6 April 1942 to 9 September 1943 · Haitianspan
Haiti sells its cotton to a war and gets an air force
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President Élie Lescot went to Washington and stayed at the Shoreham hotel, and on 6 April 1942 he and Sumner Welles signed a memorandum. The United States would buy the whole Haitian cotton crop for the duration of the war, the Export-Import Bank would advance two million dollars to hold up the gourde, sisal production would rise to meet war demand, and Haiti would receive artillery, aircraft and a Coast Guard detachment. Five patrol boats took over the yard at Bizoton to hunt submarines off the coast, and the yard was rebuilt around them. American gunners sited coastal batteries at Port-au-Prince, at the Môle and at the Cap, giving the Garde its first artillery. In the summer of 1942 six Douglas O-38 aircraft arrived at Bowen Field. All six were wrecked or grounded within a year, and they began the Corps d'Aviation, made a separate unit on 9 September 1943 under Captain G. Edouard Roy, the first Haitian to fly. Roy started an airmail and transport service in June 1943 that became COHATA, the national airline.
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