Revolution and disorder in Mexico and trouble along the U.S.-Mexican border in March 1913 brought on the hurried organization of the 1st Aero Squadron, the U.S. Army's first tactical unit equipped with airplanes.

In 1916 the squadron took part in General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Mexican revolutionist Pancho Villa.

If the Villistas tired across the border, Cabell was to cross into Mexico, disperse Villa's troops, and withdraw as soon as the safety of El Paso was assured.

Gen. James B. Erwin, Commander of the El Paso District of the Southern Department, were on alert when about 1,600 of Villa's men attacked Juarez during the night of 14/15 June 1919.

[1][2][3] As a result of this incident, Air Service personnel equipped with war surplus Dayton-Wright DH-4 aircraft were ordered to Fort Bliss, Texas, on 15 June.

[1] [4] In the summer of 1919, the Air Service planned to assign at least nine Aero Squadrons and one Airship Company for surveillance of the entire Mexican border from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

The original plan called for two Observation Squadrons (the 9th and 91st) of the Western Department to patrol eastward from Rockwell Field, California, to the California-Arizona line.

Also in August, work started on a large steel hangar for an airship station at Camp Owen Bierne, Fort Bliss (which later became part of Biggs Field).

From January 1920 on, the mission of the Mexican Border Patrol in the Southern Department was assigned to the 1st Surveillance Group that had moved its headquarters to Fort Bliss and gained an extra squadron, the 12th.

Colonel James E. Fechet, Air Service Officer at the Southern Department, found it no easy task to obtain bomb racks, machine gun mounts, cameras, and other equipment.

A double row of ten or twelve tents served as officer and enlisted quarters and sheltered flight headquarters and supply.

The lieutenant, Stacy C. Hinkle, recalled his tour of duty on the border as “a life of hardship, possible death, starvation pay, and a lonely life without social contacts, in hot, barren desert wastes, tortured by sun, wind, and sand.” The boredom was as bad as the physical hardship and discomfort, the sole recreation being drinking and gambling.

[1] Addressing the National Congress of Mexico on 1 September 1919, President Venustiano Carranza said U.S. military planes had crossed the frontier several times.

[16] The Mexican president was probably not aware that one of the flights violating Mexico's sovereignty had been made by the ranking pilot of the U.S. Air Service.

When Stewart said these incidents embarrassed members of the American colony, Acting Secretary of State William Phillips replied: “War Department promises to issue strict orders against repetitions.“[1][19] Not long afterward, Ambassador Bonillas complained that the crew of an Air Service airplane had fired a machine gun several times while flying over Nogales, Arizona.

[1][20] Another incident protested by the Mexican government began with two Americans getting lost while on a routine flight in the Big Bend area of Texas on Sunday morning, 10 August 1919.

[22] At daybreak on Tuesday, August 19, 1919, Captain Matlack once again crossed the border, this time leading Troops C and K, 8th Cavalry, in pursuit of Renteria and his gang.

Leroy M. Wolfe and George L. Usher intended to pick up the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad west of Douglas, Arizona, and follow it to Nogales.

The tracks they had steered by ran due south instead of west, and had led them to Nacozari, Sonora, seventy-five or eighty miles below the border.

A month later it was learned their bodies had been found near Bahía de los Ángeles on the coast of the Gulf of California, 225 miles south of Calexico.

Three days later, a Navy ship, USS Aaron Ward, sailed from San Diego with a group of Army officers to recover the bodies.

Air Service personnel further practiced aerial gunnery and formation flying, experimented with radio and other signaling systems, located and marked emergency landing fields, and worked to upgrade facilities and equipment.

[1][27] Notes References This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency