is. Surviving the arduous course of
training, they receive commissions as ensigns; if they do not survive
they are honorably discharged, being free, of course, to enlist in other
branches of service. The courses last about six months, the first period
of study being in a ground school, where the cadets study navigation,
rigging, gunnery, and other technical naval subjects. Thence the pupil
goes to a flight-school, where he learns to pilot a machine. Here, if he
comes through, the young cadet is commissioned as an ensign. All pilots
in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps hold commissions, but not all of the
pilots in the regular navy are commissioned officers, a few rating as
chief petty officers.

The men who act as observers--who accompany the pilots on their trips,
taking photographs, dropping bombs and the like--are not commissioned.
They are selected from men already in the service, regular seamen,
marines, reserves, or volunteers. Of course, these men have their
opportunities of becoming pilots. The United States seaplanes carry
extremely destructive weapons, which will not be described until after
the war. The Germans, it may be assumed, know something about them.

The spirit of our naval pilots, both students and qualified graduates,
is of the highest, and foreign naval officers have been quick to express
their appreciation of their services. When Ensign Curtis Read was shot
down in February, 1918, while flying over the French coast, his funeral
was attended by many British army and navy officers, and by
representatives of both branches of the French service. Besides the
company of American sailors there were squads of French and British
seamen, who marched in honor of the young officer. The city of Dunkirk
presented a beautiful wreath of flowers.

"Nothing," wrote Ensign Artemus Gates, captain-elect of Yale's 1917
football eleven, and a comrade of Read's in France, to the young
officer's mother, "could be more impressive than to see a French
general, an admiral, British staff-officers, and many other officers of
the two nations paying homage."

The death of Ensign Stephen Potter, who was killed in a battle with
seven German airplanes in the North Sea on April 25, 1918, followed a
glorious fight which will live in our naval annals. Potter was the first
of our naval pilots to bring down a German airplane, and indeed may have
been the first American, fighting under the United States flag, to do
this. His triumph was