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The majority of the pilots, observers and bombers and all the balloon observers ^[[?? all balloon observations ?? trained in ?? schools and ?? ??]] had been trained in American schools in the United States, England, France and Italy.  They were second to none in the world for aggressiveness and skill.  On the Marne, at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne they were pitted against the best in German aeronautics.

Our pilots show down ^[[?]] 776 official confirmed enemy planes and several hundred others too far within the lines to obtain confirmation.  Our squadrons took part in 150 bombing raids, during which 275,000 pounds of explosives were dropped on the enemy; they flew 35,000 hours over the lines and took 18,000 photographs of enemy positions, from which 585,000 prints were made by the Photographic Sections attached to Observation Groups.  They destroyed and had confirmed more than 60 ^[[?]] enemy observation balloons.  More than ^[[?]] artillery adjustments were made by the squadrons and ^[[?]] by balloon companies.  On innumerable occasions planes were flown on contact patrols during infantry attacks, strafed with machine guns and bombed from heights of but a few yards enemy batteries, convoys and troops on the march.

Pursuit pilots with the 1st Army alone - not counting those with