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Work of Post’s Photographic Section Wins Coveted Position. FIRS! 10 GO OVERSEAS Great Diversity of Tasks Falls to This Department in the Field. Aerial Photographic Section Number 2'J, that has been sta tioned at Payne Field ever since the establishment of tne held, moved last week to Garden City, New York, having been selected as first on the over seas priority list. Lieut. R. W. Dickenson, who is in charge of this section, has received many letters from Washington commending the section on the good work whicn has been done here. A book of photographs taken by thts section was lately sent to Washington, and as soon as they were received many addi tional books were ordered, the pictures having created many iavoraDie comments. A Difficult Development. About a year ago nothing but the rudiments were known about aerial photography. Each man was obliged to get what information he could from the meagre reports from the battle front in Europe. This information, however, served as a basis to begin with. Only one field taught aerial photog raphy in this country in Jan uary, 1918, and this field was primarily for the training of officers. As soon as the offi cers were trained they were sent to the various fields throughout the country to take charge of photo sections which had been organized from the men trained at the photo schools. A separate building is provided in each field for this work. When Lieut. Dickenson ar rived at Payne Field in May he had eight men who had taken a course in aerial pho tography at Cornell Unversity, to help him. The building was not completed and he had no supplies. It was left largely to the officer in charge In each field to organize the system of which these photographic offi cers realized was the necessa ry trained help, and on account of this great need for men a school for photographers was started at Rochester, N. Y., and the army was searcneu ior men who had some experience in photography or had an in clination for this work. At one time there were one thous and such men taking the course at Rochester. Therefore, according to the ability of the officer and the enlisted person- , nel of each field the work was 1 developed. It speaks well for the Photographic Section of this field that Washington has been so favorably impressed with their work. Work of Departments. The principal work of the aerial photographic depart ment is to take thousands of pictures of a certain section of ; the country at a certain alti tude and piece them all togeth er, forming a photographic map of the district. This map is called a mosaic, and on ac count of the pictures being taken at a certain altitude, the map can be constructed to a certain scale as desired. These maps are made of an enemy’s defenses and ranges are ob tained from them so that long range guns or bombing planes can destroy these defenses. At the time of the simulated at tack on Payne Field by the Cadets, about one month ago, the photographic section took pictures of the Cadet camp. These pictures were quickly brought to Payne Field and just twenty-five minutes later were printed and used to locate the position of the attacking party’s camp. Then bombing planes were sent out to destroy the camp. , The most important requis-i (Continued on page six) ******************************* ******** **************************************** »*«,•***»*******« ****************«***■**»**•****« ************************ •****«.. Battle Formation of Payne Field Flyers ******************************** ************************ **************** ****** .-■****«*■ .*■»■•»»»•***•*«»**■***» »»*r**»* ■*»***■ •**•***** «*■*•**■ ■■■••■■•.«.**<•' Photograph of a Payne Field Formation, taken as the planes emerged from a cloud bank. The picture, which was taken by the Photographic Department, gives an excel lent idea of the position of the different planes in offensive and defensive work. MISSOURI MULE RESENTS ADVANCES ON Pm OF FORD Methods Used by Uncle Moses However Are More Effective. (By Wright D. Jackson) Once they thought that we were going to have another tank in which to store aero plane gasoline. Being always ready for everything when it comes, the excavation was made at once, but that was as far as it ever went. The tank never arrived. It was recently decided that the excavation was an eye-sore and a menace to public health, so a couple of stevedores were detailed to the work of filling the hole, which by this time was well filled with rain water. The clay, which was piled up beside the brink of the hole was sticky, and wasn’t easily shoveled. It stuck to the shov els and made the work very slow. Finally one big lump of elay refused to let go of the shovel, and the stevedore didn’t let go, and so the shovel and steve both went into the hole with the lump of clay. Now, it wasn’t Saturday or Fourth of Tuly, or whenever it is that stevedores take their bath, so George was a. little peeved about it. The foreman, who was sitting on a dry spot watch ng the two steves do their work decided he had better get a :1am shell and a couple of mules to speed the work up a ait. Or maybe it was Lieut. Hamlin that did the deciding; le came along just about that ;ime. The work progressed more -apidly after that, until one of the mules got too near the edge and fell in. It was cool in there and he wasn’t doing any labor while he was there, so the mule slid down on his haunches and waited to drown by absorbing the water through about half of his tough hide. No amount of coaxing or