Frank Lahm
Encyclopedia
Frank Purdy Lahm was an American aviation pioneer, the "nation's first military aviator", and a general officer in the United States Army Air Corps
and Army Air Forces
.
Lahm developed an interest in flying from his father, a balloonist, and received among the first civil qualification certificates issued. He met the Wright Brothers
in 1907 and used his interest in powered flight to become the Army's first certified pilot in 1909, followed four years later by becoming its 14th rated Military Aviator. In 1916 he became a career aviator, serving in the United States Army Air Service
and its successors until his retirement in 1941 at the age of 64, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Lahm reached mandatory retirement age on the eve of United States participation in World War II but contributed to the growth of the Air Force both during and following the war. Because of his leadership and administration during its construction, Lahm is also known as "the father of Randolph Field," and because of his lifelong devotion to aviation and aeronautical science, "the father of Air Force flight training."
where shown are from AFHRA, Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 1 - A through L
Lahm was born in Mansfield, Ohio
, to Adelaide Way Purdy and Frank Samuel Lahm, owner of a hat shop. He was the grandson of Samuel Lahm
, a Canton
lawyer and Ohio
congressman, and related through his grandmother to Daniel Webster
. His mother died unexpectedly in March 1880 while giving birth to a third child, which also died shortly after. His father had been in poor health for five years, and on the advice of doctors, undertook a trip to Southern France, Italy, and Switzerland in October to improve his condition. Lahm, then two, and his four-year-old sister Katherine were left in the care of relatives. Soon after culminating his recovery by scaling the Matterhorn
in August 1881, Frank S. Lahm became the European agent for the Remington Typewriter Company. He resided in Paris
until his death in 1931. The elder Lahm kept his family connected to one another through frequent correspondence, visits, and educating each child for a year in France.
Lahm's father made annual summer visits to a home he had purchased in 1877 in Summit County, Ohio
, crossing the Atlantic Ocean
fifty times, and remained close to his children. Katherine lived with their aunt, Helen Lahm Greenwood, in Canton, Ohio
, studied in France and at Smith College
, and married an Army officer, Frank Parker
, who retired as a major general in 1936. Lahm lived in Mansfield with another aunt, Mary Purdy Welden, who was a widow with two children, and became devoted to her as his surrogate mother. In high school he excelled as an athlete, lettering in both football and baseball
, until his father brought him to France in 1893.
There he attended Albert-le-Grand, a Dominican
school near Paris, France, where he played rugby
and participated in gymnastics
and mountain climbing. Between 1895 and 1897, Lahm spent two years at Michigan Military Academy
preparing for West Point. There he was Lieutenant of the Corps and valedictorian of his class. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in June 1897. Although he graduated in the top fifth of his class, he found time for athletics. He held the rope climbing record at West Point, and his enthusiasm for horse riding led him into the cavalry on his graduation in 1901, ranked 23rd in merit in his class of 74 cadets. While at USMA he quarterback
ed the football team and was captain of the baseball team. He set several records in gymnastics.
He was commissioned second lieutenant
, 6th Cavalry, and campaigned in the Philippines for two years. He toured China
, Korea
, and Japan
during his return to the United States in 1903, where he was assigned to West Point as an instructor in modern languages for three years.Lahm was instructor in French to Cadet Henry H. Arnold
. He spent his summer leaves in France with his father, who taught him to fly balloons in the summer of 1904. In 1906 he was assigned to attend the École Impériale de Cavalerie
(French Cavalry School of Application) at Saumur
.
Lahm's father joined the Aéro-Club de France
in 1902 (at the age of 56), purchased a balloon
he named the Katherine Hamilton in honor of his daughter, and qualified for his balloon pilot's certificate in November 1904. The elder Lahm made frequent flights and in initiated his son during a night ascension in stormy weather. In the summer of 1905 2nd Lt. Lahm completed the requirements of six ascensions, including one at night and one alone, to earn Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(FAI) certificate No. 4 as a balloon pilot. On July 15 of the same summer Lahm was promoted to first lieutenant.
In 1906, while awaiting entrance to Saumur, Lahm won the first Gordon Bennett Cup international balloon race against competitors from seven nations, all of which had a military officer as a crew member. The race, commencing at the Tuileries Garden
in Paris, was actually a distance competition across the English Channel
. His father had planned to pilot the balloon United States himself but desired to return to America for Katherine's wedding, and so recruited his son to fly in his place. Accompanied by Major Henry Blanchard HerseyHersey, a graduate of Norwich University
and a Rough Rider during the Spanish-American War
, was in France to be an observer on a dirigible flight planned from Norway to the north pole. of the United States Weather Bureau, who had studied the storm tracks and prevailing winds, Lahm started 12th in a field of 16 late in the afternoon of September 30. Under a full moon they reached the Channel before midnight and a lightship
off the coast of England three hours later, where fog obscured the surface. The morning sun slowly burned off the fog and caused the balloon to ascend to 3,000 meters altitude. Lahm and Hersey established their position over Berkshire
around 07:00 and continued north, gradually descending to avoid drifting out over the North Sea
. They landed near Fylingdales
in Yorkshire
after covering a distance of 641 kilometers and more than 22 hours aloft.
, a section in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (OCSO), on September 17, 1907, while he was still in Europe. His departure from France was delayed after a relapse of the typhoid he contracted in the spring of 1907 and he took convalescent leave at a rest home in St. Germain. It was in the home's garden on August 1, 1907, the very day that the Aeronautical Division came into being, that Lahm's father introduced him to Wilbur and Orville Wright. The elder Lahm had personally investigated the claims of the brothers and had been quietly promoting them among his colleagues in France since 1905. The meeting was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until the two brothers died. Lahm learned that the Army, through the reluctance and disinterest of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification, had obstructed the attempts of the Wright Brothers to provide the Army with an airplane, and immediately wrote his new superior, Chief Signal Officer (CSO) Brig. Gen. James Allen (who sat on the board), urging that favorable consideration be given their most recent proposal.
En route to the United States, Lt. Lahm toured aviation sites in Germany and England, where he met Griffith Brewer
, a balloonist who later became a pilot for the Wrights. In December, Lahm arrived at Fort Myer, Virginia, where he and a detachment of Signal Corps
troops constructed a hydrogen
generating plant and practiced captive observation balloon work. Alexander Graham Bell
, inventor of the telephone and an early aviation enthusiast, often invited Lahm to join visiting scientists in his Washington home for discussions on many subjects, especially aviation.Bell chaired a group called the "Aerial Experiment Association
" whose members were himself, Glenn Curtiss
, Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, John A.D. "Douglas" McCurdy
, and Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge
, all of whom except Curtiss were wealthy young men interested in flying.
The Signal Corps advertised specifications for a powered airplane on December 23, 1907, and among the three bids found acceptable was one submitted by the Wrights to build a plane within 200 days for $25,000. The Signal Corps budget had insufficient funds to meet the three bids, and in early February 1908, Lahm accompanied Gen. Allen and chief of the Aeronautical Division Capt Charles DeF. Chandler
to meet with President Theodore Roosevelt
to obtain funds from a contingency account.
On April 30, Lahm reported to New York City along with 1st Lt. Thomas Selfridge
and Albert L. Stevens
to familiarize 25 members of the 1st Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard in the use of hydrogen-filled kite balloons
in organizing a National Guard balloon unit.Designated as the 1st Aero Company, National Guard, New York, in November 1915, it went on to become the 102nd Aero Squadron, New York National Guard, now the oldest unit in the Air National Guard
. The unit was mustered into federal service between July 13 and November 2, 1916. Upon his return from New York, Lahm became head of the Aeronautical Division when Capt. Chandler was transferred to command the Signal Corps Balloon Station at Fort Omaha
, Nebraska, on May 13.The Air Force has not given recognition to the assignment and lists Chandler as division chief until 1910. In August Lahm earned his second FAI certifcate, Dirigible No. 2, and oversaw the Signal Corps acquisition of an airship from Thomas Scott Baldwin
. On September 9, 1908, the Wright Brothers brought their 1908 Wright Flyer at Fort Myer for acceptance trials, and on its second flight Lahm accompanied Orville as a passenger, the first U.S. military officer to fly in a powered airplane, on a flight of six minutes and 24 seconds.Ironically, Lahm's father preceded him in that aerial feat too. Earlier in the summer Frank S. Lahm had gone up with Wilbur on a demonstration flight in France. The aircraft was destroyed, and Lt. Selfridge killed, in a crash on September 17.The second officer to fly was the acting Chief Signal Officer, Major George O. Squier, on September 12. Squier headed the Signal Corps' Aviation Section in 1916-1917. Selfridge was the first fatality in powered flight.
