Allen Peck's WWI Letters Home - 1917-1919

<I>Allen Peck's WW I Letters Home</I> tell of his patriotic volunteer service for the brand-new U.S. Army Air Service to fight for his country. Allen's American group was sent to France to be trained by and to fly with a French escadrille. The airplanes were small flimsy and slow with open cockpits and no heat. No oxygen masks. For young pilots these were exciting challenging and for some fatal months.</P><P>Allen survived plane crashes enemy planes shooting bullets through his cockpit and enemy ground fire. A Croix de Guerre was earned for downing a German. But the trauma was great. After Armistice he wrote of the tragic toll on his 'original gangTwelve of us reached the front seven gone three wounded one unheard from and I was untouched.</P><P>After November 11 his letters tell of experiences at a French university of adventures at the American Embassy in London and of helping with Inter-Allied Games.</P><P>He fell in love with and married a young French girl. When his two-year enlistment was up Allen chose at first to stay in Paris. But after five months he headed back home to America with his new wife Marguerite.</P><P>65 names of individuals with whom he flew or interacted are indexed.</P>