World War II Chronicle: July 11, 1941
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President Roosevelt has named Col. William J. Donovan to the newly created office of Coordinator of Information. “Wild Bill” commanded the 69th Infantry Division during the World War, earning the Medal of Honor… An aviation cadet named Victor Woodrick was coming in too high for a landing at Parks Air College (Now St. Louis Downtown Airport) when his instructor took over and put the plane in a sharp dive. Unfortunately, Woodrick had unbuckled his seatbelt to retrieve his earpiece and ended up shooting out of the cockpit and landed on the aircraft’s tail. He rode the fuselage in for a landing and was unharmed (picture on page six). The story made it on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not so surely his story had made the rounds by the time he retired as a lieutenant colonel…
On page eight: the president has also promoted a dozen brigadier generals to major general, including two of America’s first military aviators, Herbert A. Dargue and Lewis H. Brereton. Dargue, whom we have discussed in multiple posts, will command First Air Force. Brereton graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1911 but resigned two days after becoming an ensign (due to seasickness) and requested a commission in the Army’s Coastal Artillery Corps. By next September he was learning to fly and became the Army’s 10th military aviator. He commanded the 2nd Aero Squadron and the Corps Observation Wing during the World War where he earned the Distinguished Service Cross. Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell, who commanded American air units during the war, made Brereton his assistant of operations. He is about to be named the commanding officer of Third Air Force, and later this year is among three potential officers picked by Lt. Gen. Hap Arnold to serve as commander of the Far East Air Force. Gen. Douglas MacArthur remembers Brereton from when he commanded a squadron during the World War and selects him as chief.
But back to Billy Mitchell: Brereton was sent to Washington as associate counsel for Mitchell’s defense. Gen. Douglas MacArthur was one of the trial’s 13 judges. Defense witnesses was a who’s-who of the Army Air Corps: Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, Robin Olds, Eddie Rickenbacker, Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, and future New York City mayor Fiorella La Guardia, who was a bomber pilot during World War I…
Sports begins on page 17, and Lefty Grove of the New York Yankees is looking for his 300th win. Only five pitchers have made the list since 1901, Grover Cleveland Alexander most-recently accomplishing the feat in 1924.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 11 July 1941. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1941-07-11/ed-1/