DOCSLIB.ORG

Harold Harris, Albert Hegenberger, Oakley Kelly, Lester Maitland and John Macready

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Harold Harris, Albert Hegenberger, Oakley Kelly, Lester Maitland and John Macready Bibliography and References for Biographical Sketches on: Harold Harris, Albert Hegenberger, Oakley Kelly, Lester Maitland and John Macready By Prof. Justin Libby Acknowledgements: There are, in the course of researching and writing an essay, so many courteous, knowledgeable and gifted archivists who have made the endeavor possible. One of the great joys of any researcher and writer on aviation topics is to visit and become acquainted with the library staff at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and the personnel at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. whose assistance is great appreciated. In particular, I owe a great debt to Mrs. Kate Igoe who opened the relevant files to me and answered my many questions with not only a great knowledge of the materials but with grace, courtesy and profound patience. Mr. Michael Barnes was most helpful in providing the photographs appearing in my study. Another bonus in accomplishing this project was the experience in researching at the Paul Luarance (correct spelling) Dunbar Library on the campus of Wright State University in Dayton-Fairborn, Ohio where John Armstrong was my host along with his friendly and courteous staff in searching out information not only relating to Harold R. Harris as well as other aviators. General Harris surely deserves a separate essay chronicling the life and the achievements of this remarkable pioneering aviator, successful executive businessman and consummate patriot. I also had the privilege of meeting Brett Stolle at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Archives who was so kind in guiding me through the holdings at his location and provided me with the files on the careers of Harold Harris, Albert Hegenberger, Oakley Kelly, Lester Maitland and John Macready and several other aviation personalities. The interested readers in the Army Air Service, the Army Air Corps, the AAAF and the United States Air Force are encouraged to review the files at the air base. The visitor to the archives will need permission to review the materials as well as require accompaniment onto the air base and I would recommend first e-mailing Mr. Stolle at Brett.Stolle @wpafb.af.mil and informing him of your research objectives and intended arrival time. At the Pima Air and Space Museum/Titan Missile Museum in Tucson, Arizona it was a pleasure to have met both James Stemm who assisted me with the Jack Frye essay published previously in the American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Volume LIII (Fall. 2008), 181-204 and Andrew Boehly who made files readily available especially pertaining to Lester Maitland and Oakley Kelly. For a researcher one could not find a more accommodating and knowledgeable staff. I would also like to thank Mr. Carol Cox of the Air Force Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama for so kindly providing me with information in the agency’s files relating to the airmen who were the focus of this study that were included in the Muir Fairchild MSS. While researching at that magnificent repository of aviation history I was ably assisted by Mr. Joseph Caver, Ms. Tammy Horton and Mr. Sylvester Jackson who can be easily reached at www.au.af.mil/au.afhra. In particular, Ms. Horton never lost her patience and graciousness in answering my myriad of questions. Nearby at the Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center and Library the courtesies extended to me were so appreciated especially by Susan Lipscomb, Sandhya Malladi, Carrie Springer and Tony Waterman. It should be noted that I owe Ms. Malladi a profound thank you for the battle we had with a recalcitrant copier and the ultimate victory we achieved over its malfunctioning behavior. The personnel at this beautifully groomed air base are so accommodating and welcoming to researchers. I should also like to extend my gratitude to the archivists at the United States War College Library in Carlisle, Pennsylvania who have always been most hospitable and I also wish to thank Wendy Swik and Susan Lintlemann at the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York for their kind assistance. In the same area as the academy no researcher writing on the period of the 1930s can ignore the files at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York and once again I wish to thank Virginia Lewick, Mark Renovitch and Matthew Hanson for their hospitality and professional assistance. At the library there is little information on Maitland and Hegenberger but the interested reader should consult the Presidential Official File, “Lester Maitland-Albert Hegenberger” folder. Finally, I wish once again to thank Indiana University for its continuing financial support. - 1 - Bibiography: Orville Wright once commented that “Not within a thousand years will man ever fly”. (1901). This Bibliography is a testimonial and a tribute to the human desire and tenacity to achieve what many believed was an impossible dream. The reader is encouraged to review the life, achievements and flights of Albert Hegenberger, Oakley Kelly, Lester Maitland and John Macready that are housed in the Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Reading Rooms, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. The relevant information is contained in the “American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics”, Boxes 49 and 87, Hegenberger files. No reader of the air service in World War I can ignore Edgar S. Gorrell’s History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917-1919 (Washington: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Record Group 120, 1975). During that conflict General Mason Patrick, Chief of the Air Service, instructed Colonel Gorrell to gather all information that would “assist in establishing Army aeronautics on a sound basis for the future. Gorrell later became president of the Air Transport Association of America. The reader might find