One of the most valuable communications services offered by PAA to the Air Corps was that of position reports to Washington and the Canal Zone on Air Corps planes flying between the Canal Zone and the United States. Flying in often turbulent skies over inhospitable stretches of land and water, Air Corps pilots were undoubtedly comforted to be able to check frequently with one or the other of PAA’s radio stations. This safety network PAA had perfected with its own planes. Other special PAA assistance to the Air Corps included cooperation in securing clearance at ports of entry. In Mexico, for example, local Mexican officials were alerted by PAA personnel at Brownsville in time to check with Mexico City about clearance for a scheduled Air Corps flight. The Mexican government usually granted permission for such flights but was often slow in notifying check points.³⁶

In 1931 General Fechet made a flight from the United States to the Canal Zone over the Brownsville-Panama route, touching down at the various PAA fields along the way. After his return he wrote Trippe that he found PAA’s airway to Panama to be excellent and its services carried out with the greatest efficiency.³⁹ Fechet’ praise for PAA was not a shallow formality: the company offered in some respects a substitute for a military airway connecting the United States and the Canal Zone.

By 1931 PAA had bested, pulled abreast of, or struck a bargain with its more important rivals in Latin America,⁴⁰ with the firm support of the United States government. It was fitting that by 1931 PAA was rendering the Air Corps assistance, for in part it was through persistent Air Corps efforts that such a giant as PAA had risen astride the air routes of Latin America. The future would reveal one indisputable value of PAA’s existence in Latin America: during World War II the company helped to mitigate a threat to hemispheric security. Among its contributions were assistance in "de-Germanizing" Scadta, airport development at several strategic points in Latin America, and services for the Air Corps such as radio broadcasts for the safety of military planes.⁴¹

The Good-Neighbor Policy, hinted at in the 1920s and fully developed in the 1930s, proved essential to Latin American cooperation with the United States against a common threat. A manifestation of that policy was the good-will visit of U.S. Flying Fortresses to Brazil in 1939. The visit was "the means …..for publicizing Brazilian-American friendship"⁴² during one of those crisis times when solidarity is a shield.

Today, more than forty years after the young Army Air Service sent its Central American Flight winging from the Canal Zone, the United States Air Force has one of its major commands, the USAF Southern Command, stationed in the Canal Zone. USAFSO backs up the U.S. hemispheric policies embodied in the Rio Pact, the Military Assistance Program, and the Alliance for Progress, thus continuing a vital role of U.S. military aviation.

*The Air Service was renamed Air Corps in 1926, but the title appropriate to the time will be used in this study.

1. It was not until the rise of Hitler in the 1930s that aviation and ideology became inseparable components of the international competition in Latin America. Recent situations in which airborne objects figured in ideological rivalry in Latin America were the Bay of Pigs episode and the Cuban missile crisis.

2. Dispatch with enclosures of Alban G. Snyder to William J. Bryan, 29 April 1913, file 811f,796/-, Record Group 59, Diplomatic Branch, National Archives (Record groups in the National Archives hereinafter cited as R/G; Diplomatic Branch, as DB-NA); "Panama Canal ‘Forbidden’ to Aeronauts," Flying, II (September 1913), 28; Presidential Executive Order #1810, 7 August 1913. Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Canal for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1914 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1914), p. 560; 38 Stat. 2041; 40 Stat. 1668: 40 Stat. 1753-1754; Manufacturers Aircraft Association (comp.), Aircraft Year Book, 1921 (Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1921), p. 204; Year Book, 1920, p. 299; Annual Reports of the Navy Department for the Fiscal Year 1921 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 60 (hereinafter cited as Navy Annual Reports, 1921).

3. Wesley Phillips Newton, "International Aviation Rivalry in Latin America, 1919-1927," Journal of Inter-American Studies, VII (July 1965), 346-50; telegram of Arthur H. Geissler to Charles E. Hughes, 16 December 1922, file 813.796; dispatch of Geissler to Hughes, 5 January 1923, file 813.796/4, R/G 59, DB-NA.

4. Letter of John W. Weeks to Hughes, 12 January 1923, file 813.796/5 weeks to Hughes, 2 March 1923, file 813.796/ 17, R/G 59, DB-NA.

5. Newton, pp. 347-49.

6. "Naval Aviation in South America," Aviation and Aircraft Journal. X (10 January 1921), 54 (Naval aviators also made some of the early postwar flights between the United States and the Canal Zone. See Navy Annual Reports, 1921, p. 55.); Major Raycroft Walsh, Official Report of the Central American Flight, n.d. Correspondence and Report re Central American Flight, file 373, R/G-18, Army and Navy Section, War Records Branch. National Archives. Official Report hereinafter cited as Walsh Report. Correspondence hereinafter cited as Central American Flight Documents. Section hereinafter cited as ANS-WRB-NA; letter of S. S. Bradley to Mason M. Patrick, 9 November 1921, file 360.01, Commercial Aviation to Policy-Civil Aeronautics, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA.

