Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps Paul Ward Beck (1 December 1876 – 4 April 1922) was an officer in the United States Army, an aviation pioneer, and one of the first military pilots.

He is generally credited as being the first military officer to advocate an air force for the United States separate from the control of other branches of the Army.

The son of a cavalry officer, Beck developed an interest in aviation while detached to service with the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Benicia, California, in 1908–1910, attending several air meets.

He was one of four students in the first class of U.S. Army and U.S. Navy pilot trainees taught by Glen Curtiss beginning January 1911, and commanded the "provisional aero company" at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

During his service in the Philippines between 1900 and 1902 in the Philippine–American War, Beck served with Company C, 5th Infantry, and was promoted to first lieutenant on 25 March 1902 while stationed at Vigan, Luzon.

[3] He engaged in several actions, including a small battle at Parparia, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, on 15 February 1901 in which he commanded the detachment.

[n 2] After the United States entered World War I, Beck received temporary promotions to major and to lieutenant colonel on 5 August 1917, the latter with the 31st Infantry.

[3] Beck transferred to Camp Fremont, California, and on 9 April 1918 became the lieutenant colonel of the 12th Infantry, training for combat in Europe as part of the 8th Division.

On 5 October 1918 Beck accepted his highest career rank, that of colonel (temporary, Infantry),[3] to become military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba, 1918–1920.

[3][n 3] After completing the Signal Corps School in 1906, Beck was detached on 2 February 1907 for commissioning and service in that branch with assignment to duty at the Benicia Barracks in California.

[7] On 19 January he went up in a Farman III biplane flown by renowned French aviator Louis Paulhan to drop two-pound sandbags in a demonstration of the feasibility of aerial bombing.

[10] At the same time the commanding general of the Western Division assigned Beck to organize and act as secretary for the International Air Meet taking place at Selfridge Field on the grounds of the Tanforan Racetrack in San Francisco, where Kelly and Walker also participated.

On 15 January an officer in the Coast Artillery Corps, 2nd Lt. Myron S. Crissy, dropped 36 pounds of small bombs of his own design by hand from a Wright B biplane flown by Philip Parmalee at an altitude of 1,500 feet (460 m).

On 21 January Beck was given a written message to send by wireless transmitter to a receiver 40 miles (64 km) away, the first military use of aerial telegraphy.

[11][n 4] The next day Kelly and Brookins flew the aerial reconnaissance mission at 2,000 feet (610 m) to find a troop of cavalry and a battery of artillery from the Presidio approaching the 30th Infantry through the San Bruno Hills but were unable to locate them.

[9] Following a public exhibition of stunt flying on 26 and 27 January by instructors Glenn H. Curtiss, Hugh A. Robinson, and Eugene B. Ely, staged on adjacent Coronado Island by the San Diego Aero Club, the school began its course of instruction on 28 January for the three army officers, Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson of the United States Navy and two civilians.

[14][n 6] The students advanced to flying the more powerful eight-cylinder Antoinette monoplanes and Curtiss biplanes, usually in the hours just after dawn when conditions were calm.

The school ended its first course at the beginning of April and the three officers were sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where the "Maneuver Division" had been assembled as a show of force against Mexican revolutionaries, to continue their training.

Foulois had also trained himself to fly on the army's first airplane, the Wright Military Flyer, which was also a source of friction and rivalry with the Curtiss pilots.

However the investigating board, of which both Foulois and Beck were members, ruled that Kelly's death resulted from landing at too high a speed and striking the ground with a wingtip when he attempted a turn.

Beck was ordered there as the instructor on the Curtiss machine on 15 June 1911, but Foulois remained on duty with the Maneuver Division until 11 July, when he was reassigned to the Militia Bureau in Washington D.C.[12] Until that point the army had not set down any regulations or standards for qualifying as a pilot.

[19] On November 28, 1911, the aviation school relocated from College Park to Augusta, Georgia, for the winter; Beck's father died two days before the move and he remained in Washington, D.C. until January.

[20] During his command of the provisional aero company, Beck came into conflict with superiors in the Signal Corps, which may have been a factor in the Army's decision to invoke the "Manchu Law" on 1 May 1912 and return him to his "arm of service," the Infantry.

[11] In February 1913, Representative James Hay (Democrat-Virginia), a gadfly of the traditional Army and a persistent opponent of the "Manchu Law," introduced a bill intended to establish a semi-autonomous "Air Corps," whose provisions included many of those advocated by Beck.

The original bill had its language expunged following the hearings and was rewritten to include some of the provisions while keeping aviation in the Signal Corps.

[24][n 13] Following his graduation from additional pilot training, Beck and his family were assigned to Henry Post Field as commandant of the Air Service Observation School.

Beck was friends with prominent oilman Jean P. Day (1877–1964), a retired member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and his wife Aubie.

[29] The Army assigned a board of three officers stationed at Post Field[n 15] to attend the inquest, investigate the circumstances, and report their findings to the Secretary of War.