Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue

Dargue stands by JN3 surrounded by hostile crowd in photo taken by Mexican photographer near Chihuahua City. The distraction of the photo session kept the mob temporarily at bay, and Dargue prolonged it as long as possible until help arrived.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 17 November 1886. After graduating from high school, he began work as a grade schoolteacher in New Jersey. Educational requirements for teachers and administrators in those days were not stringent, and by the time he was 19, Dargue was principal of a combined grammar and junior high school. At this point he decided to change careers, and chose the life of a soldier over that of an educator.

He entered the United States Military Academy in 1907, and was graduated 30th in the class of 1911. Dargue took his commission as a second lieutenant of Coast Artillery, and after a short tour at Fort Monroe, Virginia, was posted to the Philippines. While stationed at Fort Mills, Corregidor, he volunteered for service with the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps, and in March 1913 began flight training at Fort McKinley.

That month the Signal Corps Philippine Aviation School started its second year of operation after being shut down during the rainy season. Its flight instructor was First Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm, on detached temporary duty from the 7th U.S. Cavalry. His students were Dargue and two other second lieutenants, Carleton P. Chapman and C. Perry Rich. Six Signal Corps enlisted men performed the duties of aviation riggers and mechanics. The sole training aircraft was Signal Corps No. 7, a Wright Model B, which had been used during the 1912 flying season.

The Model B was a 1910 design two-place, twin pusherpropeller machine weighing 1,250 pounds. Its elevator was positioned to the rear, at the end of a spruce truss boom which also supported the vertical stabilizer. This was a change from the earlier Wright models, in which these surfaces had been placed forward of the pilots. Its length and wingspan were 31 and 39 feet, respectively. It was powered by a fourcylinder water-cooled engine of 30 horsepower, and had a cruising speed of 40 mph, with a top speed of 46 mph.

Dargue was an apt student who immediately took to flying, and soloed on 14 April. In May the school received a Wright Model C, a somewhat faster and higher performance version of the B. Dargue transitioned successfully to this advanced machine, and the Army flight training curriculum being somewhat abbreviated by today's standards, completed instruction and received FAI Pilot Certificate No. 242 and the ratings of Military Aviator and Expert Pilot on 13 July 1913.

Bert Dargue thus became one of a small band of early Army aviators to earn the first distinctive gold badge of their profession, the design of which had recently been adapted from a marksmanship award. It consisted of a flying eagle grasping the Signal Corps flags, suspended beneath a bar inscribed Military Aviator, Dargue wore it proudly throughout his flying career.

In March of 1916, the Mexican bandit-warlord Pancho Villa, who aspired to the leadership of his wartorn country, became incensed by U.S. support for his rival to the presidency, General Carranza. On the 9th of that month he vengefully staged a raid across the border, mounting a well-planned cavalry attack on the unsuspecting village of Columbus, New Mexico.

When the smoke cleared, and the last of Villa's bandidos had ridden out of town in a cloud of dust, 17 American citizens lay dead, including eight soldiers of the 13th Cavalry at Fort Furlong. Scores more lay wounded. The American nation was outraged at this wanton act of aggression, and clamored for quick revenge. President Wilson, responding immediately to public demand, ordered Brigadier General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing to assemble a force of 12,000 and pursue Villa into Mexico to mete out punishment.

The 1st Aero Squadron was detailed to Pershing's command to furnish air support and reconnaissance for the expedition. The unit arrived in Columbus on 15 March, and immediately began flying observation and troop surveillance missions, and carrying dispatches between commands. This was the first instance of U.S. aircraft being used in support of an armed military offensive against an enemy force.

The high, hot desert atmosphere limited the already marginal performance of the JN-3s even further, and the violent spring weather of northern Mexico proved to be a more dangerous adversary than all of Villa's forces combined. Rain, hail and snow beat down upon the aviators in their unprotected open cockpits, and due to the inefficiency and neglect of their needs by the Army supply system, they were not furnished suitable clothing and equipment to resist the elements, and much suffering resulted. Gusty winds and thunderstorms were common occurrences. Extremely turbulent gusts caused one pilot to be thrown around the cockpit so violently that his nose was broken.

