02.22.2018 - By MacArthur Memorial; Amanda Williams
In August 1914, as decade-old diplomatic crises erupted into war on the European continent, a group of American citizens, in defiance of US President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of neutrality, volunteered for French military service. Of those Americans who volunteered during neutrality, thirty-eight uniquely distinguished themselves not as ambulance drivers or Foreign Legionnaires, but as part of an all-American aero squadron flying for the French Air Service. Dubbed the Lafayette Escadrille...