He was a very keen, alert man, extremely restless and planning something or other all the time. I think he must have been very much like Eddie McDonnell in his youth, and like Eddie he possesses the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was continually arranging maneuvers including the various vessels under his command and the air service. He made it a point to go up in the aeroplanes as often as he possibly could. He liked to fly and went up with me quite often. He permitted his chief of staff, Captain Kenneth Castleman, to spend considerable time with us, arranging war games and so on. Captain Castleman, who was of great service to us, later became Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Navigation.

He was, indeed, a charming gentleman [Erl Gould says of him] and certainly an inspiration to all of us who worked under him. When he took hold, the town was pretty much a den of iniquity, with a mixture of Cuban cigar-makers, Bahama niggers, and the better element of white blood which seemed unable or unwilling to clean up the place. We had a lot of trouble at night because of ructions between our gobs and the natives, and there was a shooting or stabbing affray now and then.

In three months Admiral Fletcher had reformed Key West and swept it with a new broom. Certain districts were restricted, crime almost wiped out. Patrols kept the sailors out of mischief. Key West was really a decent place to live in, with some new ideas about sanitation and order.

The Admiral interfered very little with our activities at the air station. I can't recall that he ever refused a request we made of him. He showed confidence in the heads of the departments or posts under him and was always cordially anxious to assist.

 p244  Dirty, ragged, unshaven, the two correspondents drowsed upon the schooner's deck while she ran for Key West with a fair wind, reaching there late at night. Down among the wharves a Cuban was luckily encountered and he was a cordial pilot to the restaurant of one Palacho who was deep in the plots of the Junta. In those days it was a Key West without a railroad, a lazy tropical town, much more Cuban than American, a little exotic island set far out in a sun‑bathed ocean. For us two refugees, it was easy enough to find cover in the Cuban quarter and to remain there safe against discovery.

Ah, it was superb to comprehend that we were heroes, brave men from the Three Friends which had defied the powerful navy of Spain. And while we ate, the Cubans surrounded the table and we refought for them the glorious naval action — tracing a map on the tablecloth, a salt-cellar as the Three Friends, a breadcrust as the disabled gunboat, a bottle as the Spanish cruiser firing her big guns down Cienfuegos way.

The restaurant of the kindly Palacho rang with cheers. What was intended to be a square meal and nothing more became an ovation and a celebration. It was a very late hour when two well fed correspondents rolled into bed at Sweeney's lodging house. They were disturbed by several drunken bluejackets who seemed to make a pastime of falling down stairs. One of them loudly announced, over and over again, that his name was 'John J. McCarthy, E‑S‑Q‑ with a period,' and he could lick any six Cubanos in Key West. After a while some annoyed Cubano hit him over the head with a chair and threw him out. His challenge came more faintly from the sidewalk, the last stand of 'John J. McCarthy, E‑S‑Q‑ with a period.'

Thomas A. Edison spent about two months at Key West, working principally with his listening device for detecting submarines and developing other instruments he had invented. He came out to the air station several times and attempted to camouflage planes flying at fairly low altitudes. As I recall it, his theory was that as white is not a color and black contains all the colors in the spectrum, perfect invisibility could be obtained only by a combination of the two. The bottoms of the wings of a plane were striped black and white on one side of the fuselage in equal widths, about like a zebra, while on the other side there was twice as much white as black. From the ground it was interesting to note that when the plane was flying at a certain altitude one plane would be clearly visible while the other was not. And as the pilot climbed, the invisible wing would come into sight and the other go out.

The time of day also made considerable difference. When one wing was perfectly visible from an altitude of, say, •two thousand feet, that same wing would be invisible at ten or eleven o'clock from the same altitude. If some sort of a shutter system could have been applied to aeroplanes, the experiments might have been of considerable advantage.

As a matter of interest, one day we decided to determine the feasibility of rescuing men from disabled aeroplanes by means of dirigibles. Accordingly Bill Humphreys, one of our squadron commanders, and Meyers Baker, Intelligence Officer, landed on the water in a plane •about a quarter of a mile off the beach and signalled for the Blimp. Without difficulty the Blimp rested in the air directly over their heads and lowered a rope ladder •150 feet long. Humphreys and Baker couldn't quite reach the bottom rung so they both jumped for it at the same time,  p246 caught it, and were clear of the plane. The men in the Blimp instantly threw out ballast sand, but not enough of it. As a result the Blimp came sagging down close to the water while poor Bill and Meyers Baker disappeared beneath the surface.

