Japan declared war on the United States and Spain joined forces with her. They secured the aid of Mexico and established an air base there. The United States was unprepared for war as they had not kept up the programme of building a sufficient air fleet to protect the country against invasion by such a large fleet as commanded by Japan and Spain. There was a hasty call by the Government for volunteers to the Aviation Corps. Robert Gordon and Walter Kennelworth hastened to Washington, tendered their services to the Government and joined the Aviation Corps. They were made Lieutenants and ordered immediately to San Antonio, Texas, where the Southern Aviation Division had its headquarters. Robert offered the benefit of his experience to the officials, but older and wiser heads refused to listen to his advice because they thought he was too young. At that time they knew nothing about his long years of secret work and his great inventions, but they soon learned the value of his discovery and patent which he had sold to Japan,--the muffler which made the airplane silent. The United States Government fearing that Japan would make the first attack on the Pacific Coast either around Los Angeles or San Francisco, rushed the battle fleet to the Pacific. This proved to be one of the greatest mistakes of the war. As soon as the battleships cruised into the Pacific, Japan attacked from the air with their noiseless airplanes and began dropping deadly bombs from great heights. The anti-aircraft guns from the decks of the battleships were powerless to reach the bombing planes at such great heights. Defeat was swift and severe and only a few of the battleships escaped complete destruction from the first attack. The United States Officers had found that the Japanese planes could rise more than twice the altitude of the United States planes. They knew that Japan had some invention that was superior to ours which enabled them to reach such great heights that their airships were practically immune from attack. This placed the United States at a great disadvantage as they were unable to protect the coast cities from being destroyed by bombs from the Japanese planes.