Military Figure. He was recognized as a highly decorated American World War I Flying Ace. The son of a doctor, following his high school graduation, he attended college at both DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. During World War I in early 1917, he abandoned college and went to France to become an ambulance driver. When the United States Entered World War I in April of 1917, he enlisted with the United States Army Signal Corps aviation section. Following his flight training, he was assigned to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's famed "Hat-in-the-Ring" 94th Aero Squadron and sent to the Western Front. He was credited with seven victories, including 4 enemy balloons, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with one oak leaf cluster, and promoted to the rank of captain. Following the war, he returned to the U.S. and helped to form the U.S. Army's Air Mail Service and was one of the first transcontinental airmail pilots. He was also an avid air racer; his air race pilot's license was signed by aero-pioneer Orville Wright. When the U.S. entered World War II in December of 1941, he achieved the rank of colonel in the 38th Division of the Indiana Air Guard. After requesting a transfer to the front lines, he was sent to the Pacific Theater of Operations, where he became the commander of air bases in New Caledonia. While searching for an enemy submarine in bad weather, he was killed on a bombing mission when he accidentally crashed his aircraft into the side of the mountain, Ouassio Hill near La Foa. The Indianapolis International Airport was known as the Weir-Cook Airport from 1944 to 1976. In the 21st century, a memorial in his honor remains on display at the Indianapolis International Airport, along with the terminal building and entrance road being named after him. Besides his actual grave site in the National Cemetery, he has a cenotaph at Indianapolis International Airport. He was inducted into the Indiana Aviation Hall of Fame on July 8, 2020.