A look back at the days of the barnstormers
Part One

The following is an interview with the late Henry Wisener which took place on September 16th, 1998 at Wisener Field in Mineola. The interviewer is Tumbleweed Smith who broadcast it on his Sound of Texas radio program.

 

Tumbleweed Smith: Henry Wisener of Mineola. We’re finally getting together. Man, I can’t tell you how many people have told me to come see you and I am glad to be here.
 

We’re in Mineola and its Sept. 16, 1998. We’re out at the airport and I’ve just got to ask you how in the world did you get into flying in the first place?
 

Henry Wisener: I guess I could explain it, or I should say that during World War I that this old airport was just pasture, of course, and it was used by some of the airplanes out of Love Field. Most of them could ordinarily come down here and back to Dallas without refueling, so cross-country students would come down here along with other places. Quite often they used this.
 

In fact, this 50-acre tract, plus the one that I have north joined there – that is – our old farm on the northeast corner joined the southwest corner of this 50-acre tract where we lived.
 

So one July morning, actually it was 1917, my two brothers, myself, and my father were out on this farm and kept hearing this noise. We first thought it was a motorcar out on the railroad. We kept hearing it so we knew that if it was a motorcar, it would be out of hearing distance soon.
 

My older brother had been to the Dallas fair the year before. He had seen and heard airplanes so he finally recognized, looked up and said, “Lord, its an airplane!” We looked up and the little old airplane looked like it might be a foot long and I’d judge it was at about 3,000 feet.
 

He came on across town and started a general turn to the left, swung back around almost over us and made a pass at the field. In fact, we thought he couldn’t get into the field here but I know now that he was just eyeing it to see if there were any obstructions like rocks or stumps. So he went around the next time and landed.
 

He stopped out near the road and by the time he got his engine shut down and all, my younger brother and I were just old enough to get on over to it, so that was the first time we saw an airplane.
 

Then after World War I, the government figured out a way to raise some money for bonds. They promised the person who got the greatest number of war bonds would get a ride in an airplane. That was about 1919. The man here who won it was Roy Gaston who was the bank president. Nearly everyone in town was out there to see him take his ride. So Roy Gaston became the first civilian to fly from this field. I was still in high school then.
 

One of the fellows who came in occasionally was Lt. Roy Wilson. He was a World War I pilot who had been discharged. I got to help him with his airplanes a little bit. Apparently he sort of took a liking to me. Anyway, he said, “You go with me to sell tickets and work on the engines some and I’ll teach you to fly.” So we spent most of the early summer of 1923 barnstorming to one place or another.
 

Tumbleweed Bill: But you kind of knew early on that you wanted to have something to do with airplanes …

 

Henry Wisener: Right. So we got to talking and he said the only way you could learn to fly properly was one of the military services. I got to checking on the Army Air Corps. They had a cadet program. A person had to pass a rigid physical and, of course, had to have at least a high school diploma, education wise.
 

Lt. Wilson thought about the best thing to do then since we were going on to California anyway. He was based at Clover Field at Santa Monica. So, from the time we started out, I got training flying from one town to another, If he had to fly over a town to advertise a little, I usually went along.
 

Using Standard J1, a training plane, we went on into Santa Monica. He had a “Jenny” there – a Curtis GN4D – that he wanted me to solo in. He soloed me in the Jenny then I came home.
 

I had one grade to go so that’s one reason I left California and came home. I soloed on August 15th, 1923, then came home and took the other year of school. I graduated from high school on the 23rd of May, 1924. In that year, I sent an application I had obtained from the Adjutant General Department in Washington. I filled it out. I had my high school diploma then so I felt pretty good. I thought I had some of it made.
 

I got orders, or instructions I should say because I wasn’t at that time in the Service. It said to report to the station hospital at Brooks Field on the first day of July 1924. So I went down and took the physical. Luckily, I passed it.
 

Then I had to go to the board of examiners. They kind of sized you up as to whether they wanted you. I felt like I could fly if I could learn the way the army wanted me to because I had already soloed and had that ahead.
 

They said to go back on home and wait for further instructions or orders. Later, I got instructions to report to Brooks Field not later than September 15th, 1924. (That was 74 years ago.) When I finally got there, there were 108 in my class and no telling how many more were turned down. I remember in high school we had a belt buckle – it must have been about three inches by an inch-and-a-half or so. It had “Mineola” on it so everybody thought I was from Mineola, New York!
 

Anyway, the first two weeks there were spent just getting used to the place and learning about the life of a cadet. We got our shots and inoculations. I remember there were groups of about eight squads. A Sgt. Williams was in charge of our detail. The first thing he asked was “Has any of you had any kind of military training?” He pointed to me and said “This man looks like he may have had.” He asked me and I said I had been a 1st sergeant in Company B of the 104th Infantry in Mineola. It’s a rifle company so you don’t learn about the drill they do in the infantry.
 

In the two weeks there, the thing I remember most, I guess, is that we had ground school in five subjects – pretty rough ground school. Also, we spent time waiting around to get the results of our tests or examinations. Failure in any two of the five subjects meant that you were washed out. That was it. There was no “do over.”
 

Part Two of Henry Wisener’s story will continue in the next edition of The Gazette.