The Wright brothers brought an improved version of their 1908 plane to Fort Myer in 1909 for further War Department trials. After practice hops Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Lahm as a passenger, made the first official test flight on July 27. He and Lahm established a world's record for a two-man flight: one hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds, to meet the Army's specification for the aircraft, designated Signal Corps (S.C.) Number 1. The Wright Brothers set out to fulfill their Army contracts by teaching officers to operate the machine, with Lahm and 2nd Lt. Frederic E. Humphreys selected by Gen. Allen as candidates. In October 1909 Wilbur Wright trained both at a field in College Park, Maryland
recommended by Lahm after balloon observations and inspections on horseback. Lahm made the first flight at the new field on October 8. Both officers soloed, with Humphreys going first. After only 14 flights, Lahm was pronounced a pilot on October 26. He Received FAI Airplane certificate No. 2, and took up his first passenger, the U.S. Navy's observer Lt. George C. Sweet, on November 3.Lahm's flight training time was three hours, seven minutes, and 38 seconds. He received the second-ever FAI airplane certificate, behind Glenn Curtiss
, but ahead of both Wrights, who received the 4th and 5th. On May 24, 1911, after the FAI recognized the American Aero Club as the "governing authority for the United States of America", the ACA licensed Lahm with Aviator License No. 2.
Lahm and Humphreys crashed November 5, but both were uninjured, and the airplane was repaired. However the Signal Corps lost the service of both when they returned to their regular assignments. In December 1909, because of requirements of the "Manchu Law", Lahm was forced to return to his branch and joined the 7th Cavalry at Fort Riley
, Kansas.
In June 1910 Lahm attended Mounted Service School and graduated in June 1911. In October he married high school
history teacher Gertrude Jenner in Mansfield, then rejoined the 7th Cavalry in the Philippines. At the request of the Signal Corps he opened a seasonal flying school on the polo ground of Fort William McKinley
near Manila on March 12, 1912. S.C. No. 7, a Wright Model B
aircraft shipped to the Philippines, was assembled and made its first flight on March 21. Lahm trained 1st Lt. Moss L. Love and Corporal Vernon Burge
, the first enlisted pilot in the Army, in April and May 1912.Burge was a mechanic who had accompanied S.C. No. 7 to the Philippines, and had been one of Lahm's original detail at Ft. Myer. He was approved after no other officers volunteered for training, and although higher authority later rescinded the authorization, he had already received his FAI certificate.
On May 8, 1912, Lahm crash-landed S.C. No. 7 in mud on the Taguig River
after his engine failed, and again on May 29, putting the aircraft out of operation for a total of 13 days. After an engine change, the aircraft was much more reliable, but the rainy season shut down the school and he returned to troop duty. On March 10, 1913, he began a second season of instruction, training three more officers.2nd Lts Carleton G. Chapman, Herbert A. Dargue
, and C. Perry Rich. On June 17, 1913, before flying was shut down again because the airfield was too muddy, Lahm conducted a 21-mile reconnaissance from Ft. McKinley to Alabang, drawing accurate sketches of positions of the 7th and 8th Cavalry on maneuvers there. On July 19, 1913, he passed a Signal Corps-required flying test administered by the Aero Club of America
, although he had received an ACA aviator license in 1911, and received ACA Expert Aviator's Certificate No. 15, which also qualified him to be rated
as a Military Aviator.
After S.C. No 7 became a total loss in August, Lahm's small detachment received a new aircraft, S.C. No. 13, a Wright C Speed Scout equipped with pontoons for water landings. On September 11, 1913, Lahm attempted a water takeoff for a flight test but the center of gravity
on the aircraft made it tail-heavy and it flipped over. Although the aircraft was totally destroyed, Lahm was saved from drowning by a life jacket. In November, at his own request, he was relieved of flying duties and returned to troop duties. He was assigned to command of a troop of the 7th Cavalry in September 1914, just after the outbreak of war in Europe
.
until April 1916. Having completed the required years of troop duty in his branch, he was detailed to the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
, which had replaced the Aeronautical Division as the Army's aviation arm in August 1914. Lahm's rating was changed to that of Junior Military Aviator (all Military Aviators had been re-rated because of a section in the 1914 law that required three years as a JMA before becoming eligible for MA rating), and was placed on flying duty again. This resulted in his immediate promotion to captain in accordance with another provision of the law. He reported for duty on April 1, 1916, at the Rockwell Field
, San Diego, California
as Secretary (adjutant
) of the Signal Corps Aviation School and President of the Junior Military Aviator Examining Board. On May 29, 1916, Captain Lahm was briefly detached to the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Sam Houston
, Texas, to practice using captive balloon ascensions for artillery spotting. Shortly after, on June 12, his permanent rank of captain, Cavalry, was approved.
In January 1917 Lahm was involved in a controversy that estranged him from future Chief of the Army Air Forces Henry H. Arnold
. Arnold was supply officer for the Aviation School, having returned to the Aviation Section from the Infantry the previous May. On January 6, Arnold was present in Lahm's office when the Officer In Charge of Training, Capt. Herbert A. Dargue
, appeared to protest an authorization for a flight. A student at the school's Field Officers course, Lt. Col. Harry G. Bishop
of the Field Artillery, had asked for a plane and pilot to fly to an unspecified location, and Dargue protested that the flight interfered with scheduled training. According to Arnold's statement to investigators, Lahm told Dargue to "carry out his instructions" without further explanation. On January 10 the flight took place, despite a second protest from Dargue to the school commandant, Col. William A. Glassford
. When Glassford called in Lahm, he denied authorizing the flight, but Dargue had the original authorization signed by Lahm. The plane, which apparently had been headed to Calexico
, drifted off course and came down in the Sonoran Desert
inside Mexico, missing for nine days. Bishop and his pilot were rescued, but Glassford had already publicly stated that the flight was unauthorized. On January 27, during the investigation that followed, Arnold implicated Lahm's role. On January 30, one day after the birth of his son, Arnold was transferred to Panama.Glassford was retired on April 11 as a result of the incident, for failing to mount an effective search in a timely manner.
After the United States entered World War I
, Lahm became commanding officer of the Army Balloon School at Fort Omaha on May 24, 1917. At that time he was the Army's only airplane, balloon, and dirigible pilot. On June 27, Lahm received promotion to major in the Aviation Section, Signal Corps. He suffered a severely broken leg early in June when his polo pony
"Joe" slipped on a paved street in Omaha and fell on him. As he was about to start sick leave, Lahm was offered a six-week inspection tour of balloon schools, equipment, and operations in both Britain and France. He received confidential orders from Gen. Tasker H. Bliss
on July 25, and another promotion to temporary lieutenant colonel, Signal Corps, on August 5. Lahm sailed from New York City
on August 23 aboard the RMS Baltic
and arrived in England on September 15, 1917, where he began keeping a war diary.Lahm's diary noted that his father joined the Signal Corps as a balloon inspector just prior to his departure overseas.
, landing at Saint-Omer
and continuing on to Montrouge
, where the 2nd Wing, 2nd Air Brigade of the British Second Army was situated. On October 2, Lahm reported to Col. Raynal Bolling
, at the headquarters of the Air Service, Zone of the Interior, in Paris, then was summoned to General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force
(GHQ AEF) in Chaumont
. He made inspections of French balloon facilities before going to the headquarters of the French Sixth Army
at Vauxbuin
on October 15 to observe French Caquot balloons, slated for use by the Air Service, in battle at Soissons
.
Lahm's orders to return to the United States were rescinded and he was assigned to organize the balloon section of the Air Service headquarters in Paris. After doing so, he found himself ranked out of command on November 23, 1917, by now-Col. Charles DeF. Chandler, who had arrived in France as part of the massive staff of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Foulois
. Lahm went instead to Chaumont as the section's liaison to GHQ AEF until February 23, 1918, when he was moved to Colombey-les-Belles
in the same capacity to the Air Service, Advance Section, Services of Supply, where he supervised the tactical training of balloon companies before their assignment to the front as artillery spotters.
