The following is a reflection by Grey Ocreto, a rook in the Corps, on their work as one of three students at the Archives transcribing the World War I record of service surveys sent out to alumni in the 1920s. Reading about the diversity of Norwich alumni’s military roles during the war spawned this project, focusing on soldiers who received training at U.S. Army hot air balloon schools. Grey is pursuing an Education major and has an interest in joining the Ohio National Guard after graduation.
Not everyone has seen a hot air balloon in person, never mind having an opportunity to ride in one. However, during WWI, the U.S. Army commissioned men to fly balloons overseas. The men interested in commissioning into the “Star Polishers” or the Balloon Service, had to attend one of the Balloon Schools on an Army base, like Fort Omaha in Nebraska.
While the end of WWI saw the rise of the aeroplane’s use, at first they were dangerous machines to fly. However, hydrogen balloons were perfect in all the ways the aeroplane was not. Balloons were able to fly over enemy lines well above the range of artillery weapons, which gave them a vantage point to do reconnaissance.
The balloons were also difficult to shoot down, one of the few risks a soldier ran in a balloon was accidentally falling out of the basket. One Norwich University graduate, Second Lieutenant George Edwin Lothrop, did just that! Luckily, he survived and returned to Norwich, graduated in 1919, and fulfilled his aspiration to work on the railroad that summer while employed by the Mount Washington Cog Railway.
Lothrop was not the only person from Norwich to attend the Fort Omaha Balloon School. In fact, the man in charge of the entire program, Major Henry Blanchard Hersey, graduated from Norwich in 1885 and worked alongside and won an international balloon race with a West Point graduate, Captain Frank Purdy Lahm. Under Hersey and Lahm’s leadership, Norwich graduates attended and completed their aviation training and fought overseas in France during WWI.
A balloon heading towards St. Maurice, France, as seen by Norwich attendee and ambulance driver, duVal Allen.
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