PBA Galleries

Scrapbook with 21 leaves having items glued to both sides, with some multi-leaf insertions; additional blank leaves at rear. 8½x12¾, wrappers.

Documentary record of the military service of John R. McKee, who left the University of California at Berkeley during his junior year to become a sergeant in the Enlisted Reserve Corps of the Army of the United States, signing up on April 28, 1917, three weeks after the entry of the U.S. into the first world war. McKee was to transfer to the signal corps, eventually earning his pilot’s wings, but too late to see service in France. Present are his initial Certificate of Enlistment; his orders to report for training; a request from his draft board to take a physical, which he objected to on the grounds that he was already enlisted; newspaper clippings referring to McKee’s progress in the army; orders to report for training in the signal corps; his certificate of graduation from the United States Schools of Military Aeronautics; his appointment as 2nd lieutenant; his appointment as Assistant Adjutant to headquarters at the Signal Corps Aviation School, Hazlehurst Field, Long Island; recommendations for 1st lieutenant (which were long to be acted upon); his physical for service in the Aviation Section of the signal corps; record of his flying instruction and hours aloft; promotion to 1st lieutenant (some six months after initial recommendation); and more. In addition, there are about 26 photographs of various sizes mounted to the leaves, and about 14 loose photographs laid in. Also laid in are a number of invitations and other items.