interesting the essay by General Laurence S. Kuter (RET.), “Edgar Gorrell’s Concept of War,” Air Force Magazine, LXI (Apr. 1978), 80-82; The textural records to review include Record Group 18 (RG-18) which are the Records of the Army Air Forces covering the period 1914-1947 including records of the Chief of the Air Service and Chief of the Air Corps with some records as late as 1955 containing 4,700 cubic feet. Within RG-18 includes the personal papers of generals Mason M. Patrick, James E. Fechet and Frank M. Andrews; Record Group 98, Records of the United States Army Command; Record Group 107, Records of the Office of the Secretary of War; Record Group 111, Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer; Record Group 120, Records of the American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1921; Record Group 165 contains the Records of the War Department and Special Staff, 1903-1947; Record Group 319 covering the Office of the Adjutant General-Records of the Army Staff 1939; Record Group 331 which is the record of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces and Supreme Headquarters Expeditionary Forces; Record Group 339 which includes Records of Headquarters Army Air Forces; Record Group 340, Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force; Record Group 341, Records of Headquarters United States Air Force and Record Group 407 contains the Records of the Adjutant General’s office, 1917-1958 A primary archive for the students of aviation is at the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) located at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama is the Muir Fairchild MSS noted above and for the Kelly-Macready flight under the command of Major M. A. Strauss an interesting review of the pioneering effort can be found in “Kelly- Macready Non-Stop Transcontinental Flight, New York-San Diego, May 2-3, 1923,” having the Call Number 248.211.86-98B, Folder 989B. In the same call number sequence also consult, “Report of Transcontinental Flight U. S. Army Airship C-2, October, 1922,” found in folder 98A. See also Call Number 168.7490.7, “Maitland Manuscript,” pages 198-200, Box 16. Material on Maitland in the archive can be found in Call Number 168.7487-9-168.7490-8, Box16, “Maitland, Lester J.: Miscellaneous Correspondence”. There is a letter from Antony Fokker to Maitland dated 8 July 1927 congratulating him on the Hawaiian flight can be found in “Maitland, Lester J.: Letter from Mr. Fokker,” Call Number 168.7490-5, Box16. Also in Box 16 see the following: Letter from Hegenberger to Maitland, 8 March 1927, 15 March 1927 and 12 April 1927 Call Number 168.7490-6 regarding radio equipment for the flight as well as tests of the aircraft and in Call Number 168.7490-7 there is a brief sketch of the air program of the United States by Maitland. In the sketch Kelly and Macready appear on pages 197-199 and Maitland’s comments on Alexander Pearson who died so very young tragically appears in page 186. Bibliographies, Autobiographies, Biographies and Dictionaries in Chronological Order of Publication: “Rudolph William Schroeder,” in Maxine Block, ed., Current Biography 1941 (New York: H. W. Wilson and Company, 1941), 761-762. Extremely helpful in researching the history of Army aviation were Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries: The War in the Pacific, Middle East and Europe (New York: Morrow, 1946); Paul Brockett, Bibliography of Aeronautics (Washington: Smithsonian, 1910) and his Bibliography of Aeronautics, 1901-1916 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921); The Aircraft Year Book (New York: Manufacturers Aircraft Association, 1919- 1921); Flint O. Dupre, ed:, U.S. Air Force Biographical Dictionary ( New York: Franklin Watts, 1965); In that publication essays are as follows: Doolittle, 57-59; Hegenberger, 102, Maitland, 158-159 and Mitchell, 169-171. There are no essays focusing on Kelly or Macready in Lester D. Gardner, Who’s Who in American Aeronautics (2nd ed: New York: The Gardner Publishing Company, 1925); Bibliography of Aeronautics, 1900-1932 (14 vols: Washington: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1921-1936); For the 1920s and 1930s in particular see, Max B.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 90 Years of Flight Test in the Miami Valley
    in the MiamiValley History Offke Aeronautical Systems Center Air Force Materiel Command ii FOREWORD Less than one hundred years ago, Lord Kelvin, the most prominent scientist of his generation, remarked that he had not “the smallest molecule of faith’ in any form of flight other than ballooning. Within a decade of his damningly pessimistic statement, the Wright brothers were routinely puttering through the skies above Huffman Prairie, pirouetting about in their frail pusher biplanes. They were there because, unlike Kelvin, they saw opportunity, not difficulty, challenge, not impossibility. And they had met that challenge, seized that opportunity, by taking the work of their minds, transforming it by their hands, making a series of gliders and, then, finally, an actual airplane that they flew. Flight testing was the key to their success. The history of flight testing encompassesthe essential history of aviation itself. For as long as humanity has aspired to fly, men and women of courage have moved resolutely from intriguing concept to practical reality by testing the result of their work in actual flight. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, notable pioneers such asthe French Montgolfier brothers, the German Otto Lilienthal, and the American Octave Chanute blended careful study and theoretical speculation with the actual design, construction, and testing of flying vehicles. Flight testing reallycame ofage with the Wright bro!hers whocarefullycombined a thorough understanding of the problem and potentiality of flight with-for their time-sophisticated ground and flight-test methodolo- gies and equipment. After their success above the dunes at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17,1903, the brothers determined to refine their work and generate practical aircraft capable of routine operation.