On June 3, 1918, an air service for the soon-to-be-activated U.S. First Army was set up at Toul
, with Foulois in command. Lahm was chosen to be his chief of staff, and remained so until after the Battle of Chateau-Thierry
, when Foulois voluntarily turned over his command to Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell (who already had Col. Thomas D. Milling as his chief of staff) on July 27. Lahm was shifted to the headquarters of the First Army, which was about to be activated, as Air Officer to its G-3 (Operations) Section. On August 14, with the activation of the army, he was promoted to temporary colonel.
On October 12, the AEF expanded to two field armies, and Lahm was named to organize and command the Air Service, Second Army at Toul. He chose Lt. Col. John F. Curry
to be his chief of staff. He remained in France in command of the Second Army Air Service until it was dissolved on April 15, 1919. His diary entry for that date stares:
Lahm remained on unassigned duty in France until July 30, 1919, when he sailed from Brest
on the converted troopship SS Leviathan
, arriving at Hoboken, New Jersey
, on August 7. The next day he reported to headquarters of the reorganized Air Service and was issued orders to attend the General Staff College.
. Lahm was assigned to the War Department General Staff (WDGS) as a staff member and later chief of the Organization Branch, Operation and Training Division (G-3) from August 25, 1920, to July 1, 1924. He was then Air Officer at the Ninth Corps Area
at the Presidio of San Francisco, California.
On July 2, 1926, the Air Service was renamed the United States Army Air Corps
by act of Congress and authorized two additional brigadier general
positions as assistant chiefs of Air Corps. Lahm was advanced to brigadier general on July 17, 1926, for a four-year tour as an assistant chief, to be commander of the new Air Corps Training Center, established at San Antonio, Texas
, on August 16, 1926.ACTC's first day of administration was September 1, 1926. (War Department General Order 26) Command of the training center included the coordination and management of training at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field
, the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, and the School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks.
recommended the same in December 1926, Lahm appointed a board of five officers on April 18, 1927, to draw up plans for a model airfield. The next day, after reviewing unsolicited plans offered by 1st Lt. Harold L. Clark, an architect
-trained former flying instructor now serving as a Kelly Field motor pool officer, it recommended a "revolutionary" four-quadrant circular layout that placed the structures between parallel runways aligned with the prevailing winds. Lahm then tasked the board to find a suitable location in May.Clark became a brigadier general during World War II and commanded the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing
during four airborne operations, including the American airborne landings in Normandy
and Operation Market Garden
, before retiring in 1946.
Lahm originally dictated that the location be within 10 miles of San Antonio, but difficulties finding a site suited to the planned design, and the large size required, forced a resumption of the search in October 1927 out to an expanded distance of 30 miles.The land had to be acquired with clear title
by local entities and then donated to the government, per War Department policy, and also had to be free of all restrictions to use. While the location problem was being settled, Lahm assigned Clark to begin work on plans and layout of the new base on December 8, 1927.Clark's first formal design, submitted to Lahm on November 1, 1927, was revised in December and January and sent to the Chief of Air Corps. The Air Education and Training Command
history of Randolph AFB places the date of the detail as December 5. A location near Schertz
, 18 miles from San Antonio, was obtained by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
and offered to Lahm on the last day of 1927, who sent the proposal to Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis
. In February Congress authorized President Calvin Coolidge
to accept the gift, but it was August 16, 1928, before the legal processes ran their course and the property acquired.
While this took place, in April the new Chief of Air Corps, Maj. Gen. James Fechet
, appointed a committee of senior officers headed by Brig. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois
to approve a design. In July it rejected the circular layout proposed for the new base and put forth a plan that placed all buildings in one corner of the property. Just prior to acceptance of the property, Lahm sharply criticized the revision to Fechet and a reconsideration, also on August 16, 1928, approved the original circular design. Clark was then detailed for special duty in Washington D.C. as Lahm's liaison with the Construction Service, Quartermaster Corps, which would build the base.The actual architect of the base was George B. Ford, an architect and city planner retained by the Army between 1926 and 1930 to approve all site and development plans for Army installations.
Construction of Randolph Field
Named for Capt. William M. Randolph, the adjutant of the Advanced Flying School and an Austin, Texas
-native, killed in an air crash in February 1928. began on November 21, 1928. The site was cleared, the basic infrastructure completed, and somewhat less than half the buildings erected when the base was dedicated on June 20, 1930, as the "West Point of the Air",The phrase is credited to San Antonio Mayor C.M. Chambers but Lahm's four-year tour as an assistant chief of Air Corps ended in July well before construction was completed.Lahm was succeeded by Brig. Gen. Charles L. Danforth, a mustang
who had come up through the ranks from private during the Spanish-American War, but who had not joined the Air Service until 1920. Nevertheless, Lahm's role in the creation of Randolph Field was characterized as "providing the administrative initiative and energy required to crystallize these ideas into definite plans and to press them to a successful conclusion," and he is noted by the USAF's Air Education and Training Command
as "the father of Randolph Field."
, leaving him a widower with two young children, Lawrence, 12, and Barbara, 8.After a year at Yale
, Lawrence Lahm was a member of the West Point Class of 1942. His father had developed cancer, and Lahm brought him back to the summer home for a final visit. Lahm was promoted to full colonel on October 1, 1931, and sent to the U.S. Embassy, Paris, France, in November to act as assistant military attaché for air
to France, Spain, and Belgium. Shortly after his arrival in France, his father died in Paris on December 31. In 1933 Lahm became full military attaché to France. He remained in Paris until 1935, with collateral duty as military attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels
, Belgium
.
In October 1935 Lahm returned to the United States as Air Officer, Second Corps Area, at Governors Island
, New York, until December 14, 1940, when he became Chief of Aviation to the First Army. He received the Legion of Merit
for his contribution to this command during its important formative period. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
awarded Lahm an honorary promotion major general in September 1941.
The extent of expanded pilot requirements immediately preceding World War II necessitated decentralization of Air Corps flying training, which had been the core element of the
program after Lahm organized the Air Corps Training Center. The ACTC was broken up geographically, establishing three regional training centers. The ACTC, still headquartered at Randolph, was renamed the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center and became operational in February 1941. Lahm served as its commander from October 21, 1941, to his mandatory retirement on November 20, 1941. He retired, after more than forty years of continuous military service, in the grade of brigadier general. Three weeks later, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor
, he offered to come off the retired list but was not accepted.The role, if any, that Arnold played in denying Lahm service in World War II resulting from the 1917 Bishop incident and the fact that Lahm served in France while Arnold did not, is only speculative.
drives and was active in a number of civic organizations. He was wedded in Hollywood, California, on April 3, 1948, to Grace Wolfe Kenson, a lifelong friend, the daughter of a Mansfield judge and widow of a dentist.
On June 15, 1960, Lahm was recognized by the Air Force and the Early Birds of Aviation
as "the father of Air Force flight training" in ceremonies at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
, with 600 Air Force Academy
cadets in attendance. In May 1962, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, honored Lahm with a special citation recognizing him as the nation's first military aviator.
Lahm died July 7, 1963, of a stroke at Good Samaritan Hospital in Sandusky, Ohio
. He was cremated and his ashes spread over Randolph Air Force Base.
In 1943 Lahm completed and published How Our Army Grew Wings, begun in the 1930s in collaboration with Col. Chandler, who died in 1939. His war diary in World War I has been preserved since 1970 by the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) as USAF Historical Study No. 141. The United States Air Force Academy
's first hot air balloon was named in his honor in 1973. Both Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport
and the Administration Building of Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base are named for Lahm. In 2009, he was inducted in the First Flight Society along with Humphreys as the first military aviation trainees.The First Flight Society incorrectly identifies Foulois as the "first United States military aviator". Foulois' training as an airship pilot pre-dated Lahm, but he was assigned to heavier-than-air pilot training specifically because Lahm was no longer detailed as a pilot.
Airplane Pilot
Military AviatorPortraits of Lahm from late in his career show that he wore his Military Aviator badge in place of his pilot wings.
Officer of the Legion of Honor
(France
)
Commander of the Military Order of Aviz
(Portugal
)
Airplane Observer
Combat Observer
Technical Observer
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
and Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
.
