The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 4

THE NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN Sunday Morning, May 15, 1988. Nashville Man, Who Flew First Air Mail in British Isles, Points To Advancement in Aviation Since 'Seat of Pants' Flying Days; Because he knew something Royal Naval Air Service. "But that young fellow with See the way he put his ship with In the inset, upper left, the Saw World War Service With Canadian Group E.9703. of the Liberty motor, Maxwell G. Hor the walking stick, upper right, the heavier Liberty motor down Nashville man who flew the first when some of my friends formed the 105th Aviation Squadron here I took a physical examination and found I was 88 sound as ever," Horkins stated.

ONLY PART OF STORY But the mail story is just the beginning of Horkins' story of the World War if one can get him to talk of it. Those two years for which he received the 200 pounds gratuity for his service to His Majesty, King George were mostly spent not as a captain but as a "Temporary Second Leftenant on Probation." Put simply, that means Horkins says, that he was a flying cadet lieutenant. "My being elevated to the commission of acting captain later was really an accident even as my becoming a pilot earlier was. You see I was from Calumet, Michigan, just a boy in 1916 with a liking for mechanics. When I ran away and enlisted in a Canadian unit I had no more idea of being a pilot than a rabbit.

I liked motors and thought I was getting in the mechanics line. By mistake I got into another line for pilots. I was under age but after' training in Canada during most of 1916 and part of 1917 I sailed for England with a leftenant's commission in the 212th Squadron of the Royal he Naval Air Service." TOAST TO KING In the months which followed young Horkins took his first drink -sixpence worth of port wine at mess each week, in which he drank a toast to his King. He grew his first mustache, learned to "pepper away" with a machine gun through his propeller at a German daredevil who was doing the same toward him, and altogether became "a hell of a fellow and lady-killer," as the mature Horkins said the other day. As accident had placed him in the wrong line at the recruiting station, his knowledge of the American Liberty motor made him captain.

"I was the only one who could fly a Liberty motor then. It had only recently been designed by Howerd Coffin and a group of others Detroit. During the war members of my squadron had flown the DH-9 and the DH-4, two-men biplanes, whose motors purred softly. The others had been accustomed to these, and the Liberty motor was so much heavier that the ships equipped with them were too much for us. To balance them, they widened the wingspread and put 20 pounds of lead in the tail of the ship.

The combination was often too much for us," Horkins said. Most of Horkins' World War service was spent with his squadron at Yarmouth, patrolling the North Sea area and frequently being summoned southward for London defense duty when German FREE Foot Clinic HELD OVER ALL THIS WEEK To accommodate the many people who were unable to secure an appointment last week. In our opinion, we have the most outstanding authority on feet in the world today, and if your feet trouble you, you will never regret having this FREE examination, He will tell you more about your feet, how they trouble, you, where and why, and what to do about it than any one you have ever consulted before. NO COST or Obligation ALL THIS WEEK Monday thru Saturday May 16th to 21st 1-5 P. M.

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were difficult to distinguish, enemy or Allies. We had another kind of bathtub maneuver too. 1 It was in testing out the inflated vests which we wore to keep us afloat when we fell to the sea and our planes sank. Each day we would test the vests to. see that they were still good." Temporary Second Leftenant Horkins had ample need for his Inflated vest in October, 1918.

While patrolling 10,000 feet above the North Sea his engine began to miss. The ship started down and he and his observer were adrift miles from shore with only the vests to keep them afloat. About 30 minutes later, a fishing fleet attracted by the flares which they had shot as they came down rescued them. It was that exposure which caused the lung ailment from which Horkins suffered for two years after he was back in civilian life. OBSERVER DIED His observer died six weeks later in an army hospital as the result of the same exposure, It was in August, 1918, just two months before this Incident that the 212th squadron, R.

N. A. had lost nine ships and 16 men in an encounter with two German Zeppelins which made the last attempt from the air against London. Horkins was in this encounter and remembers well the theatrical effects of the lights as the two big Zeppelins burst into flames and then sank into the sea. "About two years ago a magazine called 'Adventure' I read a story which contained what seemed to me a first-hand account of the engagement that night.

