Strategic Loss

At a time when it could ill afford to lose top-flight airmen, the U.S. Army had lost one of its best. Missing somewhere in California's San Joaquin Valley was square-jawed Major General Herbert A. Dargue, 55, chief of-the First Air Force, rated by many the smartest air strategist in the U.S. Missing along with him in the 21-passenger, bimotored transport that served as his command plane were five other Air Force officers, two privates.

Senior in rank to the other three air force commanders in the U.S., General Dargue had been flying since 1913. He was one of the first 24 student pilots the Army trained, saw his first action during the punitive expedition against Mexico in 1915. In 1916, he broke all previous long-distance flight records by soaring 415 miles on a mission in Mexico.

As an A.E.F. observer, General Dargue studied French and British methods of training air corps personnel, began whooping it up for a bigger air force in the '20s. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for successfully leading five amphibians on an 18,000-mile flight through South America, the first of the Pan-American aerial good-will tours. Over Buenos Aires another plane crashed into Dargue's. While he was still too bewildered to think straight, he was thrown from his wrecked plane. His ripcord caught in a bit of debris which opened his parachute and he floated to safety.

Dargue was the antithesis of the hell-raising, devil-may-care aviator. He seldom unbent, drank nothing stronger than beer. He thought nothing of working 16 to 18 hours a day, kept himself in prime physical condition. His performance in the recent Louisiana maneuvers was outstanding. He often took chances he would permit none of his men to take. Piloting his plane from Shreveport to Lake Charles, he was advised that half-a-gale was blowing, that he couldn't possibly come in.

After arguing amiably with his pilot, Major Hugh F. McCaffrey, about the best place to land, he roared in, made a perfect three-point landing.

Dargue seldom allowed Major McCaffrey to take the controls when he was aboard his command plane. When he disappeared last week, it was likely that the stick was in his hand.

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