Pioneer aviator; although he enlisted in the Avation section of the U. S. Signal Corps during World War I and qualified as a pilot, he served as a flight instructor and never saw combat as a fighter pilot. After the war he was one of the first pilots to carry the U. S. Mail; then, after a stint as a barnstormer, he was selected as a pilot for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition of 1928-1930, and would later serve in various capacities for several commercial aviation entities.