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A review by komet2020
Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer: America's First Combat Ace by Tony Garel-Frantzen
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Hoosier Aviator Paul Baer: America's First Combat Ace tells the story of a largely forgotten and overlooked World War I fighter pilot. Paul F. Baer (1894-1930) was born and reared in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He was a taciturn and self-effacing person with a thirst for adventure. It was this thirst that led him to join the Indiana National Guard, with which he saw service in Mexico in 1916 when the Guard was amalgamated with the U.S. Army as part of the "Punitive Expedition" sent into Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa for the raid his band of brigands carried out on Columbus, NM, earlier that year.
Once the Expedition was concluded, Baer returned to Indiana. But he wouldn't be there long. Baer wangled his way to Europe, where, passport in hand, he was able to gain admittance into the French Service Aeronautique (via the French Foreign Legion), where he began his training as a pilot in February 1917. By August of that year, having secured his brevet, Baer was assigned to SPA 80, where he flew the SPAD VII fighter in combat for several months without securing a victory. From SPA 80, Baer was transferred to SPA 124 - aka the famous Escadrille Lafayette -in January 1918. The following month, the Escadrille Lafayette (composed of mainly American pilots who had flown for France since the spring of 1916) was incorporated into the U.S. Army as the 103rd Aero Squadron.
Shortly after the establishment of the 103rd Aero Squadron, Baer would come into his own as a combat pilot, achieving 9 confirmed aerial victories (his actual score was closer to 20, but not all of those victories could be confirmed since many of them had taken place far behind the German lines) before being shot down and captured in May 1918. Thus, Baer sat out the remainder of the war in a German POW camp.
Following the Armistice, Baer would return to the U.S., where he was feted for his wartime accomplishments. This attention he very much disliked, and avoided publicity inasmuch as possible throughout the remaining years of his life. Baer was a restless soul, volunteering his services as pilot on behalf of a newly reborn Poland during the Russo-Polish War (1919-21), then working for a short stint in Texas in the oil industry there, and back to France for a brief spell in the mid-1920s, where he volunteered his services in France's war with the Rif tribes in Morocco as a pilot.
Upon the conclusion of Rif War, Baer proceeded to Hollywood where he worked briefly, then to the Commerce Department's Aeronautics Branch where he was an aviation examiner responsible for administering "aviation examinations, issue pilot licenses and inspect airplanes while enforcing all aeronautical regulations and promoting an interest in flying."
Ever restless, Baer left the Commerce Dept. to join PAN AM Airways as an engineer in 1929. His work with the airline involved flying photographic missions over new flying fields that were being established throughout South America. But when word got round to Baer that transport pilots were needed in China, he left PAN AM and went over to China to serve as a pilot with the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), flying mail and passengers. Sadly, it was too prove a short-lived undertaking as Baer was killed in a flying accident in Shanghai in December 1930. At the time of his death, Baer had accrued over 3,000 flying hours. His body would be returned to the U.S. for burial in Fort Wayne a few months later.
Once the Expedition was concluded, Baer returned to Indiana. But he wouldn't be there long. Baer wangled his way to Europe, where, passport in hand, he was able to gain admittance into the French Service Aeronautique (via the French Foreign Legion), where he began his training as a pilot in February 1917. By August of that year, having secured his brevet, Baer was assigned to SPA 80, where he flew the SPAD VII fighter in combat for several months without securing a victory. From SPA 80, Baer was transferred to SPA 124 - aka the famous Escadrille Lafayette -in January 1918. The following month, the Escadrille Lafayette (composed of mainly American pilots who had flown for France since the spring of 1916) was incorporated into the U.S. Army as the 103rd Aero Squadron.
Shortly after the establishment of the 103rd Aero Squadron, Baer would come into his own as a combat pilot, achieving 9 confirmed aerial victories (his actual score was closer to 20, but not all of those victories could be confirmed since many of them had taken place far behind the German lines) before being shot down and captured in May 1918. Thus, Baer sat out the remainder of the war in a German POW camp.
Following the Armistice, Baer would return to the U.S., where he was feted for his wartime accomplishments. This attention he very much disliked, and avoided publicity inasmuch as possible throughout the remaining years of his life. Baer was a restless soul, volunteering his services as pilot on behalf of a newly reborn Poland during the Russo-Polish War (1919-21), then working for a short stint in Texas in the oil industry there, and back to France for a brief spell in the mid-1920s, where he volunteered his services in France's war with the Rif tribes in Morocco as a pilot.
Upon the conclusion of Rif War, Baer proceeded to Hollywood where he worked briefly, then to the Commerce Department's Aeronautics Branch where he was an aviation examiner responsible for administering "aviation examinations, issue pilot licenses and inspect airplanes while enforcing all aeronautical regulations and promoting an interest in flying."
Ever restless, Baer left the Commerce Dept. to join PAN AM Airways as an engineer in 1929. His work with the airline involved flying photographic missions over new flying fields that were being established throughout South America. But when word got round to Baer that transport pilots were needed in China, he left PAN AM and went over to China to serve as a pilot with the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC), flying mail and passengers. Sadly, it was too prove a short-lived undertaking as Baer was killed in a flying accident in Shanghai in December 1930. At the time of his death, Baer had accrued over 3,000 flying hours. His body would be returned to the U.S. for burial in Fort Wayne a few months later.