Even the number of our dead and lost ships was identical and the manner in which the Canadian squadron lost them was the same. Our pilots who fell to the sea did so because they mistook the glare of the burning on the water as other ships and the distance confused them," Horkins recalled. Horkins looks back at Second Lieutenant Horkins as a carefree, thoughtless youngster who did not know enough to be afraid and who did not know much about aviation. "Compared to the men in the infantry we had an easy time of it. We were billeted in the best hotels.

They recruited youngsters because we did not know enough to be afraid. If we had thought we could not have done the job at hand. Men in the infantry bore dirt, the hand-to-hand fighting, the lice and the brunt of the wat. GREAT. ADVANCEMENT "Compared to the commercial air and passenger pilot today we knew almost nothing.

Instead of the instruments of today, the marvelous technical equipment which mature man can use with care and precision, we 'flew by the seat of our Actually that's the way to describe it, however crudely, because when we were traveling with EPISCOPAL DIOCESE TO MEET THURSDAY Convocation of Nash ville Opens at Clarksville With Conference The annual spring meeting of the Convocation of Nashville, Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, will be held Thursday and Friday at Trinity Church, Clarksville. The meeting will open at 3 p. Thursday with a conference of the clergy led by Dr. E. P.

Dandridge, Christ Church, and Dr. Prentice A. Pugh, Church of the Advent, Nashville. At 7:30 p. a service of prayer will be held with sermon by the Rev.

Bernard W. Hummel, new rector of St. Ann's Church, Nashville. Holy Communion will be celebrated at 10 a. m.

Friday, followed at 10:45 a. by a business session and reports from the field. Luncheon will be served at 12:30 p. m. At 1:30 p.

m. a conference on women's work will be held, with Mrs. T. P. Yeatman presiding.

The closing service will begin at 3:30 p. Officers of the convocation are, Dr. Pugh, dean; the Rev. James R. Sharp, Nashville, secretary, and the Rev.

Charles B. Romaine, Frank lin, treasurer. Other clerical members are Rev. Porter F. Florence and the Rev.

J. F. McCloud, Nashville; the Rev. A. Constantine Adamz, Tracy City; the Rev.

Ellis M. Bearden, the Rev. Marvin Luke, the Rev. Charles L. Widney, Rev.

Royden K. Yerkes and the Rev. David S. Rose, Sewanee; the Rev. W.

Fred Gates, Old Hickory; the Rev. George W. Jones, Sherwood; the Rev. George B. Kirwan, Monterey; the Rev.

Henry J. McGehee, Tullahoma; the Rev. F. W. G.

Parker, St. Andrews; the Rev. Thomas R. Thrasher, Columbia; the Rev. Harry Wintermeyer, Clarksville, and the Rev.

George A. Fox, Shelbyville. GENTRY-GWALTNEY CARTHAGE, May 14- (Spl.) and Mrs. James Gwaltof the Sykes community, have ney, announced marriage of their daughter, Aloda, to Ernest Gentry, son of Mr. and Mrs.

William Gentry, of the same community, on April 17. They are making their home with the groom's parents. knew it by the way we stuck to the seat. When we began to go down the tension lessened. "It was only a 'by God and by guess' kind of flying that a youngster who had never realized the RUNS FOR SHERIFF Jesse Young GAINESBORO, May (Spl) -Jesse Young, farmer of the First Civil District, has announced as candidate for sheriff of Jackson County in the regular election to be held August 4.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff in 1932. Centennial Park is the site of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition of 1897, hence its name. MORGAN-KIGHT CARTHAGE, May 14 -News has just been received here of the marriage of Miss Oris Kight, of Savannah, to liam Morgan, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.

M. Morgan, of Carthage, They will make their home at Sylvania, where Morgan is connected with the Vincennes Bridge Company. Phone 6-0253 ED JIM GREWAR For Dependable Heating Plumbing Work NEW STOMACH RELIEF UPSETS OLD IDEAS Modern medical science hos upset old notions about stomach and ulcer relief. new colloidal preparation called STOMAGEL now brings relief by an entirely different action. It is not a pill, powder or liquid, and contains no alkali or dope.

