Corporal Vernon L. Burge was the first enlisted man in the history of American military aviation to train as a pilot. His first flight came as a reward from the Wright Brothers for assisting with the nineteen oh nine Wright airplane trials when they sold the Army its first airplane, a pivotal moment that led him to pursue aviation. Because of a shortage of Signal Corps officers available for instruction, Lieutenant Lahm accepted Burge's request for flight training, and on April twenty-ninth, nineteen twelve, he became the second aviation student at the newly established flying school. On June fourteenth, nineteen twelve, Corporal Burge officially became a pilot by passing the F.A.I. test and receiving aviation certificate number one hundred fifty-four. From nineteen twelve to nineteen forty-two, nearly three thousand enlisted men of the Signal Corps, Air Service, and the Army Air Forces became Sergeant Pilots. Between nineteen twelve and nineteen thirty-nine, more than two hundred earned their wings flying fragile aircraft, and in nineteen forty-two more than two thousand five hundred more became stripe-wearing pilots to meet wartime needs. Eleven rose to the rank of general, seventeen became aces, and one hundred fifty-five were killed in action. Though intended mainly as utility pilots and instructors, Sergeant Pilots played vital roles in the development of military and civilian aviation. During World War One they flew ferry and medical evacuation missions and served in twenty-two campaigns in Mexico, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, and Asia. During World War Two, newly graduated Sergeant Pilots joined troop carrier and Air Transport Command units deploying military forces worldwide; some flew P-forties from carriers in the North Africa campaign, while others flew reconnaissance over Germany in Spitfires and P-thirty-eights. Among enlisted pilots were Ira Biffle, who taught Charles Lindbergh to fly; Bill Winston, who helped prepare Lindbergh for his Atlantic flight; William Ocker, considered the Father of Blind Flight; Walter Beech, co-founder of Beech Aircraft Corp; William McDonald and John Williamson of the aerobatics team Three Men on a Flying Trapeze; Carroll Shelby, who later became a race car driver and designer; and Bob Hoover, a renowned test pilot, aerial demonstrator, and stunt pilot. From nineteen twelve, when Burge became the first enlisted pilot, until nineteen fifty-seven, when Master Sergeant George Holmes retired as the Air Forces' last enlisted pilot, these men served honorably despite formidable obstacles.