All American Pathfinders

The All American Pathfinders aeroplane unit was a squadron with 13 aircraft and associated road vehicles used in the "1919 Air Service Transcontinental Recruiting Convoy"^[1] from Hazelhurst Field to California that began on August 14, 1919.[1] The convoy was enroute to California concurrent with the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy and included a "Balloon and Airship section" and a "Searchlight and Field Lighting section" (the convoy commander, Major Ora M. Baldinger, operated the unit as a "mobile army post".)[2] The convoy was over 1/2 mile long and was "to secure accurate information to be used in connection with the carrying of mails by airplanes, and for military purposes, as well as commercial purposes."^[2]

Airfields used by the squadron included:

August 16, Gettysburg Battlefield -- drill ground of the former Camp Colt, Pennsylvania [3][4][5]
Columbus, Ohio -- 9 Curtiss planes used the field[6]
August 28, Shillington, Pennsylvania near Reading -- 2 Curtiss JN4 and a big Curtiss photographic plane were behind the main body of the convoy.[7]

References

^ "Army Orders". The New York Times. July 23, 1919. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0F11FA3D5C147A93C1AB178CD85F4D8185F9. Retrieved 2011-04-06. "Grower, 1st Lt. R. W., to Hazelhurst Field, to accompany the Air Service Transcontinental Recruiting Convoys, then to station in this city."
^ "Flying Circus of All America Coming to Montana" (Google News Archive). The Times-Optimist (Gilman, Montana). September 12, 1919. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ycVlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Oo4NAAAAIBAJ&dq=aerial%20convoy&pg=7296%2C1676049. Retrieved 2011-04-06.