Lahm developed an interest in flying from his father, a balloonist, and received among the first civil qualification certificates issued. He met the Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
in 1907 and used his interest in powered flight to become the Army's first certified pilot in 1909, followed four years later by becoming its 14th rated Military Aviator. In 1916 he became a career aviator, serving in the United States Army Air Service
United States Army Air Service
The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...
and its successors until his retirement in 1941 at the age of 64, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Lahm reached mandatory retirement age on the eve of United States participation in World War II but contributed to the growth of the Air Force both during and following the war. Because of his leadership and administration during its construction, Lahm is also known as "the father of Randolph Field," and because of his lifelong devotion to aviation and aeronautical science, "the father of Air Force flight training."
Childhood and early career
SOURCE NOTE: All dates of rank and dates of Permanent Change of StationPermanent Change of Station
In the United States armed forces, a Permanent Change of Station is the official relocation of an active duty military service member—along with any family members living with her or him—to a different duty location, such as a military base...
where shown are from AFHRA, Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 1 - A through L
Lahm was born in Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Richland County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, approximately southwest of Cleveland and northeast of Columbus....
, to Adelaide Way Purdy and Frank Samuel Lahm, owner of a hat shop. He was the grandson of Samuel Lahm
Samuel Lahm
Samuel Lahm was a lawyer, politician, and U.S. Representative from Ohio.He was the father of Frank Samuel Lahm, a noted expatriot and pioneer balloonist, and the grandfather of Brigadier General Frank Purdy Lahm, aerial pioneer, student of the Wright Brothers, and the first military officer to...
, a Canton
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
lawyer and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
congressman, and related through his grandmother to Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
. His mother died unexpectedly in March 1880 while giving birth to a third child, which also died shortly after. His father had been in poor health for five years, and on the advice of doctors, undertook a trip to Southern France, Italy, and Switzerland in October to improve his condition. Lahm, then two, and his four-year-old sister Katherine were left in the care of relatives. Soon after culminating his recovery by scaling the Matterhorn
Matterhorn
The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...
in August 1881, Frank S. Lahm became the European agent for the Remington Typewriter Company. He resided in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
until his death in 1931. The elder Lahm kept his family connected to one another through frequent correspondence, visits, and educating each child for a year in France.
Lahm's father made annual summer visits to a home he had purchased in 1877 in Summit County, Ohio
Summit County, Ohio
Summit County is an urban county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 542,899. In the 2010 Census the population was 541,781. Its county seat is Akron...
, crossing the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
fifty times, and remained close to his children. Katherine lived with their aunt, Helen Lahm Greenwood, in Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, studied in France and at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
, and married an Army officer, Frank Parker
Frank Parker (general)
Frank Parker was a Major General in the United States Army.-Early life:Frank Parker was born September 21, 1872 in Georgetown County, South Carolina. He attended the U.S. Military Academy and graduated in 1894, after which he served in the Spanish American War in 1898 and Puerto Rico, 1899-1900...
, who retired as a major general in 1936. Lahm lived in Mansfield with another aunt, Mary Purdy Welden, who was a widow with two children, and became devoted to her as his surrogate mother. In high school he excelled as an athlete, lettering in both football and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, until his father brought him to France in 1893.
There he attended Albert-le-Grand, a Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
school near Paris, France, where he played rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
and participated in gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
and mountain climbing. Between 1895 and 1897, Lahm spent two years at Michigan Military Academy
Michigan Military Academy
The Michigan Military Academy, also known as the M.M.A., was an all-boys military prep school in Orchard Lake Village, Oakland County, Michigan. It was founded in 1877 by Captain J. Sumner Rogers, and closed in 1908 due to bankruptcy...
preparing for West Point. There he was Lieutenant of the Corps and valedictorian of his class. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in June 1897. Although he graduated in the top fifth of his class, he found time for athletics. He held the rope climbing record at West Point, and his enthusiasm for horse riding led him into the cavalry on his graduation in 1901, ranked 23rd in merit in his class of 74 cadets. While at USMA he quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
ed the football team and was captain of the baseball team. He set several records in gymnastics.
He was commissioned second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
, 6th Cavalry, and campaigned in the Philippines for two years. He toured China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
during his return to the United States in 1903, where he was assigned to West Point as an instructor in modern languages for three years.Lahm was instructor in French to Cadet Henry H. Arnold
Henry H. Arnold
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps , Commanding General of the U.S...
. He spent his summer leaves in France with his father, who taught him to fly balloons in the summer of 1904. In 1906 he was assigned to attend the École Impériale de Cavalerie
Armoured Cavalry Branch Training School
The Armoured Cavalry Branch Training School is a French military training establishment at Saumur. Originally set up to train the cavalry of the French Army, it now trains the troops of France's arme blindée et cavalerie in reconnaissance and armoured warfare.- History :In 1763, Louis XV ...
(French Cavalry School of Application) at Saumur
Saumur
Saumur is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.The historic town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc...
.
Lahm's father joined the Aéro-Club de France
Aéro-Club de France
The Aéro-Club de France was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la Valette, Jules Verne and his wife, André Michelin, Albert de Dion, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe, and Henry de...
in 1902 (at the age of 56), purchased a balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
he named the Katherine Hamilton in honor of his daughter, and qualified for his balloon pilot's certificate in November 1904. The elder Lahm made frequent flights and in initiated his son during a night ascension in stormy weather. In the summer of 1905 2nd Lt. Lahm completed the requirements of six ascensions, including one at night and one alone, to earn Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
(FAI) certificate No. 4 as a balloon pilot. On July 15 of the same summer Lahm was promoted to first lieutenant.
In 1906, while awaiting entrance to Saumur, Lahm won the first Gordon Bennett Cup international balloon race against competitors from seven nations, all of which had a military officer as a crew member. The race, commencing at the Tuileries Garden
Tuileries Garden
The Tuileries Garden is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de Medicis as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was first opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the...
in Paris, was actually a distance competition across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
. His father had planned to pilot the balloon United States himself but desired to return to America for Katherine's wedding, and so recruited his son to fly in his place. Accompanied by Major Henry Blanchard HerseyHersey, a graduate of Norwich University
Norwich University
Norwich University is a private university located in Northfield, Vermont . The university was founded in 1819 at Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six Senior Military Colleges, and is recognized by the United States Department of...
and a Rough Rider during the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
, was in France to be an observer on a dirigible flight planned from Norway to the north pole. of the United States Weather Bureau, who had studied the storm tracks and prevailing winds, Lahm started 12th in a field of 16 late in the afternoon of September 30. Under a full moon they reached the Channel before midnight and a lightship
Lightship
Lightship may refer to:* Lightvessel, a permanently moored ship that has light beacons mounted as navigational aids* Light displacement, a displacement figure that measures a ship complete in all respects, but without consumables, stores, cargo, crew, and effects*Lightship, a type of blimp operated...
off the coast of England three hours later, where fog obscured the surface. The morning sun slowly burned off the fog and caused the balloon to ascend to 3,000 meters altitude. Lahm and Hersey established their position over Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
around 07:00 and continued north, gradually descending to avoid drifting out over the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. They landed near Fylingdales
Fylingdales
Fylingdales is a civil parish in the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England situated south of Whitby. It contains the villages of Robin Hood's Bay and Fylingthorpe and Fyling Hall School....
in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
after covering a distance of 641 kilometers and more than 22 hours aloft.
Personality
Lahm's son Lawrence, himself a career officer, described his father's traits and characteristics in an essay he wrote in 1995:He was five feet nine inches tall and was always very slender so that he appeared taller than he was actually…he had been a gymnast and the muscles of his arms and back stood out like ropes.
He was soft spoke and agreeable, yet, there was always a certain reserve. He was modest, honest, and true. He spoke well of others. As a boy he had gone to church twice on Sundays, once in the morning and once in the evening. He visited the sick and aged.
He loved games. He was an avid hunter and fisherman.
He was first a cavalryman before he became a flyer and he enjoyed riding and polo. In San Antonio, he had three polo ponies. I was never allowed to ride them, presumably because I would spoil them. He did, however, teach me to ride other horses, to swim, to golf, and to play baseball.
He enjoyed music and we sang on long automobile trips when he changed station from one Army post to another, my father and mother in the front seat and my sister, Barbara, and I in the back.
His posture was firmly erect and he possessed a cold courage that was remarkable. Beneath the calm exterior lay the competitiveness and combativeness fostered by the severe training at West Point.
Aeronautical Division
The Army detailed Lahm to the fledgling Aeronautical DivisionAeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps
The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps was the world's first heavier-than-air military aviation organization and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S...
