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Otherwise it was a standoff between the Fokkers and the French Spads. (If you are interested "Spad" is an acronym derived from the name of the manufacturers, the Societe Pour [[underlined]] l'Aviation et ses Derives). [[/underlined]] The sole function of the chasse pilot was to attack the observation planes, day bombers or balloons of the enemy and to protect the same members of his own side. The last duty brought him into frequent combat with the chasse of the enemy. Thus the chasse pilots on opposing sides did a lot of fighting with each other.

I did not yet know all this when in January 1918 I saw that notice on the bulletin board at the headquarters of the First Battalion, Seventh Field Artillery. It invited me to apply for detached service with the aviation. From the newspapers I had got the impression, which I think most civilians shared, that aviators spent their time just flying around shooting at each other. The only flyers ever mentioned by name, except in casualty lists, were chasse pilots. That was natural. The exploits of chasse pilots were more dramatic and more interesting to the average reader than the doings of observation and bomber crews.  The public kept track of the scores of the aces, much as it now does of the number of passes completed by Joe Namath.

During my brief stay at Le Havre, late in September of 1917, I had paid my first visit to a French barber shop.  The barber seated me and handed me a newspaper.  He pointed to its front-page headline and said [[underlined]] "Guynemer est mort!" [[/underlined]] Although I must have read about Guynemer I am ashamed to confess that I did not at the moment realize who he was. He had been the leading French ace, with official credit for shooting down 48 German planes and/or balloons. He had been missing for two weeks or so, and his body and plane had just been found.  He seems by all accounts to have deserved his status as a