Early in 1916, a year before the United States entered World War I, a handful of valiant Americans banded together as the Lafayette Escadrille to forge their mark in history in the skies over France. Be it for fame, adventure or patriotism, they stepped forward to meet the common enemy long before their own nation realized the true extent of the threat to world freedom.During their days with the Escadrille, some of these men met death, while others lived out the war; but each, in his own way, earned immortality for himself and the Escadrille. As long as there remains a man with a love for flying in his heart, or one who has experienced the indescribable thrill of passing along through the tranquil solitude of the firmament, the memory of the Lafayette Escadrille and of those who served it so nobly will endure.This is the chronicle of an elite group of men, written by one of their own who survived the holocaust. The vivid account of battles in the air, the flush of success over a fallen foe, the sorrow from the loss of a comrade-all of these carry the reader back across the decades to that exciting period of so long ago.In essence, one does not read this book-he lives it.
