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National Air & Space Museum Library Honors Lafayette Escadrille

NASMCol.RogersA few months ago, a ceremony announced the Libraries’ electronic edition of the Escadrille N.124 Journal de Marche et Operations (i.e., the “combat logs”) of the legendary squadron of American aviators who served in the French Air Force  during World War I, known more affectionately as the Lafayette Escadrille

Lafayette Escadrille talk with Col Phillippe Rogers USMC at the NASM Library. Photos By Dane Penland

The commemoration involved the laying of a ceremonial wreath recognizing France and the French Air Force and honoring all of the American airmen who served alongside the French, especially those who fell in combat. A Boy Scout of America, Robert Edwards, rendered a solitary salute, along with a representative force of officers and enlisted men of the U.S. Marine Corps, and officials from the National Air and Space Museum and Smithsonian Libraries represented the United States of America.

EscadrilleN124j00_0001
Cover of Escadrille N.124 Journal de Marche et Operations.

The occasion also marked the donation of a scholarly manuscript about their combat operations entitled L’Escadrille Lafayette : Unité Volontaire de Combat Oubliée de l’Amérique written by naval aviator Colonel Philippe D. Rogers, U.S. Marine Corps, who comprehensively studied these logs along with many other unique French source materials to place these airmen (the first Americans to engage in air-to-air combat) in historical context.

 

One Comment

  1. Steve Tom

    This is a fascinating piece of history. I’m researching Kiffin Rockwell, who was shot down in September 1916. Do you have an earlier combat log that covers the period of April 1916 to September 1916? If not, do you know where it is? Thank you.

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