<text id=00he0209><title>Supporting the War</title>
<history>US Air Force: Events History</history>
<article><hdr>Supporting the War</hdr><body>
<p>For more than a year the revolution moved in a number of directions, eventually splitting into three major forces under three leaders: Carranza, Zapata and Francisco 'Pancho' Villa. In the fighting among the factions, Villa was defeated in March 1915 and retreated north.
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<p>On 13 April, two officers of the 1st were detached and sent to Brownsville, Texas, with a single Martin T airplane for service with the border patrol. Lieutenants Milling and B. Q. Jones planned to use the aircraft for spotting Villa's gun positions across the river from Brownsville, near Matamoros. But the Martin T had no radio, and Villa had abandoned the positions and the town two days before the aviators arrived on 17 April.
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<p>Villa believed in air power, and had his own force of at least three American airplanes flown by at least five American pilots. In April, while a US Martin plane was scouting Villa's abandoned positions, a new Wright Model HS was being delivered from the Dayton factory to Villa's men in El Paso, Texas.
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<p>Late in October 1915, the US recognized Carranza's government, and that act cut off Villa's supply of arms and other weapons from the US. In January 1916, Villa ordered the execution of some US citizens he had captured, and on 9 March his forces crossed the border to attack the town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 19 Americans.
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<p>President Wilson immediately sent a punitive force of 15,000 men under the command of Brigadier General John J. Pershing to the border near Columbus, with orders to get Villa and bring him back, dead or alive. The 1st Aero Squadron was ordered to join the expedition.
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<p>By then, the squadron was at Ft Sam Houston, and it was about 620 miles (998 km), airline distance, to Columbus. The planes were aging, and there were few landing fields and fuel depots between the two towns. The 1st crated its aircraft and set out by rail on 13 March 1916. They arrived two days later, and set up shop. Their eight Curtiss JN-3s were assembled and covered with tarpaulins until a hanger could be built. Their motor transport was requisitioned by the Quartermaster Corps and used for troop supply.
