Lost: 28 Aces

In the private records of the War Department are the names of 64 living War- time aviators each of whom destroyed five or more enemy aircraft. Officially their names are not differentiated from those of any other Air Corps veterans. Unofficially, however, they are rated as "aces." They would presumably be exceptionally useful to their country in the event of another war. But last week the War Department regretfully announced that it had lost track of almost half of its aces, sought through the public prints the whereabouts of 28 of them. Among the "missing" were famed Jerry Vasconcelles, companion of the late Hero Frank ("Balloon Buster") Luke, and Jaques M. Swaab, credited with ten enemy planes.

Pained that the War Department had seen fit to appeal first to the newspapers for news of its heroes, Aviators Post 743 of the American Legion in Manhattan-- only post of Wartime flyers--was able to give most of the "missing" addresses. Ace Swaab, for instance, may be reached through the Hotel Roosevelt, New York. Ace Howard C. Knotts, credited with six planes, is in the law firm of Knotts & Knotts of Springfield, Ill., was secretary of last year's National Air Legislation Congress. Ace Arthur Ray Brooks has had his picture in many a rotogravure supplement as pilot of Bell Telephone's "flying laboratory." Ace Sumner Sewall, longtime traffic manager of Colonial Airways, is now head of Air Ads Inc. (TIME, March 16).

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