    [Show full text]
  • Boys' Wash Suits Former Soc Values Re- Seem to Place This Hammond Returned to Washington
    MAL AT eOll ECONOMY NE BusycQ*MFr 'Pgba LAT TH.S SALES FOR Opmo:15 A. M To.6:00 P. M. or~CP..Ss.0w WEDNESDAY JEAN ELIC given in marriage by her father. Mr. Several Broken Lines of gnd My. Fisher will make their home Pnv wife of the senator from in Charlest0n where he is enaed In ]Envelope Cool Pinted Voiles RMR&Illinois.. DILLexpectsMcCORMICK,to leave budUein. Wshit tomorrow for . Rdek 39c a Yard- 36 mWd 38 Wide where + Regularly Im"be River B , t Byron, IW., Mrs. Minngesrode Andrews is re- of Si SotNabWsOOL she spends t of every summer. 3overing from an operation. and is at The farm, w h Is one of the show Ner home In where DRESSES country Virgini% Verysew in that part of the country. the sumer. TomorrovP, 25c yd. Mkrz. McCormlck's particular she will stay throuh Combined in one it for real on summer's most desired Pride, She manages it herself and big and radi- $.00, Achance savin rs conducts a successful dairy buil- 3.4 at 3., HM*.r. lot, Choice of several styles, wash.goods. Crisp, fresh Pri nted Volles, in light grounds, ness, Rock River milk being in The Rev. Roland Cotton Smith. cally teduced. showing~ excellent work- a wonderful < f and effects, reat 'demand. The McCormick D. D., of St. John's Church. and Mrs. They are values manabp;of fine soft fin- showing range lovely designs Children have been established at Smith, 'ai at the Malvern Hotel, Bar im nainsook, in square and such as checks, stripes, dots, fl oral patterns and neat figures.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Redcross.Pdf
    HISTORY OF RED CROSS Henri Dunant, founder of Red Cross Jean Henri Dunant was born in Geneva on 8 May 1828. His character and education impelled him to help the distressed and the unfortunate and to be concerned about social work. In 1853, he was appointed as an accountant to a subsidiary company in Algeria, which entailed a certain amount of travelling. On 24 June 1859, Dunant arrived at Solferino where he witnessed one of the fiercest battles of the nineteenth century. The Battle of Solferino lasted for more than 15 hours and more than 40,000 were wounded. Dunant was filled with horror and pity as he viewed the appalling spectacle of human suffering. With the help of the villagers at Castiglione, he worked tirelessly, without sleep for three days, giving comfort and what medical care he could to the injured men. Back at Geneva, Dunant was haunted by visions of the terrible battle and he devoted all his strength to ensure that the terrible sufferings he had witnessed never occurred again. In 1862, Dunant wrote and published a book entitled "A Memory of Solferino", which he put forward his ideas to foster the creation in every country of a society for the relief of the military wounded and capable of helping the army medical services to carry out their tasks. Birth of Red Cross Gustave Moynier, a prominent lawyer in Geneva and president of the city's Society of Public Welfare, showed immediate interest in Dunant's ideas. Moynier lost no time in setting up the Permanent International Committee of the Relief of the Wounded, which was later known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
    [Show full text]
  • Washington and the Great War
    Over There: Washington and The Great War May 4, 2014 to January 18, 2015 This award-winning exhibition commemorated the 100th anniversary of World War One, one of the largest and bloodiest conflicts in history, where over 70 million military personnel were mobilized around the world and more than 10 million combatants and 7 million civilians were killed, including several from Washington, CT. Over 100 men and women from Washington, and more than 150 alumni and faculty from The Gunnery served in The Great War. Students in Bart McMann's Artifacts and Archives class at The Gunnery, along with Tom Burger, the 2012-13 Gunn Scholar, conducted research on their school’s involvement in the war and shared their findings in a section of this exhibit. Letters, pictures, and an interesting array of period artifacts from the museum, local families, and collectors, including Peter Tragni and Dr. Robert Jacobs, among others, were used to explore the dramatic experiences of Washington's soldiers, along with the extensive support efforts that were happening on the home front in Washington through such organizations as the Sister Susie Society, the Red Cross, the Women's Land Army, and the Home Guard. All of their fascinating stories were shared in this exhibit and a diverse series of public programs (see below) through the year, sponsored in part by the Connecticut Community Foundation. Art director Chris Zaima, designer Sandy Booth, and painter Keith Templeton, along with a team of other volunteers and staff, created another visual masterpiece. Local history came alive as visitors stepped back in time and explored the lives of Washington's residents during World War One, through their own words, and the impact this war had on our small town.
