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 en route 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]
