FIRST FIGHTER PILOTS, THE

Air Classics, Mar 2004 by Hulett, George

Heroes of the Great War

Echoes of Eagles by Charles Woolley with Bill Crawford (Dutton, $24.95) was published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight and is a rousing chronicle of American air combat during the First World War.

In 1917, Charles H. Woolley, the author's father, enlisted and trained as a pilot with the newly created US Air Service. He and his fellow pilots of the 94th, 95th, and 49th Aero Squadrons - including Teddy Roosevelt's youngest son, Quentin, and Sumner Sewall, a future governor of Maine -flew at 20,000-ft in open cockpit French biplanes with death as their constant companion. The book takes the reader into the cockpits of these fighters and into the souls of the men who fought for their country in a new environment - the air. It is also the story of their lives on the ground - the grit of muddy airfields and the frustration of fickle airplanes balanced by the glamour, the women, and the champagne of Paris.

From tales of dogfighting with German aces to strafing enemy trenches, the hook describes the risks and dangers of flight, feats of incredible heroism and acts of stunning cowardice, and the camaraderie among men dedicated to a common goal. Based on diaries and letters and never-before-published interviews with the pilots themselves, this account of America's first fighter pilots is also a son's tribute to his father.

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