    [Show full text]
  • Nicholas Murray BUTLER Arranged Correspondence Box Contents Box
    Nicholas Murray BUTLER Arranged Correspondence Box contents Box# Box contents 1 Catalogued correspondence 2 A-AB 3 AC - ADAMS, J. 4 ADAMS, K.-AG 5 AH-AI 6 AJ-ALD 7 ALE-ALLEN, E. 8 ALLEN, F.-ALLEN, W. 9 ALLEN, Y. - AMERICAN AC. 10 AMERICAN AR. - AMERICAN K. 11 AMERICAN L.-AMZ 12 ANA-ANG 13 ANH-APZ 14 AR-ARZ 15 AS-AT 16 AU-AZ 17 B-BAC 18 BAD-BAKER, G. 19 BAKER, H. - BALDWIN 20 BALE-BANG 21 BANH-BARD 22 BARD-BARNES, J. 23 BARNES, N.-BARO 24 BARR-BARS 25 BART-BAT 26 BAU-BEAM 27 BEAN-BED 28 BEE-BELL, D. 29 BELL,E.-BENED 30 BENEF-BENZ 31 BER-BERN 32 BERN-BETT 33 BETTS-BIK 34 BIL-BIR 35 BIS-BLACK, J. 36 BLACK, K.-BLAN 37 BLANK-BLOOD 38 BLOOM-BLOS 39 BLOU-BOD 40 BOE-BOL 41 BON-BOOK 42 BOOK-BOOT 43 BOR-BOT 44 BOU-BOWEN 45 BOWER-BOYD 46 BOYER-BRAL 47 BRAM-BREG 48 BREH-BRIC 49 BRID - BRIT 50 BRIT-BRO 51 BROG-BROOKS 52 BROOKS-BROWN 53 BROWN 54 BROWN-BROWNE 55 BROWNE -BRYA 56 BRYC - BUD 57 BUE-BURD 58 BURE-BURL 59 BURL-BURR 60 BURS-BUTC 61 BUTLER, A. - S. 62 BUTLER, W.-BYZ 63 C-CAI 64 CAL-CAMPA 65 CAMP - CANFIELD, JAMES H. (-1904) 66 CANFIELD, JAMES H. (1905-1910) - CANT 67 CAP-CARNA 68 CARNEGIE (1) 69 CARNEGIE (2) ENDOWMENT 70 CARN-CARR 71 CAR-CASTLE 72 CAT-CATH 73 CATL-CE 74 CH-CHAMB 75 CHAMC - CHAP 76 CHAR-CHEP 77 CHER-CHILD, K.
    [Show full text]
  • Davison Family Collection
    PRITZKER MILITARY MUSEUM & LIBRARY 104 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60603 [email protected] 312-374-9333 Davison Family Collection Creator: Davison Family Dates: 1913-1961, n.d. Quantity: .01 linear feet Identification: PMML ID# 320755, OCLC# 231692069, Call# PAPERS 00013 Citation: [Document Title]. The Davison Family Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Pritzker Military Museum & Library, Chicago, IL. Language: English Finding Aid: Written by Kathryn Hofherr, June 2008; Updated by Andrea Martinez, 2018 Archival collections are stored at a remote archival facility. Please contact the Museum & Library at least 48 hours in advance of your visit to view an archival collection. Biographical Note The Davison family was one of the east coast’s most prominent families during the late 1800s/early 1900s. Their philanthropic efforts and their patriotic spirits during the First World War did not go unnoticed by the American public. Henry Pomeroy Davison was born on June 12, 1867 in Troy, Pennsylvania. He began he career as a bookkeeper in a bank managed by a family member and when he was 21, found a job at a bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was there he met his future wife. Mary Kate Trubee was born on February 2, 1871 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. On April 13, 1893, she married Henry P. Davison. Three years later the couple moved to New York City where Davison held a position at the Astor Place Bank. A few years later, Davison became president of the Liberty National Bank and then became involved in the founding of the Bankers Trust Company. In 1909, Davison became a senior partner at JP Morgan & Company.
