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By Root 2370 0

carrying the same dread that he had felt for his duties at Issoudun. But his low expectations were pleasantly erased. The Ninety-fourth Aero Squadron was commanded by Major John Huffer, an experienced pilot who had shared both respect and friendship with Bill Thaw from their days in the French Foreign Legion. The contrast between Huffer and Gray was immediate and obvious. Huffer welcomed Lufbery with open arms, and he immediately turned over to Lufbery all responsibility for teaching the fledgling pilots the skills he thought necessary. Though Huffer might still fly the occasional patrol, he was fully immersed in the administrative duties of the squadron. To Lufbery’s enormous relief, Huffer made it clear that, in the air, Lufbery was the authority.

Without aircraft to fly, Lufbery could spend time on discussions of tactics and strategy, from the most basic rules of combat to all the nuances of formations and communication in the air. For the first two weeks at Villeneuve, he suspected that the lessons had been learned because the pilots were not distracted by a fleet of aircraft waiting for them in the hangars. Though Lufbery had never thought of himself as a teacher, the lessons had been helpful to him as well, had given him time to know the personalities and quirks of these young men, to find the bright lights among them. He had seen enough from his days with the escadrille to know that lessons alone did not make flyers, that a man who talks too much on the ground is probably the man who forgets to cover your tail. The long wait for aircraft had raised his frustrations as well, but he kept it hidden from them. On that glorious day when the planes arrived, he could hide it no longer, had led them with a mad rush onto the field as the formation of Nieuports had finally dropped down. The men had gathered around the aircraft like children circling the tree on Christmas morning. Every man was eager to take the first flight, no one more eager than Lufbery himself. But the excitement of the men had blinded them to two disturbing things Lufbery had noticed immediately. First, the planes were Nieuport 28s, a craft the French had considered obsolete on the front lines. Since the Americans had yet to produce any aircraft of their own, the AAS had negotiated with the French to provide any suitable combat fighter, and the French had obliged by offering the one aircraft they could spare in abundance, the Nieuport 28s. The 28 was a long slender craft, with a large motor that gave the plane the advantage of a cruising speed of more than one hundred twenty miles per hour. But the plane’s speed was offset by one enormous problem. In a dive, the fabric on the top wing tended to rip; when the pilot would most require the plane’s high speed, to either pursue or escape the enemy, the top wing might suddenly strip itself of fabric, making the plane fatally unflyable.

The second problem was more obvious to the men who knew little about aircraft specifications. The Nieuports arrived without machine guns. Despite the immediate outcry from Huffer, the AAS could only offer the disheartening news that the French had committed to furnish guns only as they could be spared. So although Lufbery could finally give his students precious time in the air, should they ever stray carelessly into an enemy ambush, the Americans would be defenseless.

HE BROUGHT THEM DOWN IN A SHALLOW DESCENT, WANTED THEM to get the feel for the 28, to know every nuance of the plane’s handling. His wheels touched down, and he cut the throttle, heard the other two behind him repeating the pattern. The hangar was in front of him now, and he revved the motor, a short burst of power, saw the gathering crowd of pilots and mechanics, realized that they were greeting him the same way he had met so many flights before, the nervous expectation of a problem, each man making his silent count, making sure all three planes had returned. The two pilots moved their Nieuports up on either side of him, maintaining their formation even on the ground. Lufbery could not help smiling, removed