, a section in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (OCSO), on September 17, 1907, while he was still in Europe. His departure from France was delayed after a relapse of the typhoid he contracted in the spring of 1907 and he took convalescent leave at a rest home in St. Germain. It was in the home's garden on August 1, 1907, the very day that the Aeronautical Division came into being, that Lahm's father introduced him to Wilbur and Orville Wright. The elder Lahm had personally investigated the claims of the brothers and had been quietly promoting them among his colleagues in France since 1905. The meeting was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until the two brothers died. Lahm learned that the Army, through the reluctance and disinterest of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification, had obstructed the attempts of the Wright Brothers to provide the Army with an airplane, and immediately wrote his new superior, Chief Signal Officer (CSO) Brig. Gen. James Allen (who sat on the board), urging that favorable consideration be given their most recent proposal.
En route to the United States, Lt. Lahm toured aviation sites in Germany and England, where he met Griffith Brewer
Griffith Brewer
Griffin Brewer was a pioneer English balloonist and aviator, who made his first balloon flight in 1891. Brewer met Wilbur Wright in Pau, France, in 1908, and became a very close friend and supporter of the Wright brothers. He made 30 trips to the United States to visit them, earning his pilot...
, a balloonist who later became a pilot for the Wrights. In December, Lahm arrived at Fort Myer, Virginia, where he and a detachment of Signal Corps
United States Army Signal Corps
The United States Army Signal Corps develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of United States Army Major Albert J. Myer, and has had an important role from...
troops constructed a hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
generating plant and practiced captive observation balloon work. Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
, inventor of the telephone and an early aviation enthusiast, often invited Lahm to join visiting scientists in his Washington home for discussions on many subjects, especially aviation.Bell chaired a group called the "Aerial Experiment Association
Aerial Experiment Association
The Aerial Experiment Association was a Canadian aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the tutelage of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell...
" whose members were himself, Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle then motorcycle builder and racer, later also manufacturing engines for airships as early as 1906...
, Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, John A.D. "Douglas" McCurdy
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy was a Canadian aviation pioneer and the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1947 to 1952. -Early years:...
, and Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge
Thomas Selfridge
Thomas Etholen Selfridge was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane. He was a passenger while Orville Wright was piloting the aircraft.-Biography:...
, all of whom except Curtiss were wealthy young men interested in flying.
The Signal Corps advertised specifications for a powered airplane on December 23, 1907, and among the three bids found acceptable was one submitted by the Wrights to build a plane within 200 days for $25,000. The Signal Corps budget had insufficient funds to meet the three bids, and in early February 1908, Lahm accompanied Gen. Allen and chief of the Aeronautical Division Capt Charles DeF. Chandler
Charles deForest Chandler
Colonel Charles deForest Chandler was an American military aviator, and the first head of the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps that later became the United States Air Force.-External links:**...
to meet with President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
to obtain funds from a contingency account.
On April 30, Lahm reported to New York City along with 1st Lt. Thomas Selfridge
Thomas Selfridge
Thomas Etholen Selfridge was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane. He was a passenger while Orville Wright was piloting the aircraft.-Biography:...
and Albert L. Stevens
Albert Leo Stevens
Albert Leo Stevens was a pioneering balloonist.-Biography:He was born on March 9, 1873 or 1877 in Cleveland, Ohio of Czech parentage. He had brother Frank Stevens ....
to familiarize 25 members of the 1st Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard in the use of hydrogen-filled kite balloons
Observation balloon
Observation balloons are balloons that are employed as aerial platforms for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Their use began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War I, and they continue in limited use today....
in organizing a National Guard balloon unit.Designated as the 1st Aero Company, National Guard, New York, in November 1915, it went on to become the 102nd Aero Squadron, New York National Guard, now the oldest unit in the Air National Guard
Air National Guard
The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...
. The unit was mustered into federal service between July 13 and November 2, 1916. Upon his return from New York, Lahm became head of the Aeronautical Division when Capt. Chandler was transferred to command the Signal Corps Balloon Station at Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by ...
, Nebraska, on May 13.The Air Force has not given recognition to the assignment and lists Chandler as division chief until 1910. In August Lahm earned his second FAI certifcate, Dirigible No. 2, and oversaw the Signal Corps acquisition of an airship from Thomas Scott Baldwin
Thomas Scott Baldwin
Thomas Scott Baldwin was a pioneer balloonist and U.S. Army major during World War I. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.-Early career:...
. On September 9, 1908, the Wright Brothers brought their 1908 Wright Flyer at Fort Myer for acceptance trials, and on its second flight Lahm accompanied Orville as a passenger, the first U.S. military officer to fly in a powered airplane, on a flight of six minutes and 24 seconds.Ironically, Lahm's father preceded him in that aerial feat too. Earlier in the summer Frank S. Lahm had gone up with Wilbur on a demonstration flight in France. The aircraft was destroyed, and Lt. Selfridge killed, in a crash on September 17.The second officer to fly was the acting Chief Signal Officer, Major George O. Squier, on September 12. Squier headed the Signal Corps' Aviation Section in 1916-1917. Selfridge was the first fatality in powered flight.
College Park, Maryland
College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...
recommended by Lahm after balloon observations and inspections on horseback. Lahm made the first flight at the new field on October 8. Both officers soloed, with Humphreys going first. After only 14 flights, Lahm was pronounced a pilot on October 26. He Received FAI Airplane certificate No. 2, and took up his first passenger, the U.S. Navy's observer Lt. George C. Sweet, on November 3.Lahm's flight training time was three hours, seven minutes, and 38 seconds. He received the second-ever FAI airplane certificate, behind Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle then motorcycle builder and racer, later also manufacturing engines for airships as early as 1906...
, but ahead of both Wrights, who received the 4th and 5th. On May 24, 1911, after the FAI recognized the American Aero Club as the "governing authority for the United States of America", the ACA licensed Lahm with Aviator License No. 2.
Lahm and Humphreys crashed November 5, but both were uninjured, and the airplane was repaired. However the Signal Corps lost the service of both when they returned to their regular assignments. In December 1909, because of requirements of the "Manchu Law", Lahm was forced to return to his branch and joined the 7th Cavalry at Fort Riley
Fort Riley
Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 100,656 acres in Geary and Riley counties and includes two census-designated places: Fort Riley North and Fort...
, Kansas.
In June 1910 Lahm attended Mounted Service School and graduated in June 1911. In October he married high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
history teacher Gertrude Jenner in Mansfield, then rejoined the 7th Cavalry in the Philippines. At the request of the Signal Corps he opened a seasonal flying school on the polo ground of Fort William McKinley
Fort William McKinley
Fort William McKinley, was established in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War in 1901 when the whole land south of Pasig River down to Alabang was declared a U.S. Military Reservation. During the World War II era, it was where USAFFE had its headquarters for the Philippine Department...
near Manila on March 12, 1912. S.C. No. 7, a Wright Model B
Wright Model B
|-See also:-References:* * * * * * -External links:* *...
aircraft shipped to the Philippines, was assembled and made its first flight on March 21. Lahm trained 1st Lt. Moss L. Love and Corporal Vernon Burge
Vernon Burge
Vernon Lee Burge was an aviation pioneer—the first American enlisted man to be certified as a military pilot. After ten years as an enlisted man, Burge was commissioned during World War I and served the next 25 years as an officer....
, the first enlisted pilot in the Army, in April and May 1912.Burge was a mechanic who had accompanied S.C. No. 7 to the Philippines, and had been one of Lahm's original detail at Ft. Myer. He was approved after no other officers volunteered for training, and although higher authority later rescinded the authorization, he had already received his FAI certificate.
On May 8, 1912, Lahm crash-landed S.C. No. 7 in mud on the Taguig River
Taguig River
The Taguig River is a river of the Philippines, a tributary of the Pasig River. It eventually joins the Pateros River, forming the common border between the municipality of Pateros and Makati City.-External links:*...
after his engine failed, and again on May 29, putting the aircraft out of operation for a total of 13 days. After an engine change, the aircraft was much more reliable, but the rainy season shut down the school and he returned to troop duty. On March 10, 1913, he began a second season of instruction, training three more officers.2nd Lts Carleton G. Chapman, Herbert A. Dargue
Herbert Dargue
Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue was a career officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of major general in the Army Air Forces. He was a pioneer military aviator and one of the first ten recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross.Dargue entered the United States Military Academy on June...