U. S. Navy blimp

In their anxiety to go up and so avoid drowning the two aviators, the crew of the Blimp threw over a whole lot more ballast, — too much this time. Up shot the gas bag and up from the bottom of the Bay came Bill and Baker, so darned fast that it looked like Jonah parting company with the whale. Baker had clawed around under water and secured another grip on the ladder so that by this time he was about in the middle of it, but Humphreys was still clinging to the bottom rung. There he stayed while the Blimp climbed like an express elevator to •some fifteen hundred feet. At about this altitude they managed to get organized and under control. With a little fancy trapeze work, Bill managed to pull himself up and follow Baker safely into the fuselage. The stunt was duly reported as a spectacular success, but the heroes said no encores for them. There were plenty of other men who could qualify as amphibious acrobats if they liked that sort of thing.

Another interesting farm was tracking the course of torpedoes. The submarines held their torpedo practice at Dry Tortugas. Given a certain target, they tried to make hits with torpedoes from various angles and distances. We hovered in the air behind them until the torpedo was released and then followed its course by flying directly above it at a fairly low altitude. I received letters from two or three men participating in them who were later assigned to patrol, convoy, or bombing duties in foreign waters, and they said they had been greatly helped by the maneuvres at Key West.

I have to recommend the promotion to the grade of Lieutenant (j.g.) U. S. N. R. F., of Ensign E. C. B. Gould, Naval Reserve Flying Corps, now Squadron Commander at this station.

The progress made in the training of student aviators in seaplane work at this station has been almost wholly due to his efforts. He has worked indefatigably in the interests of the station and the corps and has a splendid personality for leader­ship. As he has under his charge a large number of officers it is believed that the promotion is in the interests of efficiency as well as being a reward for efficient service.

A few ships would be sent out on a cruise [he explains] and the submarines advised of their homeward course. Then the Air Station and the sub‑chaser base were given the probable location at dawn on a certain day. If the ships were due to come from the West, we sent two or three planes to Dry Tortugas the evening before the ships were due. At daybreak one plane went off to meet them; promptly two hours later another plane was sent to relieve it and so on. Our cruising radius was well out to sea, beyond sight of land, so considerable experience in flying by compass was obtained. By relaying planes we were able to convoy the ship from dawn to dusk, with the chasers escorting them on the surface.

Every now and then all the ships would stop their engines while the chasers listened in. If they detected a submarine, they sailed and assumed different formations of attack. When we sighted a submarine we went over it, looped directly above it, spiraled down and flew around it until the subchasers came up. So clear was the water that we could find the submarine almost every time. The observations were far more successful than in the dirty water of the Sound off New London. On only one occasion was a submarine attack made without detection from the air. This was done by a boat of the 'K' type.

After we disbanded [says Erl] Alphy Ames and Albert Ditman arranged to get him over at Bay Shore and I managed to have him included in the draft sent to Key West. Bob was remarkable at lining up planes. He remained at Key West all the time I was there and proved himself to be one of the greatest assets of the station. He superintended the erection of new planes and repaired all those that could be repaired. He and I together always gave each plane its first flight. And before long he could do the stunt as well as any one there.

The other members of the Unit will find it difficult to imagine Bob Truman, or myself, for that matter, in the rôle of lecturers.  p252 Nevertheless lectures were given twice a week — on flying, lining up planes, different types of construction, etc., and aerodynamics as Eddie McDonnell had given it to us. On the day when I lectured, the class would flock to the beach en masse as soon as I finished and ask Bob Truman please to explain to them what I thought I had been talking about. In a word, he did more than anybody else to instil and keep going the old pep which had been so notable in the Unit. Near the end of the war he was made a warrant officer, although he had been recommended for promotion several months earlier.

Mr. Captain:

On the 31st of October, Mr. Mason Fortner was home on his furlo and visited us. And he took my engagement ring off and never returned it. I rote him asking him to please return it but never rec'd any answer. My friend is in France in the service. And I would like awful well if you would see that Mason would send my ring to me. I do not know if I will ever see him any more and the ring is my engagement and would like to have the ring. I will thank you very much if you would see that Mason sends it back. And if he has lost or broken the ring he will have to pay me $15 in place of the ring.

Yours truly

Miss Hazel Caton

 p253  From: O. B. Polk, M. Att. 3C.

To: Commanding Officer.

Via: Executive Officer.

Subject: Mistreatment by Superior.

Reason: (1) In accordance with the Bluejacket's Manual.

(2) With the right to report me if I am guilty of neglect of duty. Instead, he attacked the virtues of my gray-haired mother by calling me an Ishmael. Thereby, with his sarcasm, my parents were illegally united.

