laststandonzombieisland

Look up there! It’s those amazing young men in their flying machines. The thing is, those early biplane pioneers needed a little bit of insurance and Uncle Sam had just the thing: a chopped down Springfield rifle.

Until 1947, the armed force we know today as the US Air Force did not exist. From the time of the Wright brothers until then, the US Army had reign over most land-based military aircraft with the exception of those operated by the Navy/Marines and Coast Guard. Flying, then as now, is a dangerous activity. It was possible for pilots and aircrews to crash land in remote areas, unreachable by anything else except another flying machine. For military aviators you could add the prospect of being shot down behind enemy lines.

The first US Army aviators to fly in a warzone were those of General Pershing’s 1st Aero Squadron of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Air Service. These hardy flyboys were shipped 19 Winchester Model 1907 rifles and 9000 cartridges of .351SL ammunition to use in arming their craft if they got lost over the Chihuahua desert while looking for Pancho Villa in 1916. The Winny ’07 thought to be lighter than the current issue Springfield rifle. Well when Pershing left with the American Expeditionary Force for France in 1917 to take on the Kaiser, he realized his much larger corps of flyers there would need a new rifle.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk.com