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195

Dean I. Lamb
Pioneer Curtiss Aviator

Dean I. Lamb was born at Cherry Flats, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1886. He attended public school and high school [[strikethrough]] s [[/strikethrough]] at Canton, Pennsylvania, then [[strikethrough]] m [[/strikethrough]] the State Normal School at Mansfield, Pennsylvania. 
In 1900 he took to the sea, became a professional sailor and traveled the world through 1911, there being few places in the Far East [[strikethrough]] , [[/strikethrough]] and South and Central America where he did not touch port and become familiar. His interest were many and varied, engaging at times in prospecting and mining, becoming involved in military entanglements, and always deeply interested in travel.
Back in the United States in 1912 he decided to learn to fly and enrolled for flight instruction at the Curtiss Flying School at Hammondsport, New York. There he was one of the summer class students taught by instructor J. L. Callan. Lamb completed his course but did not obtain a license at that time. He continued flying practice, flew some exhibitions for the Curtiss Exhibition Company through that fall, then [[strikethrough]] m [[/strikethrough]] spent the winter in New Mexico. 
In the summer of 1913 he contracted to fly a Curtiss plane for Carranza in Mexico during the uprising. There, in November and December, he engaged in aerial pistol duels at times with Phil Rader, another American pilot who was flying a Christofferson biplane for the opposing revolutionary Huerta. Lamb would reload his pistol holding the gun between his legs and flying with the other hand. No hits were recorded but these were probably the first aerial dogfights. At that time Lamb was also dropping bombs on troop movements and staging areas. These bombs were made from pieces of iron pipe, using blasting powder or dynamite, and dynamite caps. Toward the end of the year his plane was badly in need of an overhaul so Lamb returned to the United States. 
He then went to England and joined the Royal Engineers. In 1915 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and served on the French and Belgian fronts and in late 1915 he obtained a French Flying License, No. 242. In October, 1917, he was