Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt:... CHAPTER XV MY PALS Many of the things which I am going to tell about my pals in the Foreign Legion and the Lafayette Escadrille happened after we broke up and got scattered, but no matter. This book would not be complete without some account of them. We were together more or less until the Boche got one after another of the bunch. A few of us are still here to get back at him. We were proud of being Americans, and that is why I want to tell the records of these men, the things which I saw and know about them. Much of it is not known on this side. Charles Sweeney, one of my most loyal friends, was a brave and excellent soldier; he was very severely wounded during the offensive in Champagne in 1915. He won the rank of Captain, has been decorated with the Legion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre, twice mentioned in the orders of the entire army. He was recently transferred into the U. S. Army with the rank of Major. I think he should have been made a Brigadier-General as he is far in advance of many American officers in the science of modern warfare. I don't think you could find a biggerhearted man than Rene Philezot. He told me that he would leave his bones on the field of battle, and he did. Christmas day, 1914, Rene sent $400 from the trenches to the Belgians when many a millionaire living in a palace only gave a five-spot, and few did that. It's the difference in men, and the best are never known until it's too late. Jimmy Bach was the son of a millionaire, but that didn't seem to hurt him any. Jimmy was one of the best. Absolutely fearless, a friend indeed. Jimmy was taken prisoner in the aviation in September, 1915, while performing a special mission, that of landing spies in the German lines. He had gone back to get a comrade who had...