7. Letter of Adjutant General to Commanding General, Panama Canal Department, 31 August 1923, Central American Flight Documents. Because of tension between Mexico and the United States, it was decided to exclude that Latin American country from the charting for the time being. See letter of J. E. Fechet to Chief, Training and War Plans Division, 11 September 1923, reports (by country) Central America to Germany, file 360.02, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA (hereinafter referred to as Reports, Central America to Germany).

8. Letter of Harry S. New to Hughes, 6 September 1923, file 813,796/35; Herbert Hoover to Hughes, 13 September 1923, file 813.796/36: Edwin Denby to Hughes, 27 September 1923, file 813.796/37, R/G 59, DB-NA; first indorsement of Patrick, 25 January 1924 to a letter of Weeks to Hughes, 5 December 1923, Reports, Central America to Germany.

9. Letter of Luther K. Bell to Information Division, U.S. Air Service, 29 October 1923; Ira A. Rader to Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce, 5 November 1923, Reports, Central America to Germany.

10. Note of R. J. Alfaro to Hughes, 26 February 1923, file 819.796/2; Alfaro to Hughes. 15 March 1923, file 819,796/ 3; letter of weeks to Hughes, 30 March 1923, file 819.796/4; Weeks to Hughes, 6 June 1923, file 819.796/7; dispatch of J. G. South to Hughes, 5 December 1923, file 819.796/12. R/G 59, DB-NA; William D. McCain, The United States and the Republic of Panama (Durham: Duke University Press, 1937), pp. 230-33; letter of Carlton Jackson to Director, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, 21 November 1923, Aviation Reports (by country) Italy to South America, file 360,02, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA; "Panama Vulnerable to Air Attack," Aviation, XVI (4 February 1924), 131. In 1926 the United States and Panama signed a treaty, several provisions of which gave the United States tight control of aviation in the whole Panamanian area in peace or war. The Panamanian government, however, ultimately rejected the treaty, and the United States government had to resort to a web of regulations to limit, but not prohibit, flying in the area of the Canal from 1929 on.

11.Report of First Lieutenant Leland W. Miller on the Central American Flight, 16 April 1924, Central American Flight Documents; Walsh Report; report of First Lieutenant L.L. Berry on the Central American Flight, 6 March 1924, Central American Flight Documents (the latter report herein-after cited as Berry Report).

12.Walsh Report; Berry Report: dispatch of John E. Ramer to Hughes, 5 April 1924. Central American Flight Documents; report of Captain H. M. Gwynn to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, War Department, 22 February 1924; dispatch of Geissler to Hughes,14 February 1924, Central American Flight Documents: report of First Lieutenant B. T. Burt to Major Herbert A. Dargue, 24 November 1926, file 373-Aerial Operations-Pan American Flight, January 1927—October 1926, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA (hereinafter cited as Pan American Flight Documents).

13.Walsh Report.

14. In an early expression of one of the ideas implicit in the Alliance for Progress. Walsh advocated in hit report the fullest participation possible by Central Americans in any airmail service. It was necessary, he felt, for their national pride. Added evidence of the "harbinger" role of the Central American Flight is the fact that the War Department had authorized a flight of Air Service planes to participate, in December 1923, in Costa Rican municipal fiestas, after previous such requests by Costa Rica had been turned down. Ostensibly the reversal was to open the way for training experience in future flights of this nature, but the December flight undoubtedly was also a good-will gesture to pave the way for the Central American Flight. By 1923 the United States was beginning to see that demonstrations of good will might accomplish much. See letter of Commanding General, Panama Canal Department, to Adjutant General, 27 November 1923, Central American Flight Documents, and "France Field Pilots Fly to Costa Rica," Aviation, XVI (18 February 1924), 183. Shortly before the Central American Flight departed, General Patrick stated that he understood the Administration was attempting "to foster the goodwill of the Central American countries by all means within its power." See memorandum of Patrick to Secretary of War, 23 January 1924, file 452.1-3295-Sales of Planes Abroad, February 1930—July 1919, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA (file hereinafter cited as Sales of Planes Abroad).

15. Letter of Weeks to Hughes, 14 May 1924, Pan American Flight Documents; memorandum of D. G. M. (Dana G. Munro), 20 August 1924, file 811.71213/15, R/G 59, DB-NA.

16. Letter of Colonel Paul Henderson to Joseph V. Magee, 26 September 1924, Records Relating to Central American Air Mail Service 1924-26, Division of International Postal Service, Bureau of the Second Assistant Postmaster General, R/G 28, Social and Economic Branch, National Archives (hereinafter cited as Central American Air Mail Records, R/G 28, SEB-NA); memorandum of E. D. K. to Francis White, 21 October 1924, file 811.71213/8, R/G 59, DB-NA; report of Roy T. Davis to Hughes, 23 October 1924, Central American Air Mail Records, R/G 28, SEB-NA; letter of Acting Secretary of War to Hughes, 31 November 1924, file 811.71213/11. R/G 59, DB-NA.

