men--sometimes."

CHAPTER VI

The Squadron Takes Wing

1

Only a war pilot can visualize the confusion and excitement incident to
moving a squadron base up to the front. There is work enough for all
even when such a move is foreseen and planned for days in advance, but
when a moving order comes down in the dead of night--as is so frequently
the case--then rank is forgotten. Pilots, Commanders, Supply and
Operations officers, air mechanics, flight leaders, in fact everyone,
from the C.O. down to the lowliest greaseball, pitches in with a gusto
sufficient to produce a miracle. For it is little short of the
miraculous to carry out an order, received at midnight, calling for a
movement at dawn. In fact, one inexperienced in army ways would declare
that it couldn't be done. But Great Headquarters considers only what
must be done, issues orders accordingly, and such is the magic of
discipline and proper spirit that lo! the thing _is_ done. The
impossible becomes possible--and the ordinary!

And so it was with Major Cowan's squadron. The hour they had so long
awaited had come at last. So great was their zeal that with the first
hint of dawn in the east the planes were all on the field, properly
outfitted, finally checked, and ready to go. Even the planes seemed to
be huddled together, poised like vibrant butterflies, eager to take
wing.

McGee and Larkin well knew, from experience, the varied, conflicting
emotions felt by the members of the squadron. Standing near the barren
spot where the large hangar tent had been, they watched the various
members making their last minute preparations. Occasionally they
gathered in groups, all talking at once, and in hurriedly passing one
another they would slap each other on the back with a force greater than
needed in friendly greeting. It was the fevered reaction of nerves! They
had waited for this hour, yes, and at last they were going up to the
front; but every man of them knew that some of them would never come
back. There was a grim gateman up there where the guns roared, waiting
to take his toll.

"They think they are going right in," Larkin said to Red, as he watched
a pilot by the name of Carpenter make the last of at least a dozen
inspections of his two machine guns. "We haven't the foggiest notion
where we are going, but I'll wager we won't see action for several
days."

"I think you are wrong there," McGee replied. "There's a tremendous push
up on the Marne.