Evening Star Newspaper, October 19, 1930, Page 91

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, OCTOBER_ 19, 1930 ';\America’s Most Al1-Round Flyer Lieut. T. G. W. Settle, U..S. N., who ean fly anything that is flyable, from a parachute to the new Navy dirigibles whose construction he is overseeing. BY ISRAEL KLEIN. E might be called an expert in every form of air transporta- tion. He has made practice parachute jumps, hopped off in Lieut. Settle of the United States Navy Is, Perhaps, the -OnlyMan in the World Qualified and Licensed to Fly Every Type of Aircraft. 8. 8. Whipple, anfther destroyer, as engineer officer and later as executive officer, and saw duty in Cuban %aters, the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and in Chinese waters. It was the Whipple which, with other United States and foreign warships, rescued 75,000 white Russian refugees from the invading Bolsheviki in 1920, and moved them overseas from the Crimea to Constantinople. Settle came back to America in the Sum- mer of 1922 and began a post-graduate course at Annapolis in electrical engineering ana aviation radio engin:zering. Even then, he only by chance veered toward aviation. “About this time,” Settle recalls, “officers were being encouraged to take special courses in electrical engineering, and that’s how I got into it. Then, when a call came for volun- teers in aviation radio, I signed up for that.” For two years he went to school, a year at Annapolis and another at Harvard, then back to the Naval Bureau of Engineering at Belle- vue, until, in July, 1924, he was ready for active duty as aviation radio T, Since then, for the last six years, Lieut. Set- tle has involved himself in aviation so deeply that he has become perhaps the only all- around fiyer in the world. Sl'l'fl.x is quite modest about his achieve- ments in aviation, insisting that his work has been merely in the regular “line of duty.” His modesty is beguiling, however, for time passes fast in his company. His highbrowed, Secured to the Los Angeles by a tripping arrangement hung a little glider, into which Lieut. Settle had climbed by a rope ladder. he holds licenses covering all flying craft, out- side commercial and transport types of air- planes, and he hopes soon to obtain his licenses for these, too. Curiously enough, Lieut. Settle started out in the Navy without the least intention of entering aviation. Son of an Army officer, he had moved about the world quite a bit in his younger days, wherever his father happened to have been transferred. By 1914, he thought he had had enough of the Army, and so he entered the Naval Academy, a presidential ap- pointee. in the Fall of 1915, when he was al- most 20. The war had started, the United States got into it in April of 1917, and so the courses at Annapolis and West Point were shortened con- siderably in order to hasten the making of much needed officers. Thus Lieut. Settle fin- ished the regular four-year course in 1918, three years after entering. FROH'.hemunentoththtbnwme Summer of 1922, for four years, Settle was assigned here and there as any other naval officer would be, starting with the lowest duties and going to the highest to which his rank entitled him—that of executive officer of a ves- sel. He was watch officer, or officer of the deck, on the transport Martha Then watch torpedo officer on the destroyer Sampson, which acted as convoy escort into British ports and, incidentally, cruised more miles in the war zone than any other United States destroyer, passing the 100,000-mile mark at the time of the armistice. Later he became engineer officer of the de- stroyer Chew, doing duty in Cuban waters, in the Mediterranean and on the West Conci. Prom the U. 8. 8. Chew he went to the U. sun-tanned, positive face, his brown-gray eyes and his aggressive chin compel audience while he recites what he thinks is an ordinary story of a naval officer’s duties. Once entered into the spirit of aviation, Set- tle found himselt going from one remarkable experience to another. He was a member of the crew of the ill-fated Shenandoah as radio communications officer, On the Los Angeles in various capacities. Pilot of blimps, free balloons and kite balloons, those “held captive” by long cables to the ground. Participant in the last four years as a member of the navy team in the national balloon races and in the Gordon Bennett International Bale loon race from St. Louis, last year. Second to fly in a glider from the Los Angeles, 3,000 feet up. Record holder for a certain class of balloon. Airplane pilot by his own choice. The list is only partial. “From the time I arrived at Lakehurst as radio communications officer, in July, 1924,” Settle says, “I wanted to take heavier-than-air training. In fact, when T was sent to Lakehurst, I got an unofficial promise that I could go to Pensacola later. But things have turned out so that all my heavier-than-air training has been on the outside, while I was on leave and at my own expense. “It has always been the policy of the Navy to train its men in one branch and make them proficient in that. It would not be economical from a service point of view to instruct men in more than one branch of the service.” 8 a result of this policy, Lieut. Settle took up lighter-than-air flying, in addition to his work as radio engineer, or radio communi- cations officer. During his early training he Just before the take-off of the 1930 National Balloon Race at Houston, Tez. Lieut. Settle is shown at left, about to pilot the Navy entry. made a number of voyages on the Shenandoah. He was not aboard the thip, however, when it struck the squall in Ohio and was wrecked. From the time the Los Angeles arrived as the ZR-3 from Germany, in October, 1924, until PFebruary, 1929, Settle was one of the ship’s offi- cers, first as radio communications officer, then as engineer officer and finally as executive offi- cer, standing “commanding officer” watches. While he was radio communications officer, Settle was also a student in the courses given at Lakehurst for balloon and airship pilots. By January, 1928, he had qualified as pilot of all types of lighter-than-air craft, including free balloons, kite balloons and blimps, and got his license as “Naval Aviator (Airship).” That F¥os Heghe néigs §§§§§§§ | field when I was released. As I fell away from the ship, nosing the glider down a bit, I knew that I couldn’t make the field unless I worked myself to windward. When I got down to about 2,000 feet, the wind velocity was much less, and by cruising a short while I succeeded in working back to the field. The whole flight _ took about 12 minutes.” That was the second time a glider had been released from an airship, the first experience having been that of Lieut. Ralph S. Barnaby, who did the trick last February over Lakehurst, B¢ Efssa Ei BE egE @ o~ :g%{ The tiny glider fell away from th’: big filp Lieut Settle brought the motorless ship down in 12 minutes, ¢ man ever to achieve the stunt.