Charles J . Biddle ( aviator ) Major Charles John Biddle ( 13 May 1890 – 22 March 1972 ) was an American aviator , attorney , and author . He was a flying ace during World War I . Postwar , he launched a career in law and wrote his memoirs . Family and early life . Charles John Biddle was born in Andalusia , Pennsylvania on 13 May 1890 . His father was Charles Biddle ( 1857 – 1923 ) and mother was Letitia Glenn . His grandfather Charles John Biddle ( 1819 – 1873 ) was a soldier and member of congress . Andalusia was the estate of his great - grandfather , banker Nicholas Biddle ( 1786 – 1844 ) . He graduated from Princeton University in 1911 , and from Harvard Law School three years later . He was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar , but interrupted his nascent career to serve in World War I . World War I service . Biddle joined the Lafayette Flying Corps in France on 8 April 1917 . He was assigned to Escadrille 73 on 28 July 1917 , under the command and mentorship of Albert Deullin . On 7 November 1917 , he was transferred to U . S . aviation and commissioned as a captain ; however , he remained assigned to Escadrille 73 . Biddle initially fought several indecisive combats with a Spad VII , but success evaded him until 5 December 1917 . Flying a SPAD XIII , he downed the Albatros two - seater of Leutnants Fritz Pauly and Ernst Sauter of FFA 45 despite a malfunction by both his Spad ' s machine guns . He then transferred to the 103rd Aero Squadron on 10 January 1918 and reverted to the Spad VII for his 12 April win over a Halberstadt CL . II over Corbeny . He moved on to the 13th Aero Squadron ( nicknamed " The Devil ' s Own Grim Reapers " ) . On 1 August , he shared his first two victories with William H . Stovall , John Seerly , and H . B . Freeman . He shot down three more enemy planes afterwards , and rose to the rank of major . as well as the command of the 4th Pursuit Group . He was at one point entrusted with the only SPAD XII issued to Americans . The French awarded him both the Legion of Honor and the " Croix de Guerre " , and he received the American Distinguished Service Cross and the Belgian Order of Leopold II . After the war , Biddle wrote a book entitled " The Way of the Eagle " . Legal career . Biddle initially practiced law in the Drexel Building with his father ' s firm . Following his father ' s death , he joined the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath ( not using that name at the time ) in 1924 . He was the firm ' s first lateral partner and brought clients that included the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire ( founded by Benjamin Franklin ) and the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society . Biddle became a partner in 1925 and was a major force at the firm for decades . In the 1950s , he led the defense of Merck Sharp & Dohme in a major case concerning price - fixing . At a trial in Trenton , New Jersey , he argued successfully for Merck ' s acquittal with Thomas E . Dewey who represented Eli Lilly . Biddle also sued the U . S . government on behalf of three widows who lost their husbands in a B - 29 Superfortress crash in 1948 . This case was the first in which the government claimed national security privileges for its documents , as the B - 29 was carrying out experiments with radar control of airborne drones . The case was settled without the government production of documents . In 2003 , partner Wilson M . Brown III used a Charles Biddle precedent to reopen the case on behalf of the survivors of the scientists killed in a 1948 B - 29 crash . The US government still claimed national security for its defense . The U . S . Supreme Court took the unprecedented step of examining its own prior decision of the case ; the government claim was exposed as a fraudulent one used to cover up neglect in maintenance and poor air crew training as cause of the accident . He died in 1972 . Honors and awards . Distinguished Service Cross ( DSC ) citation The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Charles John Biddle , Captain ( Air Service ) , U . S . Army , for extraordinary heroism in action in the region of Damvillers , France , September 26 , 1918 . During an engagement between 11 Spads and 12 enemy Fokkers , Captain Biddle , perceiving a comrade in distress from the attack of two planes , dived upon them and by his fire forced them to withdraw . His prompt action saved the life of his comrade , who was in imminent danger of being shot to the ground . ( General Orders No . 60 , W . D . , 1920 ) Ordre de Léopold citation For extraordinary heroism in action on 12 April 1918 near Corbeny , France , and on 15 May 1918 , near Ypres , Belgium . Captain Biddle has daily shown himself an excellent and remarkable example of courage , energy and skill , leading his pilots to the attack at every opportunity and making his flight a most efficient one . On 12 April , he attacked and destroyed an enemy two - seater which crashed between the trenches at Corbeny . On 15 May , while leading his patrol , he attacked , at very low altitude and far within the enemy lines , an enemy two - seater , killing the observer and forcing him down . A few minutes later he engaged a second enemy plane at very close range . Wounded in his leg , his plane and motor riddled , Captain Biddle was forced to land in ' No Man ' s Land ' less than 70 yards from the German trenches in the region of Ypres . With remarkable courage and presence of mind and despite his wound , he detached himself from his smashed machine and made his way from shell hole under intense artillery , machine gun and rifle fire , to an advanced British Observation post . French Croix de Guerre citation , 4 June 1918 Pilot of marvelous spirit . Attacked two enemy two - seaters successfully behind their lines , probably shooting down the first . Wounded and disabled in the course of the second combat , by sheer strength he succeeded in landing in no man ' s land and after passing the day in a shell hole , by night he got back to the Allied trenches .