Dr. Edmund L. Gross, the then director of the American Ambulance Service, along with his friend Norman Prince, an American aviator flying in the French Air Service persuaded the French Army to create an American volunteer air unit. Their efforts, in part, would lead to recognition by the French officials of the American volunteer's contribution and further to raise awareness and interest in joining the conflict in Europe, back home in the United States.
In March 1916, the French government acquiesced and authorized the creation of the Escadrille Américaine. The “American Squadron” number 124 was sent to Luxeuil-les-Bains in late April. The Americans would prove the valuable benefits of devoted fighters used as bomber escorts. However, the Escadrille met with slow success on the homefront. Aviation at the time was a strictly upper-class occupation. Aircraft were expensive to build, buy, and maintain.
In December, German protests over the involvement of a supposed neutral power led the renaming of the squadron to the Lafayette Escadrille in honor of Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette who had aided the Americans during their war for independence. Shortly thereafter, the Squadron was moved closer to the front in Bar-le-Duc. There they participated in their first mission as a protective escort for the French 4th Bombardment Group. This mission was one of the very first attempts at control of the airspace over the Western Front, further, it provided the squadron's pilots with invaluable experience.
Pilots in the First World War ran incredible risks and suffered tremendous casualties. The occupational hazards alone claimed countless lives. Aircraft of the time were slow, unreliable, difficult to maintain, thinly armored, offered very little in the way of safety precautions, and the pilots themselves lacked the experience necessary to forestall catastrophy. Four months after their first aerial victory, the pilot who had recorded it was killed when he was hit in the neck with an explosive bullet. Norman Prince died when he crash-landed after a bombing raid over Germany. Men could be thrown from their seats in a bank, only to fall thousands of feet to a grisly death. Men who had properly secured themselves could be burned alive when their aircraft went up. The father of Victor Chapman who had been killed when he intervened in a dogfight where other Lafayette pilots were outnumbered wrote of their sacrifice:
That our country should have a share in the grief of this war is the only way in which it can partake of the blessings that lie concealed behind the tragedy. It is a kind of world sacrament.
In February 1918, the Lafayette Escadrille was absorbed into the US Army Air Service as the 103rd Aero Squadron. For a short while they retained their French equipment and even their French mechanics. However, most of the veteran members were sent to train newly arriving American pilots. The 103rd would serve with distinction, claiming 49 further kills prior to the signing of the Armistice in November.