The machines had so little lifting capacity that emergency provisions and clothing could not be carried. Many missions had to be terminated because the JN-3s lacked sufficient performance to negotiate a range of hills under the high density altitude flight conditions.

Forced landings were frequent. On one photo-reconnaissance mission west of Ciudad Chihuahua, Dargue and his observer, Captain R.E. Willis, were forced down in the hills due to engine failure. Dargue was unhurt, but Willis was trapped under the overturned airplane and badly bruised. They burned the Jenny, and hiked 65 miles through the desert and across several mountain ranges without food or water to reach the nearest friendly forces. In spite of these extremely harrowing conditions, Dargue managed to set a flight distance record on 15 April when he accomplished a long-range reconnaissance mission of 415 miles, with two stops.

Meanwhile, Foulois had been released from jail by the U.S. Consul. Learning of Dargue's plight, they informed the military governor, who dispatched a troop of cavalry to the scene which scattered the mob. Dargue was then able to make repairs to his machine using a wagon wheel rim he found nearby, and took off with Foulois for the safety of the American Smelter yard. Much to his surprise, he later received copies of the photos which had quite possibly saved his life. When the Punitive Expedition into Mexico became a part of history, Dargue returned to the Aviation School at North Island, and resumed command of the Training Department.

In 1917, night flying was something to be avoided, and although a few pilots had been caught out after nightfall and forced to land in the dark, Army flights were not scheduled after sundown. Dargue, always eager to expand the boundaries of the air operations envelope, felt that there was no reason why after-dark flights should not become routine for Army airmen.

In July of that year, Dargue and an enlisted pilot, Sergeant Christy C. Cole, made the first planned Army night flight and landing, taking off from and returning to North Island in a Curtiss "J" model trainer. Dargue made the first approach, which ended in a perfect three-point landing, and after several more circuits and touchdowns with the same result, turned the controls over to Cole. The sergeant's landing, according to his account in U. S. Air Services for August 1942 was also perfect, except ''it was made about fifteen feet above the ground." The ensuing impact wiped the landing gear from the machine, and the flight ended with the Jenny sliding to a stop on its belly.

Cole's account continues: "I expected to hear all about how many kinds of a moron I was from Lieutenant Dargue, but instead he smiled one of those rare and infectious smiles of his, and remarked that `next time we go out to make night flights, I'll have the ground jacked up to the proper place, and try to save as many landing gears as possible!"

The war in Europe had been raging since 1914, but the U.S. was able to stay out of the conflict until April of 1917. At that time, President Wilson convinced the Congress that America's interests lay in joining the conflict on the side of the Allied Powers, and war with Germany was declared, "to make the world safe for democracy." Mobilization and expansion of the nation's armed forces were begun at once, at a pace unprecedented in previous conflicts.

The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps was no exception to this rapid buildup, and in September 1917, Dargue, now a temporary major, was ordered to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to help establish a school for aerial observers.

The mission of the school was to train Army personnel for duty as second crewmen on bombing, reconnaissance, and artillery target spotting flights. Gunnery, bombing, radio operation, photography, and elements of artillery round trajectory were taught, and training flights from the Fort Sill airfield gave the fledgling observers experience in the air before graduating and boarding ship for France to fly missions over the Western Front.

Dargue, who was expert in all the subjects in the training syllabus, became School Commander in March of 1918. In August of that year he was detached and ordered to Europe as a roving inspector and observer of overseas aviation training and combat units. His mission was to report to the Chief of the Air Service with any recommendations for changes in the instructional curriculum or operational tactics. That same month, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

During his tour of the war zone, he inspected the main Air Service Training Center at Issoudon, France, and other smaller training facilities. He visited American air combat units along the Western Front, and made many flights over the enemy lines in a variety of aircraft. He also toured American and British air training fields in England. He returned to the U.S. two weeks before the 11 November armistice.