17. Letter of Beery to Walsh, 12 November 1924, Central American Flight Documents; Dispatch of Davis to Hughes, 13 November 1924, file 811.71213/14, R/G 59, DB-NA; radio-gram of Magee and Vincent C. Burke to Henderson, 11 November 1924. Immediate Office Correspondence Relating to the Air Mail Service, 1921-1927, Bureau of the Second Assistant Postmaster General, R/G 28, SEB-NA; letter of Major General William Lassiter to Adjutant General, 11 November 1924; Preliminary Report of Magee and Burke to Henderson, 19 November 1924, Reports, Central America to Germany; memorandum of New to Henderson; 8 December 1924, Central American Air Mail Records, R/G 28, SEB-NA; letter of Patrick to Adjutant General, 19 January 1925; first indorsement of Adjutant General, 2 February 1925, to Patrick letter of 19 January 1925; second indorsement of Patrick [7 or 10 (?) February 1925] to Patrick letter of 19 January; 3d indorsement of Adjutant General, 20 February 1925, to Patrick letter of 19 January, Reports, Central America to Germany.

18. "The Mitchell Trial," Aviation, XIX (23 November 1925). 747; New York Times, 13 November 1925.

19. Release of Post Office Department Information Office, 14 October 1925; Panama Star & Herald, 14 August 1925, Central American Air Mail Records, R/G 28, SEB-NA; letter with enclosures of Dwight F. Davis to Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg, 9 September 1925, file 821,796Sca 2/34, R/G 59, DB-NA; Newton, "Aviation in the Relations of the United States and Latin America, 1916-1929," unpublished Ph. D dissertation, University of Alabama, 1964, pp.208-9, 149-54.

20. Report of Major Follett Bradley to Commanding General, Panama Canal Department, 17 August 1925, file 821. 796 Sca 2/34, R/G 59, DB-NA; New York Times, 11-12 December 1925; memorandum of Major W. G. Kilner to Executive, War Plans Division, War Department, 10 November 1925; Major A. W. Lane to Assistant Chief of Staff, War Plans Division, War Department, 9 January 1926; note with inclosure of Kenneth Macpherson to Major George V. Strong, 9 January 1926; memorandum of Strong to Walsh, 12 January 1926: Walsh to Strong, 14 January 1926; Lane to Assistant Chief of Staff, War Plans Division, War Department, 15 January 1926, Central American Flight Documents; General H. H. Arnold, Global Mission (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949), pp. 114-16; report of conversation between L. H. (Leland Harrison) and Viktor von Bauer, 7, December 1926, file 821.796 Sca 2/106, R/G 59, DB-NA.

21. Memorandum of Dargue to Patrick, 22 July 1925, Pan American Flight Documents; letter of F. Trubee Davison to Kellogg, 26 July 1926, Reports (by country) Italy to South America, file 360.02, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA; Official Report of the Pan American Flight, n.d., pp.4-25, 21 December 1926—2 May 1927, file C71.6, R/G 18, ANS-WRB-NA (hereinafter cited as Pan American Flight Report).

22. Letter of Major Ira C. Eaker to Patrick, 22 January 1927, Pan American Flight Documents; Pan American Flight Report, pp. 291-99; reports of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Davis to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, War Department, 28 December 1926, and Charles Forman to State Department, 10 February 1927, Pan American Flight Documents; Pan American Flight Report, pp.299-301.

23. Pan American Flight Report, pp. 87-89; Samuel Guy Inman, "Results of the Pan-American Congress." Current History, XXVIII (April 1928), 97-98; telegram of Philander L. Cable to Kellogg, 2 March 1927, file 811.2310/246; dispatch of Cable to Kellogg, 7 March 1927, file 2310/284. R/G 59, DB-NA; New York Times, 3 May 1927.

24. The State Department withheld approval temporarily of Charles A. Lindbergh’s good-will flight to pans of Latin America in late 1927 and early 1928, probably because of the Pan American Flight’s experiences earlier in 1927. See telegram of Robert E. Olds to Dwight Morrow, 3 December 1927, file 811.79612L64/1, R/G 59, DB-NA.

25. In his report Dargue stated that his good-will mission ("men of war carrying a message of peace and good will") was a success in Latin America, but this mission was not understood in the United States.

26. New York Times, 4 May 1927. MacCracken was not the Commerce Department representative who had favored Von Bauer at the interdepartmental meetings in 1926.

27. Although a reserve officer in the Air Corps, Lindbergh’s efforts toward furthering a United States airline in Latin America cannot be credited to the Air Corps. His efforts were individual or, as in his 1927-28 flight to Latin America that indirectly helped pave the way for such an airplane, were in conjunction with the State Department.