, and C. Perry Rich. On June 17, 1913, before flying was shut down again because the airfield was too muddy, Lahm conducted a 21-mile reconnaissance from Ft. McKinley to Alabang, drawing accurate sketches of positions of the 7th and 8th Cavalry on maneuvers there. On July 19, 1913, he passed a Signal Corps-required flying test administered by the Aero Club of America
Aero Club of America
The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Glidden and others to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New England. It thrived until 1923, when it transformed into the National Aeronautic...
, although he had received an ACA aviator license in 1911, and received ACA Expert Aviator's Certificate No. 15, which also qualified him to be rated
U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Ratings
U.S. Air Force aeronautical ratings are military aviation skill standards established and awarded by the United States Air Force for commissioned officers participating in "regular and frequent flight", The standard by which flight status has been defined in law, executive orders, and regulations...
as a Military Aviator.
After S.C. No 7 became a total loss in August, Lahm's small detachment received a new aircraft, S.C. No. 13, a Wright C Speed Scout equipped with pontoons for water landings. On September 11, 1913, Lahm attempted a water takeoff for a flight test but the center of gravity
Center of gravity
In physics, a center of gravity of a material body is a point that may be used for a summary description of gravitational interactions. In a uniform gravitational field, the center of mass serves as the center of gravity...
on the aircraft made it tail-heavy and it flipped over. Although the aircraft was totally destroyed, Lahm was saved from drowning by a life jacket. In November, at his own request, he was relieved of flying duties and returned to troop duties. He was assigned to command of a troop of the 7th Cavalry in September 1914, just after the outbreak of war in Europe
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Aviation Section
In October 1914 Lahm was assigned to the 6th Cavalry at Texas City and Harlingen, TexasHarlingen, Texas
Harlingen is a city in Cameron County in the heart of the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, United States, about from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The city covers more than , and is the second largest city in Cameron County and the sixth largest in the Rio Grande Valley...
until April 1916. Having completed the required years of troop duty in his branch, he was detailed to the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
The Aviation Section, Signal Corps, was the military aviation service of the United States Army from 1914 to 1918, and a direct ancestor of the United States Air Force. It replaced and absorbed the Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps, and was succeeded briefly by the Division of Military...
, which had replaced the Aeronautical Division as the Army's aviation arm in August 1914. Lahm's rating was changed to that of Junior Military Aviator (all Military Aviators had been re-rated because of a section in the 1914 law that required three years as a JMA before becoming eligible for MA rating), and was placed on flying duty again. This resulted in his immediate promotion to captain in accordance with another provision of the law. He reported for duty on April 1, 1916, at the Rockwell Field
Rockwell Field
Rockwell Field was an Army air base located in Coronado, California, near San Diego. It shared the area known as North Island with Naval Air Station North Island from 1912 to 1935. Its functions were eventually moved to March Field so that the naval air station could take over the whole area...
, San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
as Secretary (adjutant
Adjutant
Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...
) of the Signal Corps Aviation School and President of the Junior Military Aviator Examining Board. On May 29, 1916, Captain Lahm was briefly detached to the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston
Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas.Known colloquially as "Fort Sam," it is named for the first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston....
, Texas, to practice using captive balloon ascensions for artillery spotting. Shortly after, on June 12, his permanent rank of captain, Cavalry, was approved.
In January 1917 Lahm was involved in a controversy that estranged him from future Chief of the Army Air Forces Henry H. Arnold
Henry H. Arnold
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps , Commanding General of the U.S...
. Arnold was supply officer for the Aviation School, having returned to the Aviation Section from the Infantry the previous May. On January 6, Arnold was present in Lahm's office when the Officer In Charge of Training, Capt. Herbert A. Dargue
Herbert Dargue
Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue was a career officer in the United States Army, reaching the rank of major general in the Army Air Forces. He was a pioneer military aviator and one of the first ten recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross.Dargue entered the United States Military Academy on June...
, appeared to protest an authorization for a flight. A student at the school's Field Officers course, Lt. Col. Harry G. Bishop
Harry Gore Bishop
Harry Gore Bishop was a United States Army artillery general and author.Bishop was born November 22, 1874, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.In 1893, Bishop entered the United States Military Academy at West Point....
of the Field Artillery, had asked for a plane and pilot to fly to an unspecified location, and Dargue protested that the flight interfered with scheduled training. According to Arnold's statement to investigators, Lahm told Dargue to "carry out his instructions" without further explanation. On January 10 the flight took place, despite a second protest from Dargue to the school commandant, Col. William A. Glassford
William A. Glassford
Vice Admiral William A. Glassford was a U.S. Navy officer who served during World War II. He commanded naval forces of the Asiatic Fleet during the first month of the war, and then relocated to Java to combine his forces with the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command . His most notable battle...
. When Glassford called in Lahm, he denied authorizing the flight, but Dargue had the original authorization signed by Lahm. The plane, which apparently had been headed to Calexico
Calexico
Calexico is a Tucson, Arizona-based Americana / Alternative country band. The band's two main members, Joey Burns and John Convertino, first played together in Los Angeles as part of the group Giant Sand. They have recorded a number of albums on Quarterstick Records, while their 2005 EP In the...
, drifted off course and came down in the Sonoran Desert
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...
inside Mexico, missing for nine days. Bishop and his pilot were rescued, but Glassford had already publicly stated that the flight was unauthorized. On January 27, during the investigation that followed, Arnold implicated Lahm's role. On January 30, one day after the birth of his son, Arnold was transferred to Panama.Glassford was retired on April 11 as a result of the incident, for failing to mount an effective search in a timely manner.
After the United States entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Lahm became commanding officer of the Army Balloon School at Fort Omaha on May 24, 1917. At that time he was the Army's only airplane, balloon, and dirigible pilot. On June 27, Lahm received promotion to major in the Aviation Section, Signal Corps. He suffered a severely broken leg early in June when his polo pony
Polo pony
A polo pony is the term used for a horse used in the game of polo. They may be of any breed or combination of breeds, though many have a significant amount of Thoroughbred breeding. They are called "ponies", but that is in reference to their agile type rather than their size...
"Joe" slipped on a paved street in Omaha and fell on him. As he was about to start sick leave, Lahm was offered a six-week inspection tour of balloon schools, equipment, and operations in both Britain and France. He received confidential orders from Gen. Tasker H. Bliss
Tasker H. Bliss
Tasker Howard Bliss GCMG was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from September 22, 1917 until May 18, 1918.-Biography:...
on July 25, and another promotion to temporary lieutenant colonel, Signal Corps, on August 5. Lahm sailed from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on August 23 aboard the RMS Baltic
RMS Baltic (1903)
RMS Baltic was an ocean liner of the White Star Line that sailed between 1904 and 1933. At 23,876 gross tons, she was the largest ship in the world until 1905...
and arrived in England on September 15, 1917, where he began keeping a war diary.Lahm's diary noted that his father joined the Signal Corps as a balloon inspector just prior to his departure overseas.
Air Service, AEF
Lahm's assignment in England began with nine days of inspections of factories, depots, and training fields. On September 24 he flew the English Channel as an observer on a Bristol FighterBristol F.2 Fighter
The Bristol F.2 Fighter was a British two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft of the First World War flown by the Royal Flying Corps. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter or popularly the "Brisfit" or "Biff". Despite being a two-seater, the F.2B proved to be an agile aircraft...
, landing at Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer , a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area....
and continuing on to Montrouge
Montrouge
Montrouge is a commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the center of Paris, France. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe...
, where the 2nd Wing, 2nd Air Brigade of the British Second Army was situated. On October 2, Lahm reported to Col. Raynal Bolling
Raynal Bolling
Colonel Raynal Cawthorne Bolling was the first high-ranking U.S. officer to be killed in combat in World War I. He laid the foundation for the United States Army Air Service in the American Expeditionary Force...
, at the headquarters of the Air Service, Zone of the Interior, in Paris, then was summoned to General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Forces or AEF were the United States Armed Forces sent to Europe in World War I. During the United States campaigns in World War I the AEF fought in France alongside British and French allied forces in the last year of the war, against Imperial German forces...
(GHQ AEF) in Chaumont
Chaumont, Haute-Marne
Chaumont is a commune of France, and the capital of the Haute-Marne department. , it has a of 24,039.The city stands on the Marne River and is situated on the railway linking Paris and Basel, which runs over a 52 m tall and 600 m long viaduct built in 1856.- History :Historically the...
