Foreign-Legion Photo-Op Features Four Future 'First' FliersTwenty motley Americans on a belated two-day Paris getaway honoring the 4th of July received modest mention in a handful of newspapers today. They are volunteers fighting for the French
Légion Étrangère on leave from the Western Front. Four of them are particularly noteworthy as they will one day each escape the misery of trench warfare, learn to fly, and fight in the skies. These four also happen to be in the following photograph, which was taken during their very same Parisian excursion. They are: Victor Chapman, Eugene Bullard, Edmond Genet, and William E. Dugan Jr.
(from the New York Sun, 11 July 1915):
(IMAGE: Edmond Charles Clinton Genet,
War letters of Edmond Genet, the first American aviator killed flying the stars and stripes, C. Scribner's Sons, 1918)
Two would not survive the conflict. Victor Chapman is said to be the 'first American pilot to die in the war'. He had the unfortunate luck to have been twice shot down by German 'Blue Max' aces - the first being Walter Höhndorf (who grazed Chapman's head in an attack on 17 June 1916). Seven days later Chapman was felled fatally by Höhndorf's close friend Kurt Wintgens. Höhndorf and Wintgens shared the spotlight here last month:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg256046#msg256046. Edmond Genet is said to be the 'first American flier to die in after the United States declared war' (as reported here last July:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=12930.msg245869#msg245869). He is believed to have lost consciousness from anti-aircraft fire and fell to earth on 17 April 1917. Our third historic 'first' is of course Eugene Bullard, who is commonly credited as the first African American combat pilot. A false report of Bullard's death headlined here recently:
https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13750.msg255549#msg255549. Our fourth aviator, William Dugan, flew with the Lafayette Escadrille then the U.S. Army 103d Aero Squadron of the American Army, earning the rank of First Lieutenant.
So what happened with these four prospective pilots while in Paris? Insight comes from excerpts of two letters Genet posted to his parents that week, which were posthumously published in 1918:
"
July 7th, 1915: ...I am in Paris for the two days. There were 21 of us came in yesterday afternoon getting here about 9.30 last night. We are... almost "broke" but getting along O. K. in spite of that fact. This is the late P. M. now and we drifted in for a while after walking around the city taking in the sights. All this morning we tried to get some money from our Consul but... there was absolutely nothing doing as far as he was concerned. We did get a few francs from some other American which will carry us through fairly well... Paris is very bright and gay now and crowded. One doesn't see very many Americans though.
July 10th, 1915: The following day, the 8th, ten of us met at the Place d'Opera and went to the Embassy to express our thanks to the Ambassador for using his influence to secure us the two days and we had as our spokesman, the father of one of the fellows, Mr. Chapman of New York, who is very wealthy and a very pleasant man. Mr. Chapman made us all go with him to be photographed for the press as it is believed it was the American press in Paris who got the Ambassador to get us the leave.... One gentleman who was at the Embassy and talked with us handed out fifty francs for tobacco but we thought it best to divide it up, each getting a dollar so we could do what we liked with our share. Mr. Chapman treated us to two Havanas apiece anyway. The following morning (yesterday) we all took the 6 a.m. train back to here — a sorry bunch but mighty glad of the visit to gay Paris.... I'm still pretty sleepy.
Our picture ought to be in the papers of the States — the Herald I should think anyway — one of these present days, and if so I only hope you see it and recognize your 'youngest'. He's sitting down in front between two others. The rest are standing behind. Directly back of me was Chapman, the son of the gentleman who treated us so finely and had the picture taken.... The boy sitting on my left side is William Dugan from Rochester, N. Y.... The colored fellow standing toward the centre of the back row (Bullard) was the life of the party."
Side Bar: Among the American ex-patriots on leave that weekend (though I'm unsure if he's in this photo) was Victor Chapman's Harvard schoolmate and fellow
Legionnaire Alan Seeger, a 'soldier poet' who wrote regular dispatches for the New York Sun (the same paper that printed today's article). An excerpt from Seeger's journal records, "
Notable absence of men in Paris; many women in mourning.... The visit did me good, on the whole, for with all its bringing home the greatness of the sacrifice I am making, it showed me clearly that I was doing the right thing, and that I would not really be so happy anywhere else than where I am. Seeger bled to death in no-man's land during the Battle of the Somme the next year... on the 4th of July. His nephew was the legendary folk singer and social activist Pete Seeger. Thirty-three years later Pete Seeger and Eugene Bullard were both present at what would become known as the 1949 Peekskill Riot, where Bullard was knocked to the ground and beaten by local law enforcement. This incident was captured on film:
https://youtu.be/VvxR2QKdx04
