Exception Noted

To save money and lives, Assistant Secretary of War Louis Arthur Johnson, past commander (1932-33) of the American Legion, last summer banned U. S. Army Air Corps planes and personnel from non-military exhibitions, that is, from flying at fairs, civic celebrations, etc. Sole exception: American Legion conventions. Last week Mr. Johnson proudly watched 200 army planes cavort above the Legion's parade in Los Angeles. Next day Mr. Johnson's fellow Legionnaire, Chief of Air Corps Oscar Westover, having directed the Legion air show, took off from March Field for Lockheed Airport at Burbank, Calif. Arriving there, the piloting general skimmed across the field to test the wind, headed back for a landing. Watchers saw his Northrop attack plane spin, crash in flames, set a frame house afire, slice through a parked automobile. The occupants of neither house nor car were injured, but Major General Westover died with his crew chief. Technical Sergeant Samuel Hymes. Ordered to inquire into causes was Major Joseph L. Stromme, who guessed that Pilot Westover had flown too slowly, got caught in a downward thermal draft.

Mourned Chief of Staff Malin Craig who had recommended the promotion of squatable Oscar Westover to Chief of Air Corps in 1935: "More than any other individual . . . he has been responsible for the phenomenal progress of his branch. . . ."

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