similar to that of college athletes, and was just as vital; and,
inasmuch as the physical safety of football-players and other college
athletic contestants was successfully guaranteed by experienced
trainers, he recommended that several of the best be selected from
leading American universities to go to the aviation-fields and take
charge of the conditioning of the fliers. Two months later,
recommendation was made by the aviation department that from ten to
fifteen such trainers be named by Mr. Camp to go at once to the
aviation-stations and pass judgment on the condition of the fliers
before they were allowed to leave the ground. An unusually large number
of deaths took place in the United States during practise flights of the
aviators early in the spring of 1918, and in May the government
authorized the appointment of an adequate number of college trainers to
carry out the work of conditioning the airmen. Before this time reports
of conditions in England and France established the fact that more
deaths of aviators had been caused by the flight of the airmen when in
poor physical condition than by any defect in the flying-machine.

In all, Mr. Camp's work has been adequately recognized by the Navy
Department as of the greatest benefit, and the constant stream of
testimony from the reserve seamen attached to the various stations that
"there is no place like the navy," is, in some part due to the
activities of this veteran Yale athlete and his associates.




CHAPTER XIV

The United States Marine Corps--First Military Branch Of The National