In the latter part of 1941, Dargue took command of the 1st Air Force at Mitchel Field, New York. His first action upon assuming this post was to issue an order which placed all bombardment and pursuit units under his jurisdiction on a continuing 24-hour alert. In an interview with news reporters, he stated, "I can assure you of at least one thing-we will not be caught napping! "

A few weeks later, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the nation into war, and it was from this post that Dargue departed on his mission to relieve General Short. Dargue and a contingent of staff officers, Colonel Charles W. Bundy, Lieutenant Colonel George W. Rickey, and Major Hugh F. McCaffery, aware of the critical time constraints of the mission, made hurried preparations, and left the East Coast on 12 December.

Rather than boarding Dargue's personal transport ship, a Douglas C-49, an early military version of the DC-3, their trip was instead begun in a Douglas B-18 bomber, Army Contract Number 36-306, the 44th production aircraft. It had been delivered to the Air Corps in December of 1937, and was assigned to the 31st Air Base Squadron at March Field, California.

At approximately 2140, employees of a power plant in Big Pine Canyon, 14 miles south of Bishop, heard the aircraft "flying low" and saw it drop a flare. At 2145, witnesses in Bishop saw a flash in the sky, followed by a fire in the mountains to the south and west of town, which continued to burn for approximately 20 minutes.

Bert Dargue's flying career, begun in the steamy tropic heat of the Philippines, had ended 28 years later in the cold and snows of the High Sierra. Ironically, this veteran pilot, who early in the century had pioneered the use of radio in military aviation, almost certainly died because of failure of his aircraft communication equipment.

Bert Dargue died as he no doubt would have wished, at the controls of a military aircraft. During his final moments of life, his last regret almost certainly was that his crucial mission would remain unaccomplished. It can only be speculated as to what positive effects his inspiring leadership and expertise in strategic aviation would have had upon the American war effort in the Pacific.

With his exemplary sense of duty, Bert Dargue never sought glory or acccolades for himself, and his extreme modesty and self-effacement resulted in many of his outstanding accomplishments being credited to his subordinates. For this reason, and the fact that he died in the line of duty rather than in combat, Dargue's many significant contributions to American airpower, and to the eventual establishment of an independent United States Air Force, have not been recorded in the same detail as those of his more famous or flamboyant contemporaries.

Hap Arnold, his longtime close friend, wrote Dargue's obituary in the October 1942 United States Military Academy Assembly as follows: "He was affiliated with Army aviation almost from its inception, but was always looking forward, alert to the potentialities of the latest aeronautical developments. His contributions over a period of many years were exceptional. Many of our successful policies and practices we owe to him. He had a remarkable gift for analyzing a complicated problem and promptly putting forward a practical solution to it. He was indeed a most resourceful soldier. We shall miss him keenly as a personal friend and fellow officer. . . . He was one of our first flyers, and always one of our best."

His friend and fellow pilot at North Island, Christy Cole, writes a more poignant tribute in his U. S. Air Services article: "General Dargue was the patient instructor and the neverfailing friend of many of out Army Air Corps officers of today, most of whom are now wearing stars or eagles on their shoulders. All of us, officers and enlisted men alike, knew him for one of the finest flyers our Army ever produced. Those of us who had the pleasure of being associated with him in his chosen life work, and are still on this side, wish him Happy Landings in his flight across that horizon from which none of us will return. Flying made him great, and he made flying great."

J.J. Snyder. Drague's Destiny. Journal, American Aviation Historical Society/Summer 1993

Douglas B-18 Bolo The Ultimate Look: From Drawing Board to U-Boat Hunter, In this meticulously researched book - the first ever dedicated to the little-known Douglas B-18 Bolo, which was America's most numerous frontline bomber at the time of Pearl Harbor - you'll read about the aircraft and its development, of its testing and manufacture, and of its combat experience in World War II.

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