(3) The Circumstances: Last night the mess carte menu was somewhat table d'hôte style. The boy who I detailed to dress the dinner table failed to put on celery. I as Junior Mess Table Captain make my inspection of the table five minutes before announcement, 'Dinner is served.' I find no celery or ice tea poured but at once I begin the unfinished work, and at the time I was putting celery on the dish he was blaspheming me vehemently. I spoke in the most magnitudinous manner, to the effect that I thought he owed me an apology for wronging me so unjustly. He said I had never treated him right and to look at my record. If I was wrong and unpleased to complain to the Commander.

(4) And, sir, I only pray as plaintiff that he apologizes and that he be as benevolent toward me as his fancies of me will allow.

Commanding officer:

I have been accused by H. Haywood, this date, of taking a letter from his writing box. I wrote a lady in Key West asking her not to mention my name in her gossip to others, due to a broken friendship between she and I of previous date. He went to town today and probably saw this letter. He came back and began to swear, saying in very abusive language that some one had taken a letter from his box, slurring somebody outrageously. In the mean time Mr. King called me or rather the phone rang and after I answered the phone I went to Mr. King. Passing back through the galley, Haywood mentioned my name. I stopped and asked him what I had to do with his letter. He said, 'Yes, you, George Williams Mack, you went to my  p254 box and took my letter, ––––– ––––– you!' As a deadly insult this Haywood added, 'Your mother never wore any underclothes.' He held up the knife with which he was cutting potatoes and I caught his hand. With my other hand I grabbed an iron from the stove and hit him twice. Then I reported to the Executive Officer.

I recall with much pleasure my association with you at Key West during the World War when you commanded the Aviation Station and flying force there and I was in command of the American Patrol Detachment with base at Key West.

I greatly admire the fine spirit and good discipline shown by the splendid personnel of your force. Your ready and hearty coöperation with my force afloat was a source of much satisfaction and comfort to my officers and me. We felt that we could always rely upon you in the happy event of an enemy's force appearing in the vicinity. The experiments carried out between your planes and the submarines to determine the depth the submarines could be seen under the clear waters of the Caribbean, the best color to paint them to avoid detection when submerged, and also the best method of marking them so that they might be recognized by our aviators and not be bombed while mistaken for an enemy, were of great value, not only to my force but to the service at large. We also carried out experiments in spotting by planes when we fired shrapnel at silhouette targets located in the brush on shore at Woman's Cay.

Do you recall how, at my request, you had your planes make reconnaissances over the city at dusk to determine the visibility of objects and buildings in the twilight, and the report of the observers that the only objects clearly visible were the roofs of the camouflaged buildings in the Navy Yard? This work of camouflage was done at great expense by one of the self-appointed  p256 experts that were employed in such numbers and at large salaries by the Government at the beginning of the War.

I recall my first flight with you to observe the harbor and the depth at which the bottom could be seen from the air, and the stunts you put the plane through at the completion of our inspection. You emptied the entire bag of tricks on that occasion and I had such a stiff neck from the effects that I could not turn my head for a week.

You recall our trip to Havana to visit the Cuban Minister of Marine? Our late start back due to trouble with the other plane and its forced landing in the Florida Strait at dusk in the face of a very heavy thunderstorm. How the plane carrying my aide, Lieutenant Commander Frost, bumped so heavily on rising that he went through the cane-bottomed seat, and how he stood and worked the oil pump by hand all the way home. History repeats itself. One of the around-the‑world aviators did the same thing and received much credit therefrom. I did not even mention the incident in my report. It was all in the day's work.

We felt, towards the end of the war, that with the assistance of your planes in locating an enemy's submarine and the degree of skill attained by the sub‑chasers in their listening devices, an enemy's sub would inevitably have been lost if it ventured into the Florida Straits to attack the immense volume of shipping that passed through this focal point.

Owing to the fact that this officer served only from March 24, 1917, to January 2, 1919, and is twenty-three years of age, I would not recommend his promotion to Lieutenant Commander.

Lieutenant Erl C. B. Gould, U. S. N. R. F., has an excellent record throughout his period of service with the Navy. Fitness reports submitted by Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read, Captain Stanley V. Parker, and Rear Admiral Fletcher all contain remarks to the effect that Lieutenant Gould is a thoroughly capable officer and very attentive, good executive, and excellent flyer.

Special attention is invited to the reports of fitness submitted by Rear Admiral Fletcher, Commandant, Seventh Naval District, on Lieutenant Gould for the periods from March 31, 1918, to January 22, 1919, wherein the promotion of Lieutenant Gould to Lieutenant Commander is specially recommended for his efficient performance of duty as Commanding Officer of the Naval Air Station at Key West, where both patrol work and flight instruction of students was carried on.

The recommendation of this officer for the promotion of Lieutenant Gould to the grade of Lieutenant Commander was made on account of his excellent performance of duty, notwithstanding the fact that he was only twenty-three years of age, and it is believed that the responsibility of the duties he was performing and the efficient manner in which he performed them, as shown by his reports while on active duty, merit such promotion.

