They Also Flew: The Enlisted Pilot Legacy, 1912-1942

I purchased this book because, as a former Air Force pilot (Major, Retired), I know one of the officer pilots who is in the book. He is the Air Force General(Retired) who was my former commander in the Reserves, the only General Officer who was "busted" when he was an enlisted man, for "intemperance". Excellent reading.

Many of us assume that every Air Force pilot has been an officer. "They Also Flew" by Lee Arbon, breaks that misconception by keeping alive the personal histories of the 3007 Sergeant Pilots who served between 1912 and 1942. Lee Arbon is well qualified to write the book, as he was one of the Sergeant Pilots trained in 1942. He was later commissioned during World War II and retired as a Major. The book begins in 1911, with Corporal Vernon Lee Burge who learned to fly alongside Lt Frank Lahm at the Phillipine Aviation School at Fort McKinley outside Manila. Being pilot and mechanic, the two men naturally spent a lot of time together. Eventually, Lahm offered to teach Burge how to fly. With this simple act of friendship, a new class of aviator was born. Drawing from original source documents, Arbon created a comprehensive history of the Sergeant Pilot from Vernon Lee Burge in 1912, through George Holmes' retirement in 1957, signifying the end of the United States Air Force enlisted pilot legacy. From France, through the interwar years, and ending with World War II in the southwest Pacific, the personal histories trace the successes and challenges of the Army Air Corps in historical context. The Appendices range from the Public laws creating the Enlisted Pilot program, to the list of every Sergeant Pilot who served on active duty. These comprehensive documents offer a historical context for the personal histories offered in the book. This book needs to be in every Airman's library. This book was on the Air Force Chief of Staff reading list in the 1990s.

If you want to know about the history of the "flying sergeants", this is the book you are looking for. This book is "the reference" and as stated in the comments section, it is very popular with the U.S. Air Force, and is currently being given to attendees of the NCO Academy. The book is considered by the USAF as essential to Non-commisioned officer (NCO) Profession-of-Arms(POA) training. Certainly, if you are looking for in-depth history of the Army Air Corps, or the roots of the USAF, this book is a must. Besides all of that, it was fun to read.