A single issue of the cadet-run weekly paper published by Pericat in Tours, France. “Edited weekly by the Cadet Aviators in France”-- namely, “Buck” Weaver, “Grub” Clover, and “Gravy Owen.” Single folded broadsheet, 24.25 x 18 inches. [4]p. In Good condition with small pinhole losses and closed tears along the fragile folds, several small chips along the lower spine. OCLC lists 4 general publication holdings in the United States.

The main feature is a blow-by-blow account of the Hennessy vs. Brown boxing re-match that took place at the Second Aviation Instruction Center (home base of our cadets) on June 16. Alongside a roundup of goofy inserts and advertisements, this last issue of The Wing Slip marks a turning point in the well-documented chaotic organization of the American Expeditionary Forces upon US engagement in WWI: a shortage of planes, bottleneck of aviation cadets against limited facilities and personnel for training, delays in communication and constantly shifting strategies contingent on the state of aviation resources and the course of the war itself. 

One standout article gives a first-hand account of the delays from the perspective of Howard L. Montgomery, “Cadet History… Space Limits Proper Account of Birth and Death of Out (sic) Unique Organization.” Montgomery was an early recruit who would eventually rise to the rank of First Lieutenant but languished as one of the first group of cadets sent from Mineola in New York to train in France in 1917:

“Historians of Americas's entry into the World War will, if they have any sense of humor at all, have to devote at least part of a chapter to that hybrid military species which cropped up in the Aviation program in the early stages of its existence…  he should dip his pen in a mile vein of satire and write slowly, for their ‘evolution’ was as wild and chaotic as a kaleidoscopic dance.” 

He goes on to chronicle the deployment to France (“Conceived in Patriotism, and Obliterated at a stroke of a Field Clerk’s pen”) and the hodge-podge developments in training and facilities that left the men in a holding pattern while newer recruits training in the United States were able to advance:

“In those pioneer days it took some time for an order to move through those proverbial ‘military channels’ so that the newly elevated ‘cadets’ found themselves posing more or less gracefully, first in one status and then in another; and being most of the time in an official quandary as to their rights and privileges, they ran the gamut of army existence… Meanwhile back in the States men entering the service long after the men over here, favored with better conditions, had finished their training and been commissioned. And in some cases had come over here to be put in charge of their former camarades.”

Montgomery's humor captures the farcical aspects while articulating the frustration of men who “have earned their bars and the right to be looked upon as officers.” And, having finally been commissioned, he contemplates the end of “Cadet days” as the chaotic spectacle his cohort experienced—and that allowed for the publication of this paper, which was to cease now that the boys were off to the action.  

Notable literary contents include the rallying affirmations of “I am Morale” (unattributed): “I am the resulting component of the Spirit of many individuals… The driving force of Democratic Armies… My light burns brightest in the hearts of men whose enlightened reason shows they fight for right… This makes me impervious to enemy attacks from the front…” and a poem by John Stone, “Good By, Wing Slip:” “Grieved are we lo toll the parting bell / And bid our noble Wing Slip Au Revoir… Where sons have come and gallantly have wed, / The Maiden of the clouds that holds the shield. / Where friends are made, the kind that has no end, / Unless it be above the German lines...”

References:
Cameron, Rebecca Hancock. Training to fly: military flight training, 1907-1945. Air Force History and Museums Programs, 1999.