    [Show full text]
  • Crimson Aviators Summary
    Advocates for Harvard ROTC . Telephone: (978) 443-9532 11 Munnings Drive Email: [email protected] Sudbury, Mass. 01776 11 November 2017 From: Captain Paul E. Mawn USN (Ret.) To: Advocates for Harvard ROTC Subject: Crimson* Aviators The US Air Force as well as Naval & Army Aviation owe a generally unrecognized debt of gratitude to the alumni of Ivy League colleges, particularly Harvard, for their key role in the initial development of US fighter pilots. A graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Sous LT Norman Prince Armée de l'Air, was an Ace and co-founder of the famed Lafayette Escadrille. The first Navy Ace and only Navy Ace during World War I was an alumnus of Harvard Law School (i.e. Rear Admiral David S. Ingalls USN with 5 kills in WW1). Furthermore, the first aviator in the US Marine Corps to be ever awarded for valor graduated from Harvard College (i.e. 1st LT Ken Culbert USMC, a recipient of the Silver Star and Croix de Guerre, who was killed in action). Harvard College is the oldest US University that was founded in 1636 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From the American Revolution until the present day, many Harvard veterans have paid a price in time, blood and restricted earnings for the freedoms now enjoyed in our great country.18 Harvard alumni have been awarded the Medal of Honor (including 1 aviator), which is highest number of alumni recipients for any university in the world except for West Point & the Naval Academy.
    [Show full text]
  • ANGRY SKY the World War I Diary and Letters of David S
    OF HERO THE ANGRY SKY The World War I Diary and Letters of David S. Ingalls, America’s First Naval Ace Edited by Geoffrey L. Rossano Foreword by William F. Trimble OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS ATHENS Contents List of Illustrations vii Foreword by William F. Trimble xi Series Editors’ Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv A Note on the Text xvii Abbreviations xix Introduction 1 1 Training with the First Yale Unit March–September 1917 21 2 Early Days in Europe September–December 1917 43 3 With the RFC at Gosport, Turnberry, and Ayr December 1917–March 1918 87 4 On Patrol—At NAS Dunkirk and with the RAF in Flanders March–May 1918 141 5 The Navy’s Big Show—The Northern Bombing Group May–August 1918 183 6 Hero of the Angry Sky—Serving with No.213 Squadron August–October 1918 215 7 Eastleigh and Home October–December 1918 285 8 A Glance Back June 1924 313 Afterword 327 v Contents vi Appendix 1: David Ingalls’s Victories with No.213 Squadron, RAF 337 Appendix 2: David Ingalls’s Technical Notes, Turnberry, Scotland 339 Bibliography 363 Index 369 Introduction In 1925, Rear Admiral William S. Sims, commander of U.S. naval forces operating in Europe during World War I, declared, “Lieuten- ant David S. Ingalls may rightly be called the ‘Naval Ace’ of the war.”1 Of the twenty thousand pilots, observers, ground officers, mechanics, and construction workers who served overseas in the conflict, only Ingalls earned that unofficial yet esteemed status. In contrast, by November 1918, the U.S. Army Air Service counted more than 120 aces.2 The Cleveland, Ohio, native’s unique achievement resulted from several factors.
