page_title: Lafayette Escadrille
section_title: Members
hierarchical_section_title: Lafayette Escadrille / Members
caption_attribution_description: English: The pilots of SPA 124 Escadrille Lafayette on 10 July 1917 at Chaudun, France. Standing, left to right, are: Robert Soubiron, James Doolittle, Courtney Campbell, Edwin Parsons, Ray Bridgman, William Dugan, Douglas MacMonagle, Walter Lowell, Harold Willis, Henry Jones, David Peterson and Antoine de Maison-Rouge (French Deputy Commander). Seated, left to right, are Dudley Hill, Didier Masson with "Soda," William Thaw, Georges Thenault (the French Commander), Raoul Lufbery with "Whiskey," 'Chute' Johnson, Stephen Bigelow and Robert L. Rockwell. A historic image provided by the U.S. Air Force.
context_page_description: The La Fayette Escadrille was a unit constituted in 1916 under French command, made up of volunteers who fought for France during World War I. The escadrille of the Aéronautique Militaire was composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters. It was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War.
context_section_description: After the Great War, membership in the Escadrille Lafayette was claimed by over 4,000 people, "including a dozen well-known Hollywood personalities and several high government officials.
  Also, from the beginning there was a great deal of confusion between American pilots who were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, a designated all-American aviation squadron of the French Service Aeronautique; and the Lafayette Flying Corps, an unofficial paper organization highlighting in its roster published during the war the names of approximately 231 American volunteer aviators who flew with more than 90 French operational escadrilles.  Already existing confusion was exacerbated after a screening of the film Flyboys in 2006.
  Five French officers and 38 American pilots, also known as "The Valiant 38", were members of the Lafayette Escadrille.
caption: Standing (left to right) Soubiron, Doolittle, Campbell, Persons, Bridgman, Dugan, MacMonagle, Lowell, Willis, Jones, Peterson and de Maison-Rouge. Seated (left to right) Hill, Masson with "Soda," Thaw, Thénault, Lufbery with "Whiskey," Johnson, Bigelow and Rockwell
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