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or by the sound of machine guns behind him.  On his first photographic missions he did so well that he got more and more of them.  During that month of August he spent more time in the air than any other observer in the squadron.  The crews of the protecting planes were rotated, but it was nearly always Jordan and his pilot, Louis Bernheimer, who were leading.

That may seem unfair, but Littauer was not trying to get Jordan killed.  He was risking five aeroplanes and ten men to get some pictures, and he simply could not afford to send an untried man to lead the mission.  That is the way the army worked. The account was partly balanced by the fact that the lead plane was in less danger than its protectors.  Anti-aircraft fire was as likely to hit one as another, but the German chasse was more to be feared.  Chasse always attacked from behind, and they had to dispose of the protecting planes before they could get at the leader.  As it turned out both Jordan and Bernheimer survived the war, while five men were killed protecting them during August.

When the Germans settled down for a stand at the Vesle river they brought in one of their most aggressive groups of fighter planes.  On August 11th four of our Salmsons went on a photgraphic mission.  They were attacked and one was shot down.  McClendon and Plummer, the pilot and observer, were both killed.  Another observer, Burns, also was killed, but the pilot, Hitchcock, brought the plane home.  Their formation of course was broken up, and one German got a crack at Jordan and Bernheimer.  A bullet went through the muscle close to Jordan's shoulder joint.  The wound was trifling, but an important wire on the plane was cut through and the plane fell almost to the ground before Bernheimer got it under control.  He and Jordan started to congratulate each other through the speaking tube, when the heard a machine gun behind them.  The German had followed them all the way down to make sure of his kill.  Jordan got his own guns into action and the German left them.

Jordan was badly shaken by that experience.  He had trouble going to sleep at night.  When I woke during the night I would often find him smoking a cigarette in the dark.  When he did get to sleep he had dreams about air combat and would wake up in a cold sweat.  Then, only a few days that first fight, he went on another mission.  He had stayed on duty, with his wound treated by our squadron medic.