Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence - Net Assessment - Book Review

Air & Space Power Journal, Fall, 2002 by Eric Ash

Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence by Robert P. White. Smithsonian Institution Press (http://www.sipress.si.edu), 750 Ninth Street NW, Suite 4300, Washington, D.C. 20560-2300, 2001, 192 pages, $24.95 (hardcover).

It is a sad commentary that airpower historiography has not paid more attention to Maj Gen Mason Patrick, one of the great American airpower pioneers. Bob White's biographical study of Patrick is long overdue. Other than an excellent but unpublished master's thesis by Bruce Bingle and Patrick's own book, published in 1928, we have little more than a tangential historical focus on Patrick. This historical oversight was probably due, in part, to the fact that Patrick alienated some big guns who have claimed most of the historical spotlight.

Ardent, activist promoters of airpower saw in Patrick a sea anchor to progress. One of them, Brig Gen William "Billy" Mitchell, received obvious fanfare that served to eclipse attention toward his superior. Patrick, a careful, politically savvy, and methodical leader, objected to the flamboyant publicist in Mitchell. Patrick also butted heads with Gen Benjamin "Benny" Foulois, who certainly ended up in highly influential positions of leadership. The other famous Patrick contemporary was none other than General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold, who also did not hold Patrick in high regard, even though he was gracious and professional in recognizing Patrick's seminal accomplishments benefiting the Air Corps. Although Mitchell, Foulois, and Arnold may not have deliberately squelched historical attention on Patrick, historians have obliged such a desire, relegating Patrick to the sideline role of airpower antagonist.

Patrick did have support but generally not from airmen. The man who launched him into prominence was West Point classmate Gen John "Blackjack" Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Pershing recognized a problematic situation of "good men running in circles" on the western front due to stubborn personalities and clashing egos, and he called in his old friend to take command and keep the flyboys in line, providing solid support to the ground effort. Patrick fitted the bill perfectly, supporting Pershing just as Maj Gen Hugh Trenchard supported Gen Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force. Not until years after World War I did Patrick change course in his thinking about airpower and internalize a vision of "air-mindedness."

White argues soundly that Patrick was largely responsible for aerial independence by taking a low-profile, practical, and gradualist approach to creating effective systems of military airpower, civilian air service, and aerial manufacturing. Well advanced in years compared to most other airmen at the time--he still holds the record for the senior American airman to receive his wings (at age 59) -- Patrick provided a steady hand on the yoke at crucial times, such as the transition from the Air Service to the Air Corps in 1926. According to White, Patrick worked within the system rather than against it, using time as his ally.

Mason Patrick and the Fight for Air Service Independence reflects solid research of primary and secondary sources, and it enhances our understanding of an important personality in the early history of American military airpower.