. He made inspections of French balloon facilities before going to the headquarters of the French Sixth Army
Sixth Army (France)
The Sixth Army was a Field army of the French Army during World War I and World War II.-World War I:*General Maunoury *General Dubois *General Fayolle...
at Vauxbuin
Vauxbuin
Vauxbuin is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France....
on October 15 to observe French Caquot balloons, slated for use by the Air Service, in battle at Soissons
Soissons
Soissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about northeast of Paris. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones...
.
Lahm's orders to return to the United States were rescinded and he was assigned to organize the balloon section of the Air Service headquarters in Paris. After doing so, he found himself ranked out of command on November 23, 1917, by now-Col. Charles DeF. Chandler, who had arrived in France as part of the massive staff of Brig. Gen. Benjamin Foulois
Benjamin Foulois
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois , was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright Brothers. He became the first military aviator as an airship pilot, and achieved numerous other military aviation "firsts"...
. Lahm went instead to Chaumont as the section's liaison to GHQ AEF until February 23, 1918, when he was moved to Colombey-les-Belles
Colombey-les-Belles
Colombey-les-Belles is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.-Heraldry:-See also:*Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department...
in the same capacity to the Air Service, Advance Section, Services of Supply, where he supervised the tactical training of balloon companies before their assignment to the front as artillery spotters.
On June 3, 1918, an air service for the soon-to-be-activated U.S. First Army was set up at Toul
Toul
Toul is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Toul is located between Commercy and Nancy, and situated between the Moselle River and the Canal de la Marne au Rhin....
, with Foulois in command. Lahm was chosen to be his chief of staff, and remained so until after the Battle of Chateau-Thierry
Battle of Château-Thierry (1918)
The Battle of Château-Thierry was fought on 18 July 1918 and was one of the first actions of the American Expeditionary Force under General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing...
, when Foulois voluntarily turned over his command to Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell (who already had Col. Thomas D. Milling as his chief of staff) on July 27. Lahm was shifted to the headquarters of the First Army, which was about to be activated, as Air Officer to its G-3 (Operations) Section. On August 14, with the activation of the army, he was promoted to temporary colonel.
On October 12, the AEF expanded to two field armies, and Lahm was named to organize and command the Air Service, Second Army at Toul. He chose Lt. Col. John F. Curry
John F. Curry
Major General John Francis Curry was the first national commander of the Civil Air Patrol, the United States Air Force Auxiliary. He was also a Major General in the United States Army Air Corps.-Biography:...
to be his chief of staff. He remained in France in command of the Second Army Air Service until it was dissolved on April 15, 1919. His diary entry for that date stares:
Starting with an Air Service of three observation squadrons in Oct., it grew to two pursuit groups with a total of 7 squadrons, seven observation squadrons, a bombing group of two squadrons, three park squadrons, eleven balloon companies, 5 photo sections, a total of 700 officers and 5300 men.
Lahm remained on unassigned duty in France until July 30, 1919, when he sailed from Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...
on the converted troopship SS Leviathan
SS Leviathan
SS Leviathan, originally built as SS Vaterland, was an ocean liner which regularly sailed the North Atlantic briefly in 1914 and from 1917 to 1934...
, arriving at Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
, on August 7. The next day he reported to headquarters of the reorganized Air Service and was issued orders to attend the General Staff College.
Advancement to general officer
Lahm reverted to his permanent rank of captain on September 9, 1919, and began studies as a "special student" (because of his reduced rank) at the General Staff College in Washington D.C., through June 1920. The Air Service was made a statutory part of the Army on June 4, 1920, and Lahm applied for transfer to the new branch. He was promoted to major on July 1 and lieutenant colonel on July 2, then transferred to the Air Service on August 6 in the rank of permanent lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
. Lahm was assigned to the War Department General Staff (WDGS) as a staff member and later chief of the Organization Branch, Operation and Training Division (G-3) from August 25, 1920, to July 1, 1924. He was then Air Officer at the Ninth Corps Area
Corps area
A Corps area was a geographically-based organizational structure of the United States Army used to accomplish domestic administrative, training and tactical tasks from 1920 to 1942. Each corps area included divisions of the Regular Army, Organized Reserve and National Guard of the United States...
at the Presidio of San Francisco, California.
On July 2, 1926, the Air Service was renamed the United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
by act of Congress and authorized two additional brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
positions as assistant chiefs of Air Corps. Lahm was advanced to brigadier general on July 17, 1926, for a four-year tour as an assistant chief, to be commander of the new Air Corps Training Center, established at San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, on August 16, 1926.ACTC's first day of administration was September 1, 1926. (War Department General Order 26) Command of the training center included the coordination and management of training at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field
Brooks City-Base
Brooks City-Base was a United States Air Force facility located in San Antonio, Texas, southeast of Downtown San Antonio.In 2002 Brooks Air Force Base was renamed Brooks City-Base when the property was conveyed to the Brooks Development Authority as part of a unique project between local, state,...
, the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, and the School of Aviation Medicine at Brooks.
Randolph Field
Almost immediately Lahm understood that because of the small size of his bases, their deteriorated condition (originally built as temporary in World War I), and the encroachment of San Antonio, his charge to "coordinate the training in the schools with a view of bringing them as close together as possible, and particularly with a view to making the transition easier for the students going from one school to the other" required expansion of the center by construction of a new facility. After Chief of Air Corps Maj. Gen. Mason PatrickMason Patrick
Mason Mathews Patrick was a U.S. Army general and air power advocate.Patrick was born in Lewisburg, West Virginia and graduated from West Point in 1886. For three years he was at the Engineer School of Application, Willets Point, New York, graduating in 1889...
recommended the same in December 1926, Lahm appointed a board of five officers on April 18, 1927, to draw up plans for a model airfield. The next day, after reviewing unsolicited plans offered by 1st Lt. Harold L. Clark, an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
-trained former flying instructor now serving as a Kelly Field motor pool officer, it recommended a "revolutionary" four-quadrant circular layout that placed the structures between parallel runways aligned with the prevailing winds. Lahm then tasked the board to find a suitable location in May.Clark became a brigadier general during World War II and commanded the 52nd Troop Carrier Wing
52d Troop Carrier Wing (World War II)
The 52d Troop Carrier Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the New York Air National Guard. It was inactivated on 31 October 1950....
during four airborne operations, including the American airborne landings in Normandy
American airborne landings in Normandy
The American airborne landings in Normandy were the first United States combat operations during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy by the Western Allies on June 6, 1944. Around 13,100 paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops early on...
and Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....
, before retiring in 1946.
Lahm originally dictated that the location be within 10 miles of San Antonio, but difficulties finding a site suited to the planned design, and the large size required, forced a resumption of the search in October 1927 out to an expanded distance of 30 miles.The land had to be acquired with clear title
Clear title
Clear title is the phrase used to state that the owner of real property owns it free and clear of encumbrances. In a more limited sense, it is used to state that, although the owner does not own clear title, it is nevertheless within the power of the owner to convey clear title. For example, a...
by local entities and then donated to the government, per War Department policy, and also had to be free of all restrictions to use. While the location problem was being settled, Lahm assigned Clark to begin work on plans and layout of the new base on December 8, 1927.Clark's first formal design, submitted to Lahm on November 1, 1927, was revised in December and January and sent to the Chief of Air Corps. The Air Education and Training Command
Air Education and Training Command
Air Education and Training Command was established July 1, 1993, with the realignment of Air Training Command and Air University. It is one of the U.S. Air Force's ten major commands and reports to Headquarters, United States Air Force....
history of Randolph AFB places the date of the detail as December 5. A location near Schertz
Schertz, Texas
Schertz is a city in Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area. The population was 31,465 at the 2010 census.On July 16, 2007 CNNMoney.com rated Schertz one of the best places to live in the United States...
, 18 miles from San Antonio, was obtained by the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
and offered to Lahm on the last day of 1927, who sent the proposal to Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis
Dwight F. Davis
Dwight Filley Davis was an American tennis player and politician. He is best remembered as the founder of the Davis Cup international tennis competition.-Biography:...
. In February Congress authorized President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
to accept the gift, but it was August 16, 1928, before the legal processes ran their course and the property acquired.