    [Show full text]
  • 03-21-1916 Lafayette Escadrille.Indd
    This Day in History… March 21, 1916 The Lafayette Escadrille On March 21, 1916, a group of mostly American pilots formed the Escadrille Américaine. Later named the Lafayette Escadrille, they flew several high-profile missions that encouraged more Americans to join their ranks. After World War I began, many Americans wanted to join the war This stamp was issued effort. Among them were Dr. Edmund Gros and Norman Prince. Gros in 1919 to celebrate the founded the American Hospital of Paris and the American Ambulance end of World War I. Field Service. Prince was a pilot flying for France. Prince and William Thaw volunteered to serve in the French Foreign Legion and dreamed of forming a squadron of American pilots to help in the war effort. With the help of Dr. Gros, they convinced the French government to form a unit of American volunteer air fighters. They hoped this squadron would convince the United States to join the Allies. The escadrille was named for the Marquis de Lafayette, “a hero of On March 21, 1916, the Escadrille Américaine (Escadrille two worlds.” N.124) was formed. Command by Captain Georges Thénault, it had seven pilots initially – Prince, Thaw, Victor E. Chapman, Elliot C. Cowdin, Weston Hall, James R. McConnell, and Kiffin Rockwell. The squadron was soon moved closer to the front. In December, the name of the unit was changed when Germany accused the US of breaking its neutrality agreement. The Lafayette Escadrille was named for Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the French and American Revolutions. The escadrille consisted of 38 American pilots, with French airplanes, mechanics, uniforms, and commanders.
    [Show full text]
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Chicago Law School: Chicago Unbound Chicago Journal of International Law Volume 5 Number 1 Article 14 6-1-2004 The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law François Bugnion Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil Recommended Citation Bugnion, François (2004) "The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law," Chicago Journal of International Law: Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 14. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cjil/vol5/iss1/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chicago Journal of International Law by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Development of International Humanitarian Law Frangois Bugnion* Notwithstanding its private-initiative origins, the International Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC") has been the main driving force behind the development of international humanitarian law for 140 years. It was the ICRC that took the initiative which led to the adoption of the original Geneva Convention of 22 August 1864, an instrument that is the starting point of contemporary international humanitarian law and a landmark in the development of public international law; it was the ICRC that laid the groundwork for the subsequent developments of that law. How was it that five individuals managed to have the initial Geneva Convention adopted? What was the significance of that treaty? What was the ICRC's role in the drafting of subsequent conventions and what is its role today in relation to the development of international humanitarian law? And finally, what is the outlook for the future? These are the questions this article sets out to answer.
    [Show full text]
  • From Bicycles to B-2 Bombers
    From For nearly a century, Dayton, Ohio, the Bicycle Shop has been a seedbed of to B-2 the nation’s military airpower. Bombers By Robert E. van Patten ECEMBER 1903 was the big month for “the Bishop’s Boys” who ran the Wright DBros. Cycle Co., a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Orville and Wilbur Wright gave the world the gift of powered, sustained, con- trolled, heavier-than-air flight. De- spite their intelligence, intellectual drive, creativity, and unbreakable spirit, it is doubtful that these two young Ohio men had any conception of the kind of impact their work would have on the world at large. Looking back on the past century, we now see that Dayton, nestled in the rolling hills of Ohio, served as a cradle of innovation which made possible the development of the art and science of flight. The drama that began with brief flights above the sands at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903, soon shifted to Ohio, where it has continued into its 100th year. Financial circumstances had dic- tated a relocation to Dayton, where the Wrights could conduct flying The Wright Cycle Co., Dayton, Ohio, pictured circa 1896. 72 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 2003 and experimental work at less ex- pense. Following their successful flights at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights set up shop at a flying field on Huffman Prairie, which is now within the boundaries of Wright–Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. In May 1904, the Wrights made their first successful flights there. For nearly a decade, the brothers honed their flying skills and refined their ma- chines, teaching fledgling aviators along the way.
    [Show full text]
  • Centenary Historians' Conference
    Centenary Historians’ Conference media.ifrc.org/ifrc/speech/centenary-historians-conference/ Elhadj As Sy International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary General Date: Thursday, 13 June, 2019 Event: Centenary Historians’ Conference Location: Geneva, Switzerland Thank you David, and thank you all. Let me first of all welcome you to the IFRC, and thank you for putting in so much effort, thought, intellect and competence in looking at the history of our Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. And particularly so in this year, when we take stock and reflect on our 100 years. There is a popular saying in my culture that if you don’t know where you’re going, you go back to where you came from. In my mother tongue it translates literally to ‘know your past to better shape your future’. And this saying is often used in that culture by what we call the Praise Singers. When soldiers were preparing for war, praise singers would remind them of their past, and the stories of their ancestors, to fill them with courage. So, we go back to our history and use it as a source of strength. But it’s not only used in the context of waging wars – it’s also used when leaders are faced with difficult decisions, in difficult times at family, community and national levels. The Praise Singers would take them back to history with stories of courage, forgiveness, reconciliation, care, support and humility: examples that serve as sources of inspiration and motivation to do nothing less than shape a better future.
    [Show full text]