However, he was emboldened by the successful efforts of Vernon L. Burge, who was taking flying lessons from Lt. Frank P. Lahm at Fort William McKinley. Burge would become the first FAI-certified enlisted pilot, on 14 June 1912. Corporal William A. Lamkey, who entered the US Army Signal Corps on 17 May 1913, had already received pilot training from the Moisant Flying School (1912), and thereby became the second FAI-certified enlisted pilot. In 1912 Ocker (by then Sgt. Ocker) requested a transfer to Aeronautical Division. His commander, Captain Billy Mitchell, approved the transfer, remarking, "I've been thinking of transferring myself." (Mitchell later would head the Air Service American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I). Ocker made the transfer on 23 September 1912, being assigned as "aeroplane mechanician" at the Army Aviation School at North Island, San Diego, California.