New-York tribune., 1918-11-15
Lieut. Hitchcock
Is Home, a Hero
And Veteran at 18
Long Island Aviator, Who
Downed German Fliers,
Won French War Cross

One Of the numerous motor cars that
whirred along the Jericho Turnpike
yesterday afternoon was driven by q
major of the air service, and beside
him sat q young man in the uniform of
lieutenant of the French air service.
AS the russet Long Island landscape
was unreeled the light of summer
sparkled in the eyes of the young lieu
, tenant
1 He was Tommy Hitchcock, not yet
eighteen years old, whose brief career
in France included an award Of the
Croix de Guerre with palm for gallant
and successful combat with German
flyers and an escape from a German
prison train. His driver was Major
Thomas Hitchcock, sr., commandant Of
Field No. at Mineola.
AS they rounded a curve near West
| bury the cars horn gave sonorous
blast.
On the porch of the Hitchcock home
at Westhbury were Mrs. Hitchcock, the
young lieutenant's mother, his brother
frankie. nine years old; his sisters,
Helen Hitchcock and Mrs. Julian Pea
I body, and all of the servants of the
| household.
Modest About Exploits
The instant the car appeared, Frank
ie and Louis Martin, who has been
Major Hitchcock's valet for thirty
/ years, sprinted neck and neck down
the driveway, leaped to the running
board and embraced Lieutenant Hitch
cock with an arm apiece.
Lean and fit and solderly the young
officer was older by years in expert
ence than when, few months before,
he left school to join the Lafayette
Escadrille. There were lines in his
face that had not been there when he
departed and poise in his bearing
that was not that of youth. But the
light in his eyes was all his mother
saw.
1t was hard to get much of his stor ;
from him. 1t had all been told, he
said, and wasn't much, anyhow. The
thing that counted was the way Amer
ican aviators took hold as soon as
they landed in France and the showing
they made in comparison with the vet
erans of four years service. That,
Lieutenant Hitchcock thought, WIS
worth talking about--but he didn't
have much time for talking.
He was captured, wounded, On March
6 and escaped August 90
IL met a good many American boys
in the prison camps" he said, land
all of them were planning TO break
out. Some OF them did. to my knowl-
edge; some of them got clean away
and some were brought back.
All Waited Their Chance
''At Landshut. there were Lieutenant
William Casgrain, of Detroit-he es-
capped, got away clean; Sergeant Tom
Buffin--he got away, but came so near
starving after two weeks he got reck
less and was recaptured; Sergeant
Hershal Mckee, Lieutenant George
Roe a naval aviator, and Sergeant
Whitmore, of Haverhill, Mass.
"They all were just waiting their
chance to escape. Tom Butfin's expert
! ence had taught me lesson, and when
( | planned with a couple of others to
escape from the train that was taking
us from Lachfeld to Rastatt | had in
my pack every scrap of food that I had
been able to save for weeks from my
scanty rations.
eve agreed to make a break when
the train slowed up for a certain local
station, and then it was to be each for
himself. The train had barely slack
ened speed when our guard woke up
and missed map I had taken from
him. ! didn't wait any longer, but
went head first through the door and
rolled down the embankment. What
the others did I don't know.
Tramped Eight Days
81 picked myself up and found an
abandoned railroad spur that led in
/ the direction l wanted to take. For
eight days | followed it, tramping
at night and hiding in the woods in
the daytime. Sometimes the only hid
ing place | could find would be a
ditch where l would cover myself
with leaves and brush. The eighth day
] reached Switzerland-and now Pm
home"
All the afternoon, as news of Lieu
tenant Hitchcock's arrival spread
constantly increasing procession of
motors rolled up to the Hitchcock
home. But Tommy, soon after his
arrival, had departed for the Mineola
field with his father, where he got
an enthusiastic reception from Ameri-
can aviators. They returned for a
dinner which was strictly a family af-
fair, and through the evening only the
Hitchcocks sat&n the magic semicirclo
before the fireplace
Major Hitchcock got wind of cele-
bration and reception planned by the
citizens of Westbury and of sundry
dances already gotten under way by
Piping Rock and Wheatley Hills and
he set his foot down firmly. His son.
he said, had done only what any
American boy would do or try to do,
! he had come home as any soldier
would who was fortunate enough to
have the opportunity and he deserved
no more attention than any other re-
turning soldier. And Tommy agreed
with every word
He arrived yesterday on an American
transport on mission intrusted to
him by the French government. His
father met him at the pier with a car
and took him home. To-day he will go
to Washington and he hopes when his
mission is finished that the French
government still will have some use
for him and his plane.
Wartime Service