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a Nieuport that was I believe the smallest type of plane ever used in combat. As the 94th came in that day lhe leading plane did a barrel roll over the field.  I heard later that its pilot was Major Raoul Lufbery, the first commander of the 94th.  He was French-born but an American citizen.  While in the Lafayette Escadrille he received official credit for shooting down 17 German planes.  But he was himself killed in May, when the 94th had been in action only a few weeks.

Jumping ahead a bit to August of that summer, I met Lufbery's successor.  He was Captain David Peterson, another veteran of the Lafayette Escadrille.  I happened to be an unexpected luncheon guest of the 94th squadron.  I had gone up that morning with a pilot who had recently come to us as a replacement. I had never flown with him before.  We were scheduled to help protect a photographic mission.  As we were on our way in formation the pilot complained that he could not steer the plane properly because the ailerons kept sticking.  He dropped out and landed at the nearest field, which happened to be that of the First Pursuit Group (94th, 95th and 27th). At the headquarters office Peterson introduced himself and invited us to have lunch while their mechanics worked on our plane.  We did.

The mechanics could find nothing wrong.  When we finally took off for home the ailerons gave no trouble.  Incidents like that always made an observer wonder about his pilot.  I never flew with that one again.  Some weeks later I read that Eddie Rickenbacker had taken command of the 94th. I never heard what became of Peterson.

Amanty was an excellent place from to which to observe the beginnings of the American air service.  It was still a branch of the army signal corps, and only a few regular army officers had gone into it.  Of those who had , a good fraction passed through Amanty while I was there. We had five West Point majors; Ralph Royce, Lewis Brereton, ------ Reynolds, ----- Anderson, and Joseph McNarney.  They commanded, in that order, the first five observation squadrons that went into action,- the 1st, 12th, 91st, 88th and 90th.  I met them all but the only one I knew at all well was Anderson (His first name escapes me at the moment, though I'll remember it after this is mailed).  The Army took no reckless chances with those West Pointers.  Each of them led his squadron to the front on a quiet sector, stayed with ^[[it]] there