Earle R. Southee was so good-hearted he killed a guy. I don't mean that
he actually killed him, but you can see for yourself from the following
story that, nevertheless, he killed him.
Southee was a civilian flying instructor to the army before the war,
when the Signal Corps was the flying branch of the army. He was also an
instructor during the war, after the Air Service had been created.
It was while he was instructing at Wilbur Wright Field during the war
that he met up with this guy. The guy had come down there to learn to
fly and then go to France and shoot Germans--or get shot by them. For
some reason or other he couldn't pick the stuff up. Some people are like
that. They simply can't get going when they first start to learn to fly.
Most of them actually have no flying ability and ought to quit trying.
It's not in their blood. But occasionally you run across one who later
gets going and is all right.
This guy came up to Southee for washout flight. He was so obviously
broken up over the idea that he was going to get kicked out of the Air
Service into some other branch of service, he loved flying so much, that
Southee took pity on him, held him over a while, gave him special
instruction, and finally got the guy through. The guy even became an
instructor himself, and a very good one.
Later, most of the gang was transferred to Ellington Field, Houston,
Tex. At Ellington, this guy had such a tough time at first, got so hot,
that he was made a check pilot and put in charge of a stage or section.
One day one of the students came up to him for washout check. The kid
was just as broken up about it as he was. He gave the kid a chance, like
Southee had given him. Three days later the student froze on him, spun
him in, and lulled him.