It trols excess acid. the chief cause of stomach distress and ulcers, like you soak MD water with a sponge. You can learn all about STOMAGEL if you send for Free Booklet, "Dawn of a New Just write to Holm Colloid 2300 W. Wisconsin Dept. 31-E, Milwaukee, Wis.

kins, lower left, says he was made Temporary Leftenant Horkins, didn't with British its air nose mail in is the seen trote train Zeppelins and submarines began to threaten England's largest THREE MONTHS IN FRANCE Only for three months was the Nashvillian stationed in France and then it Dunquerque for a brief service "light bombing duty." "Usually we would be assigned to some objective behind the Germna lines, an ammunition dump or railway. As pilot I usually used 8 machine gun which was stationary and whose fire was synchronized with the propeller. I was only hit once, a splinter from ship was shot up into my forehead. have a little scar there now, but doesn't amount to anything." In 1918, the Royal Air Corps was chiefly engaged all along the eastern side of England in patrolling the North Sea coast for enemy water craft. Across the waters things were tightening up for the great battle of Jutland, as the German fleet became bottled up in the Kiel, Canal.

German planes were patrolling their area, too, watching for enemy water craft. "We would pepper away at German planes 1 now and then but most- acting captain of a squadron in the know as much as he thought he did. yesterday. window on leave near Yarmouth. Ran Away and Enlisted; Became Pilot by Mistake ly that was in fun.

I'm not sure we ever intended to hit each other. They knew we had as our objective watching for Zeppelin raids on the civilian population of England and for water craft." MAIN INSTRUCTION Chief instruction for cadets during these months of sea, patrolling was in recognizing all water craft. From thousands of feet in the air it is difficult to distinguish one ship from another, The cadets at Yarmouth were taught by small toy ships such as Horkins buys now for his small son. Each was designed to resemble a battleship, cruiser, submarme, dreadnaught of some special year or design for each nation. With these afloat in their bathtubs the cadets would drill for hours, learning to identify each type by name, year of its construetion or nationality.

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717 Church St. Tel. 6-5138 By HELEN DAHNKE Maxwell G. Horkins, like many another Nashville business man, will send his mail by air this week. "Better send it by air mail today, Miss Louise," he will say to his secretary, Thursday as the city in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the American air postal service.

FIRST IN BRITISH ISLES But in the deeper recesses of his mind as he dictates his letters, Mr. Horkins may be busy with memories of another mail service--the first ever flown in the Isles, flown by a certain young Captain Horkins of the Royal Naval Air Service in January, 1919, along the east coast of England, from Yarmouth to Martlesham Heath, 100 miles every day. And then Mr. Horkins, 40 years old, president of a large real estate firm here and done with flying since 1933, may toss a salute across the years to the carefree youngster from Michigan who flew with Canadian aviation unit for two during the World War and years then was given England's first air mail to carry more than 19 years ago. "It wasn't civilian air mail service as we know it today, at all," Horkins said yesterday his fice at W.

W. Dillon and Company. DISPATCH SERVICE "The Armistice had just been signed. the Canadian and British aviation corps were "estless and had little to occupy their time since the tension of daily and flying was over. As fighting daily means mail of service keeping us army occupied, disalong the east coast of patches England, from Yarmouth to Mar tlesham Heath and back each day, was projected.

Major Cadburyhe later became England's great chocolate manufacturer- planned it a project for peacetime in his military area. It was a section which would compare to one of our corps areas," Horkins said. Yarmouth, Bacton, Cove Hithe, Norwich, Aldeburgh and MartleHeath were the landing fields to which Acting Captain Horkins delivered 'his military mail pouch every day. It was then January, 1919, and in July of that year he was mustered out of the Royal Flying Corps to return to Canada and nearly two years in hospitals before he could resume civilian life. "When I came here in 1923 I thought I was never to fly again because of an operation on one lung which had resulted from exposure I suffered on one occasion.

But full speed and power we literally value of life would try." CONSIDER Prices CHECK Equipment COUNt Cylinders! Ir rou make these three simple tests smoother power impulses. America's for a car, you'll get most expensive cars have engines with FORD PRICES BEGIN AT when you shop for your money: 8 or more cylinders. Only Ford has 1. CONSIDER PRICES. You'll find been able to more offer the basic all Ford prices low and Ford "60" tages of 8 cylinders at a low price- FOR THE 60-MP.

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Price These are only three of reasons EQUIPMENT. All prices include front the 2. little, if you pay extra for for visiting a Ford dealer before you and rear bumpers tire and tube, bumper tire guards, means spare wheel, and lock, equipment you've got to have. Ford buy. You'll recognize rest cigar lighter, one windshield wiper, the when the road in a Ford V-8.

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