Rep. James Hay (D-VA) is best known for his controversial work in federalizing the National Guard in 1916.
The Hay Bill to create an independent air force is taken from:
U. S. Congress, House of Representatives. A BILL To increase the efficiency of the aviation service of the Army, and for other purposes. HR 28728. 63rd Congress, 1st Session. Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs: 5-6.
These papers have been reproduced as originally written. If you find any errors in my transcription, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Rep. James Hay (D-VA)
12 August 1913
A BILL To increase the efficiency of the aviation service of the Army, and for other purposes. HR 28728. 63rd Congress, 1st Session. Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and there is hereby, created an Aviation Corps, which shall be a part of the line of the Army, and in which there shall be officers in number, and with rank while serving in said corps, as follows, to wit: One officer with the rank of major, who shall be the commandant of said corps and of the aviation school hereinafter authorized; two officers with the rank of captain; and not to exceed thirty officers with the rank of first lieutenant. All of said officers shall serve, as the Secretary of War may direct, as instructors, aviators, or pupils at the aviation school, or with organizations of the Army. The officers of each grade in the Aviation Corps shall be detailed from among officers of the Army of the same grade or of the next lower grade, and the provisions of section twenty-seven of the Act of Congress approved February second, nineteen hundred and one (Thirty-first Statutes, page seven hundred and fifty-five), are hereby extended so as to apply to the Aviation Corps in the manner and to the extent to which they now apply to the Signal Corps, but nothing in the said act or any other law shall be held to prevent the detail or redetail, in the Aviation Corps, at any time, of any officer who has heretofore or shall hereafter become especially proficient as a military aviator. No officer shall be detailed as commandant of the Aviation Corps unless he shall have displayed especial skill and ability as a military aviator, and no officer shall be detailed to any office in said corps against his will, or until he shall have been found qualified for service in said corps by an examining board composed of three experienced military aviators and two medical officers. Officers of the Aviation Corps shall, while on duty that requires them to participate in aerial flights, receive an increase of fifty per centum in the pay of their respective grades in said corps. Such number of enlisted men as the Secretary of War may deem necessary shall be detailed for service and instruction in the Aviation Corps, and those enlisted men who have heretofore or shall hereafter become qualified for the performance of the duties of aviation mechanician and who shall have received certificates of qualification as hereinafter provided, shall, while serving as such mechanicians, receive an increase of fifty per centum in the pay of their respective grades. The Secretary of War shall prescribe such qualifications as he may deem necessary to justify the rating of military aviator for officers and of aviation mechanician for enlisted men, and he shall cause suitable certificates in evidence of such ratings to be prepared and issued by The Adjutant General of the Army to such officers and enlisted men as are now or shall hereafter become entitled to receive such certificates under regulations that shall be prescribed by the Secretary of War: Provided, That there shall be an aviation school for the instruction of officers and enlisted men detailed for duty in or with the Aviation Corps, and of such other officers and enlisted men of the Army or of the Organized Militia as the Secretary of War may authorize to attend said school. The aviation school shall be located and maintained at a military post owned by the United States and not within the District of Columbia, and the headquarters of said corps, including the station of the commandant thereof, shall be located and maintained at said military post; but the location of the aviation school and of the station of the commandant of the Aviation Corps may from time to time be changed from one mili-
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tary post to another, outside the District of Columbia, in order to meet aerial, climatic, or other conditions that shall, in the judgment of the Secretary of War, render a change of said location necessary: Provided further, That there shall be paid to the widow of any officer or enlisted man who shall die as the result of an aviation accident not the result of his own misconduct, or to any other person designated by him in writing, an amount equal to one year’s pay at the rate to which such officer or enlisted man was entitled at the time of the accident resulting in his death, but any payment made in accordance with the terms of this proviso on account of the death of any officer or enlisted man shall be in lieu of and a bar to any payment under the Acts of Congress approved May eleventh, nineteen hundred and eight, and March third, nineteen hundred and nine (Thirty-fifth Statutes, pages one hundred and eight and seven hundred and fifty-five), on account of the death of said officer or enlisted man: Provided further, That the Aviation Corps be, and it is hereby, charged with the duty of operating all military aircraft, including balloons and aeroplanes, and all appliances pertaining thereto, including signaling apparatus of any kind when installed on said craft; also with the duty of teaming officers and enlisted men in matters pertaining to military aviation: Provided further, That such property, records, books, and papers, now in the custody of the Signal Corps, or of the chief thereof, as pertain to the duties hereby imposed upon the Aviation Corps, shall be transferred to the custody of the commandant of the Aviation Corps.
SEC. 2. That the Quartermaster Corps be, and it is hereby, charged with the duty of procuring and distributing the material and supplies of every description that are to be used by the Aviation Corps in the discharge of the duties imposed upon it by this act.
SEC. 3. That the Aviation Corps shall be subject to the supervision of the Chief of Staff equally with other branches of the line of the Army.
SEC. 4. That all laws and parts of laws, so far as they are inconsistent with the terms of this act, be, and they are hereby, repealed.
SEC. 5. That this act shall take effect on June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen.
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