The division of ballooning gave important service, although it also had to be developed from a condition of little consequence. The few balloons of all types possessed by both the Army and the Navy were a small fraction of the number that would be needed. The balloon force consisted of eight officers and sixty enlisted men. The only school for ballooning had been rescued from complete abandonment a few months before we entered the war, but it had accommodations for only fifteen officers and 400 men, while its equipment was both obsolete and meager. A program of expansion in the balloon service was instituted and carried out that, in proportion, was comparable with that of the airplane service. Within a year and a half both Army and Navy were well supplied with all of the various types of balloons and up and down the coasts of the United States and of France and over our troops in the battle lines floated observation balloons manned by eagle-eyed watchers, dirigibles were aiding the coast patrols of both shores of the Atlantic and helping to escort troop and supply ships through the danger zone, kite balloons were giving constant and valuable service and balloons for the scattering of propaganda on and behind the enemy lines were undermining the morale of troops and peoples. For training purposes the one existing school was modernized and enlarged and others were opened, great rubber plants revived the balloon making art, and at the end of hostilities the Army had over 1,000 and the Navy 300 balloons--dirigible, semi-dirigible, supply, target and kite--and the Balloon Corps of the Army contained more than 700 fully trained officers and 16,000 enlisted men, organized into 100 companies, of which 25 were in the battle zone. Plans were then under way to continue the expansion at an increased rate, for developments at the front were constantly making more useful the balloon of every type. To comply with this overseas need arrangements had been completed to increase the Balloon Corps by 1,200 officers and 25,000 men.