting, Marshall immediately formed a special investigation team.

And two days later,

“Does this make any sense?”

While reading the interim report sent by the inspection team, I couldn’t control my anger and ended up throwing it at Pulua’s face.

It was a total mess.

“First of all, I have confirmed that none of the provisions that Director Pulua explained to the House Postal Committee have been followed.”

At the committee, Pulua promised to send experienced pilots who could handle night flights and bad weather, but this was never followed through.

More than half of the dispatched pilots were junior officers with less than two years of service.

Additionally, less than 30% of those flying more than 25 hours in bad weather were flying at night.

The most serious problem was that only two people had experience flying under instrument conditions.

“In the case of the Army Air Corps, training is done during the day, so most of the time they only do visual flights, not instrument flights. However···.”

Most airmail deliveries were made on night flights.

Things were very different then when the Army Air Corps first began airmail a dozen years ago.

At that time, the demand for airmail was low, so it was quite possible to fill the space behind a fighter plane and deliver the mail.

But now it was different.

Originally, fighter planes were special aircraft manufactured for combat.

Of course, it was not an aircraft suitable for carrying heavy or bulky loads.

“According to reports coming from the Western sector, a Boeing P-12 fighter jet loaded with 50 pounds of mail ended up with its tail drooping···.”

“under.”

The most shocking discovery was the discovery of hundreds of directional gyros and artificial horizons not installed on aircraft in the air force hangar.

“It’s not that there’s no equipment, but there’s so much left over that it’s not being used because it hasn’t been installed?”

“that is···.”

“Ha. Take off that kid’s clothes and throw him out right now. Bring Arnold.”

Although I would have liked to withdraw the Air Force from airmail delivery immediately, I could not do so.

It was an operation launched by order of the President.

Above all, wasn’t this a plan that we brought in from the beginning because we knew we could do it well?

However, the Army Air Corps could not be put at risk like this.

And right then.

Mitchell, the man who knows the most about heaven as far as I know, sent me a gift as if he had been waiting for it.

“older brother.”

Elliot had transformed into a man with tanned skin and solid muscles, showing how much he had been manipulated by Mitchell.

Worrying uselessly