We celebrate today the birthday of Frank Luke, Jr. (1897-1918) , who in just 9 days of combat flying in September 1918, ten missions and 30 hours of flight time knocked down 14 enemy balloons and four aircraft (some say it may have been 7)
He epitomized the young, daring, reckless maverick who took to the air as a fish takes to the sea.He lived an abbreviated, exciting life and his aviation career barely lasted one year.. This Phoenix native enlisted in the Signal Corps Aviation service on September 25, 1917, did his first solo on December 12, 1917, was commissioned Second Lieutenant on January 23, 1918 and arrived in France March 19, 1918 and began his career at the U.S. Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun in April 1918.
He quickly dominated the skies in the Verdun/Murvaux area shooting down more enemy balloons that any other pilot.
On the combat report of September 18, 1918, Luke became the leading American ace. Luke had a total of 14 victories: four planes and ten ballons; in fact, he led the other American ace Eddie Rickenbacker by 5 victories. That night, General Pershing received a military telegraph which read: "Second Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr., Twenty-seventh Aero Squadron , First Pursuit Group, five confirmed victories, two combat planes, two observation balloons and one observation plane in less than 10 minutes."
On September 29th, he took off alone and unauthorized. Not until 3 months later on January 3, 1919 was his death confirmed. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by Pershing posthumously.
Image source (1)
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