My Dear Erl:

It has just given me great pleasure to hand your commission as Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps, Class 5, for general service, to the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation for his signature. Your commission dates from January 1, 1919. I congratulate both the Flying Corps and your good self.​1

The more conspicuous contributions of the home Naval Districts to the Cause were, of course, the training of personnel for foreign service and the safeguarding of American waters. In the Seventh District the exceptional advantages of the Florida climate for continuous flying at all seasons and the difficulty of patrolling the District's very extensive coast line •(nearly a thousand miles) with vessels alone, accorded the Air Stations a unique prominence in these activities.

Besides the station at Key West, there was one at Cocoanut Grove, Miami. Together the two stations, during 1918, qualified upward of six hundred aviators for service abroad. In coöperation they maintained a continuous air patrol of the Straits of Florida through their entire extent, establishing substations beginning at the Dry Tortugas, and completing the necessary investigations and plans for fueling and rest stations to be used by the patrol on the north coast of Cuba. This, in addition to constant exercises with the vessels of the Scouting Force and the submarines based on Key West, and to the continuous enlargement of the stations themselves.

The efficiency and discipline of the two stations was equally excellent. In atmosphere, they presented a striking contrast. That at Miami was commanded, and very ably so, by a veteran officer of the regular service, Commander M. A. Mitcher, an  p259 Annapolis graduate, and, judged by flying standards, a man of thoroughly seasoned years (I imagine about thirty at the time); the other, during the greater part of my association with it, by Lieutenant E. C. B. Gould, a Yale graduate, twenty‑two years old, a Naval Reserve officer, confessedly in the service only for the purposes of the Great Cause. To a very conspicuous degree the spirit of the commanding officers was reflected in the spirit of the commands: — In Cocoanut Grove the air of a permanent profession regularly pursued as a routine business; in Key West rather the enthusiasm of a particular adventure.

The latter, built on reclaimed land of the Florida East Coast Railway, was nearing completion of its original scheme, when I assumed command of the District, early in January, 1918. At that time, Lieutenant Parker of the U. S. Coast Guard was commanding officer and Lieutenant Gould, second in command. Soon after, in the spring, Captain Parker was detached to take charge of the Air station at Bay Shore, Long Island, and Gould assumed command. It was in his régime that most of my experience with the station lay.

Few, I believe, of his age and previous experience in command, were suddenly burdened during the war with so serious a responsibility, and the good temper, assurance and readiness in moments of crisis with which he carried it always, are high tribute both to the young commander's individual qualities and the training of the aviation unit established by Mr. Davison, in which he had his preliminary experience. I cannot praise too highly his unfailing courtesy, modesty and fearlessness as an aviator; they are among my pleasant memories of Key West. Of his effectiveness as a commanding officer the record of his station speaks eloquently for itself. If I remember rightly, the station at Key West topped the list in the average of its weekly record of total number of hours of flying. Consider in conjunction with this that only four fatalities occurred during the entire life of the station, a period of a year and a half, and further evidence is unnecessary of the excellence both of the command and the personnel.

The exceptionally high character of the latter, I cannot doubt, did much to lighten Mr. Gould's difficult position. It is the merest commonplace of general knowledge to say that they represented the best of America's youth. What, I think,  p260 is not so uniformly recognized is the complete homogeneity of the personnel as a factor of effectiveness. All practically of an age, all — or nearly all — drawn from the same social stratum and, owing to the temporary character of their employment, devoid, to an uncommon degree, of personal ambition of rank, they achieved at once a capacity for sympathetic coöperation and unity in action which only arduous training could otherwise have supplied. On any show day in the District, in any of its small crises — a ship distressed in the Straits, a submarine scare, or the raising of a Liberty Loan, the Station could be depended upon to turn like a single man. I have often felt no small pride and gratitude for their exemplary bearing on all occasions and their verve and enthusiasm on any special occasion involving the reputation of their unit. At the close of hostilities, I parted with them with regret, and I trust that they, scattered as they are now in divers pursuits, still draw something of inspiration from the impulse of a common purpose, highly held, and the ideals and traditions of our Navy.

(Lieutenant Erl C. B. Gould.)

Period from 30 September, to 22 January, 1919:

This officer was selected from the officers at Naval Station, Key West, as qualified for command of the station when the former commanding officer was sent to command another station.

He has commanded the station with signal ability, and has now been placed on inactive duty.

From the character and quality of the service performed it is recommended that he be advanced in grade to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, which has previously been recommended by the Commander.

W. B. Fletcher, Rear Adm., U. S. N.,

Comdt., 7th Nav. Dist.