While this took place, in April the new Chief of Air Corps, Maj. Gen. James Fechet
James Fechet
James Edmond Fechet was the Chief of the United States Army Air Corps in 1927–1931. Men he had selected and worked with both on his staff and in other top Air Corps positions became key leaders of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II.-Biography:Born at Fort Ringgold, Texas, in 1877,...
, appointed a committee of senior officers headed by Brig. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois
Benjamin Foulois
Benjamin Delahauf Foulois , was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright Brothers. He became the first military aviator as an airship pilot, and achieved numerous other military aviation "firsts"...
to approve a design. In July it rejected the circular layout proposed for the new base and put forth a plan that placed all buildings in one corner of the property. Just prior to acceptance of the property, Lahm sharply criticized the revision to Fechet and a reconsideration, also on August 16, 1928, approved the original circular design. Clark was then detailed for special duty in Washington D.C. as Lahm's liaison with the Construction Service, Quartermaster Corps, which would build the base.The actual architect of the base was George B. Ford, an architect and city planner retained by the Army between 1926 and 1930 to approve all site and development plans for Army installations.
Construction of Randolph Field
Randolph Air Force Base
Randolph Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located east-northeast of San Antonio, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 902d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command ....
Named for Capt. William M. Randolph, the adjutant of the Advanced Flying School and an Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
-native, killed in an air crash in February 1928. began on November 21, 1928. The site was cleared, the basic infrastructure completed, and somewhat less than half the buildings erected when the base was dedicated on June 20, 1930, as the "West Point of the Air",The phrase is credited to San Antonio Mayor C.M. Chambers but Lahm's four-year tour as an assistant chief of Air Corps ended in July well before construction was completed.Lahm was succeeded by Brig. Gen. Charles L. Danforth, a mustang
Mustang (military officer)
A Mustang is United States Military slang for a commissioned officer who began his or her career as an enlisted service member. Mustangs are older and more experienced than their peers-in-grade who earned their commissions from one of the service academies , Officer Candidate...
who had come up through the ranks from private during the Spanish-American War, but who had not joined the Air Service until 1920. Nevertheless, Lahm's role in the creation of Randolph Field was characterized as "providing the administrative initiative and energy required to crystallize these ideas into definite plans and to press them to a successful conclusion," and he is noted by the USAF's Air Education and Training Command
Air Education and Training Command
Air Education and Training Command was established July 1, 1993, with the realignment of Air Training Command and Air University. It is one of the U.S. Air Force's ten major commands and reports to Headquarters, United States Air Force....
as "the father of Randolph Field."
Air Officer and attaché duties
At the end of his tour he reverted to his permanent rank of lieutenant colonel, assigned again as Air Officer, Ninth Corps Area until July 1931, when his wife died of pneumoniaPneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, leaving him a widower with two young children, Lawrence, 12, and Barbara, 8.After a year at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Lawrence Lahm was a member of the West Point Class of 1942. His father had developed cancer, and Lahm brought him back to the summer home for a final visit. Lahm was promoted to full colonel on October 1, 1931, and sent to the U.S. Embassy, Paris, France, in November to act as assistant military attaché for air
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
to France, Spain, and Belgium. Shortly after his arrival in France, his father died in Paris on December 31. In 1933 Lahm became full military attaché to France. He remained in Paris until 1935, with collateral duty as military attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
In October 1935 Lahm returned to the United States as Air Officer, Second Corps Area, at Governors Island
Governors Island
Governors Island is a island in Upper New York Bay, approximately one-half mile from the southern tip of Manhattan Island and separated from Brooklyn by Buttermilk Channel. It is legally part of the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, New York, until December 14, 1940, when he became Chief of Aviation to the First Army. He received the Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
for his contribution to this command during its important formative period. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
awarded Lahm an honorary promotion major general in September 1941.
The extent of expanded pilot requirements immediately preceding World War II necessitated decentralization of Air Corps flying training, which had been the core element of the
program after Lahm organized the Air Corps Training Center. The ACTC was broken up geographically, establishing three regional training centers. The ACTC, still headquartered at Randolph, was renamed the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center and became operational in February 1941. Lahm served as its commander from October 21, 1941, to his mandatory retirement on November 20, 1941. He retired, after more than forty years of continuous military service, in the grade of brigadier general. Three weeks later, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, he offered to come off the retired list but was not accepted.The role, if any, that Arnold played in denying Lahm service in World War II resulting from the 1917 Bishop incident and the fact that Lahm served in France while Arnold did not, is only speculative.
Retirement and legacy
Lahm assisted with war bondWar bond
War bonds are debt securities issued by a government for the purpose of financing military operations during times of war. War bonds generate capital for the government and make civilians feel involved in their national militaries...
drives and was active in a number of civic organizations. He was wedded in Hollywood, California, on April 3, 1948, to Grace Wolfe Kenson, a lifelong friend, the daughter of a Mansfield judge and widow of a dentist.
On June 15, 1960, Lahm was recognized by the Air Force and the Early Birds of Aviation
Early Birds of Aviation
The Early Birds of Aviation is an organization devoted to the history of early pilots. The organization was started in 1928 and ultimately accepted a membership of 598. Membership was limited to those who piloted a glider, gas balloon, or airplane, prior to December 17, 1916. The cutoff date was...
as "the father of Air Force flight training" in ceremonies at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
, with 600 Air Force Academy
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officer candidates for the United States Air Force. Its campus is located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States...
cadets in attendance. In May 1962, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
The Chief of Staff of the Air Force is a statutory office held by a four-star general in the United States Air Force, and is the most senior uniformed officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Air Force, and as such is the principal military advisor and a deputy to the Secretary of the...
, Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, honored Lahm with a special citation recognizing him as the nation's first military aviator.
Lahm died July 7, 1963, of a stroke at Good Samaritan Hospital in Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. It is located in northern Ohio and is situated on the shores of Lake Erie, almost exactly half-way between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east....
. He was cremated and his ashes spread over Randolph Air Force Base.
In 1943 Lahm completed and published How Our Army Grew Wings, begun in the 1930s in collaboration with Col. Chandler, who died in 1939. His war diary in World War I has been preserved since 1970 by the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) as USAF Historical Study No. 141. The United States Air Force Academy
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy is an accredited college for the undergraduate education of officer candidates for the United States Air Force. Its campus is located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States...
's first hot air balloon was named in his honor in 1973. Both Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport
Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport
Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport is a city-owned, joint civil-military, public-use airport located three miles north of the central business district of Mansfield, a city in Richland County, Ohio, United States....
and the Administration Building of Mansfield Lahm Air National Guard Base are named for Lahm. In 2009, he was inducted in the First Flight Society along with Humphreys as the first military aviation trainees.The First Flight Society incorrectly identifies Foulois as the "first United States military aviator". Foulois' training as an airship pilot pre-dated Lahm, but he was assigned to heavier-than-air pilot training specifically because Lahm was no longer detailed as a pilot.
Awards and decorations
SOURCE: Biographical Data on Air Force General Officers, 1917-1952, Volume 2 - L through ZAirplane Pilot
Military AviatorPortraits of Lahm from late in his career show that he wore his Military Aviator badge in place of his pilot wings.
| Distinguished Service Medal Distinguished Service Medal (United States) The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United... |
|
| Legion of Merit Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements... |
|
| Mexican Service Medal Mexican Service Medal The Mexican Service Medal is an award of the United States military which was established by General Orders of the United States War Department on December 12, 1917... |
|
| World War I Victory Medal | |
Officer of the Legion of HonorLégion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
)
Commander of the Military Order of AvizOrder of Aviz
The Military Order of Aviz , previously to 1910 Royal Military Order of Aviz , previously to 1789 Order of Saint Benedict of Aviz , previously Knights of St. Benedict of Aviz or Friars of Santa Maria of Évora, is a Portuguese Order of Chivalry...
(Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
)
Airplane Observer
Observer Badge
The Observer Badge is a military badge of the United States military which dates to the First World War. The badge was issued to co-pilots, navigators, and flight support personnel who had received a variation on the training necessary for the standard Pilot's Badge...
Combat ObserverObserver Badge
The Observer Badge is a military badge of the United States military which dates to the First World War. The badge was issued to co-pilots, navigators, and flight support personnel who had received a variation on the training necessary for the standard Pilot's Badge...
Technical ObserverObserver Badge
The Observer Badge is a military badge of the United States military which dates to the First World War. The badge was issued to co-pilots, navigators, and flight support personnel who had received a variation on the training necessary for the standard Pilot's Badge...