pleading would make him change his mind. Pretty soon an officer from the Engineer Department devised the scheme of putting a rope around the stern end of the beast of burden, just below his narrative, and hooking a Ford at the other end of the hemp, thus applying the power to the proper end of the animal. But somehow, this didn’t get the desired result. Two or three times the mule changed his position uncomfortably, but each time settled back farther into the mire. Just as everybody had de cided that they had better ad minister last rites, and use the mule for filler, an old uncle came up by the gate to get some washing for his woman. He watched the futile attempts and saw them take the rope away. “Who-o-o-a, mool!” he shout ed, as though the pesky crit ter was a member of Parnasus’' stables. Carefully he walked around to the end of the ani mal farthest from the feed bag, took gently but firmly ahold of the part that has the tossle on the end, and gave it a couple of good twists, like winding up the Big Ben. The mule showed his teeth anil climbed out onto the high ground. “Good-fo-nothin' yallah nig gahs, ain’t yo’ ol’ man nevah tol’ yuh nothin’?” stormed uncle, as he shuffled back to ward the gate. And they all decided that it was too bad they couldn’t draft uncle into the Engineer Department. THE GILMER IHDTEL j Columbus. Mississippi OFFERS SPECIAL COURTESIES To All Men in Uniform PILOTS RECEIVE THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER American Aviators With Brit ish Forces in France Are Decorated. The War Department au thorizes the following: Fourteen enemy airplanes and three enemy balloons were brought down by American aviators with the British forces in the period from August 25th to September 8th, according ia a summary of British Royal received here. The Distinguished Service Order was given to 1st Lieut. A. F. Sonnalie, and special mention was made of the fol lowing combat in which Amer ican aviators participated: “1st Lieut. H. R. Clay brought down an enemy air plane which was attacking an S. E. 5, and then attacked another which was fighting one of his own patrol and brought it down. He was then set on by three enemy air planes and after fighting for three minutes 1st Lieut. C. Bis sell, of the same squadron, came to his assistance and shot down two of the hostile machines and drove another down out of control. Other Americans mentioned as bringing down enemy air planes were: 1st Lieutenants, A. S. S. C. F. A. Dixon, 5538 Forbes L. B. Divelbiss Uhe Columbus ‘BooK. Store SOLIITS YOUR PATRONAGE FOR Military Manuals Typewriters Books and Magazines Novelties Stationery Account Books WE GIVE Prompt and Courteous SERVICE Columbus, Mississippi COVER WINGS WITH WOOD The New York Times learns upon excellent authority that the last German aeroplane to land in Hol land was one of the Brandenberg j type, which had wings covered with three thin layers of wood instead of .textile material. Extra weight was ! saved by doing away with wire stays. The machine flew well. — MACHINE GUN OUTPUT The Army Ordnance Department authorizes the following: The Ordnance Department an nounces the following figures show ing the production of machine guns, rifles, and pistols up to September 21, 1918. Total number of machine guns of all types accepted since the war began, 140,322. Total number of all types of riflles for the same period, 2,437,297. Total number of pistols accepted since the war began, 221,801. st., Pittsburg, Pa. T. L. Moore, Kevanee, III., 617 Chestnut St. E., W. Springs, Lancaster Pa., (Leroy Springs, father.) E. H. Barksdale, Goshen Springs, Miss. F. E. Kindley, Gravetts, Ark., (Uther Callahan, cous in.) C. I. McLean, New York City, N. Y., 776 Madison Avo. W. I). Knox, Princeton, N. J. No. 1, West Brown Hall, Princeton University. F. E. Luff, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, 3046 Lincoln Blvd, (II. J. Luff, father.) H. L. Bair, New York City, N. Y., Ill West 111th St. J. O. Creech, Tacoma Park, D. C., 6614 Harlan Place. E n e m y balloons were brought down by 2nd. Lieut. I. P. Corse, Minneapolis, Minn. 2301 1st Ave. South, (Irving j L. Corse, father.) j “ i LT. J. G. CONWAY THIRD VICTIM OF m_ EPIDEMIC III With Spanish Influenza Since Arrival at This Field. Tlie death of 2nd, Lieut. Joseph C. Conway R. M. A., A. S. S. C. fol lowing au attack of broneho-pneu monia and Spanish influenza Thurs day evening, marked the third death from the epidemic o n the field. Lieut. Conway who was thirty years old reported at this field on October 8 from the Armorers’ School at Wilbur Wright Field Dayton, Ohio. Lieut. Conway graduated from the Austin, Tex. Ground School in Jan uary and finished the flying course at Kelly Field San Antonio, Tex, where he was classified as a pursuit pilot and sent to Camp Dick for a time before going to Dayton. Pre vious to enlisting he was connected with the Keystone Street & Wire Co of Peoria, III. A brother, Bernard, has just completed the ground school at Cornell, and is receiving his flying training. Another brother, Robert, was recently injured very seriously at an Officer’s Training camp. Thos. J. Conway, a brother, ar rived on the Post Sunday from Kan sas City, Mo., and returned home Friday with the body of Lieut. Con way which will be interred at that city. ooooooooooooooooo o O o BOUCHILLON’S o o For Everything o o To Wear and Eat • o Phone 98 West Point o o • cooooooopoooooooo j ATTENTION STOP AT $asla$*lindsa$ DRUG STORE jfor Sodas, Cigars, Cigarettes Toilet Articles and Drugs We^t Point, : : Mississippi