Word: squadronal
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...just above stalling speed to save his fuel and engine for crucial moments. He was not a fancy pilot, but he was an awesome fighter. The race tracks had given him a marvelous judgment of speed and distances and a chilled steel nerve; in the words of one old squadron mate: "I've seen him go in so close he could hit the other ship with a baseball, before he pressed the trigger...
...spectacular binges Paris had ever seen, but when he was flying he was a strict teetotaler-even though many of his mates drank hard at night against the chances of quick death at dawn. On Sept. 24, 1918 he was commissioned a captain and put in command of the squadron...
Recalling the event last week, Manhattan Insuranceman Reed Chambers, another immortal of the 94th, said: "By then [the squadron] had begun to love him. I don't know how to explain it. [At first] he was just an uneducated, tough bastard who threw his weight around the wrong way . . . But he developed into the most natural leader I ever...
...94th Squadron was caught in the pressures of the final, convulsive effort of the war. Pilots were being pushed to the ends of their resources. They flew at heights above 20,000 feet without oxygen; they had no leaves, virtually no rest, no recreation. They went on their deadly missions from muddy pastures in cranky and underpowered planes which ran out of gas in less than two hours. They also got killed or wounded fast-only three original members were left when the new C.O. took over...
...kept two Spad pursuit ships, each bearing the number 1, and the famed hat-in-the-ring insigne. He landed one, gulped coffee, and took off in the other, often flew six or seven hours a day. His haggard young men followed, and celebrated their adventures with a squadron ballad...