Ray Claflin Bridgman, the 30th volunteer to join the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, was the son of Walter Ray Bridgman, a professor of literature at Lake Forest College, and Leoline (Waterman) Bridgman, a writer. Ray entered Yale University in 1913 and was majoring in History when in his Junior year in the Spring of 1916 he departed school to enlist in a Red Cross relief organization in Europe to help the Allied cause. Ray was a pacifist and abhorred everything about war. Yet in spite of his strong beliefs, he served in France courageously for nearly 2.5 years. In his last year of service, after the United States entered the conflict, Captain Bridgman was Squadron Commander of the U.S. 22nd Aero Pursuit Squadron. In one of his final letters home, Ray wrote: "My squadron has done well in its brief career. We have had twenty official victories in about six weeks. A third of my pilots have been lost during this six weeks. It is heart-breaking to see one's friends disappear day after day. It seems a long century since I set sail for Europe. America is a far-off dream. I wonder what the future holds. The pall of war obscures everything with its darkness."
Captain Bridgman's overseas service was best summed up by his friend, James Norman Hall in the history of the Lafayette Flying Corps when Hall wrote of his colleague: "He was one of the keenest pilots, one of the most aggressive fighters the Squadron ever had, and this despite the fact that he hated war with his whole soul . . . There was never any doubt about the nature of his battles or the closeness of his contact with enemy planes. His Spad was always a battle-scarred old bird, and if he happened to be flying a new machine, in a week's time wings and fuselage would be plastered over with patches of fabric . . . No American volunteer has tried harder to live up to an ideal duty."
Sources:
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One," by Dennis Gordon. Schiffer Military History; Atglen, PA: 2000.
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps," by James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff. Kennikat Press; Port Washington, NY: 1920.
Contributor: Mark (47274205)
Captain Bridgman's overseas service was best summed up by his friend, James Norman Hall in the history of the Lafayette Flying Corps when Hall wrote of his colleague: "He was one of the keenest pilots, one of the most aggressive fighters the Squadron ever had, and this despite the fact that he hated war with his whole soul . . . There was never any doubt about the nature of his battles or the closeness of his contact with enemy planes. His Spad was always a battle-scarred old bird, and if he happened to be flying a new machine, in a week's time wings and fuselage would be plastered over with patches of fabric . . . No American volunteer has tried harder to live up to an ideal duty."
Sources:
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One," by Dennis Gordon. Schiffer Military History; Atglen, PA: 2000.
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps," by James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff. Kennikat Press; Port Washington, NY: 1920.
Contributor: Mark (47274205)
Ray Claflin Bridgman, the 30th volunteer to join the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, was the son of Walter Ray Bridgman, a professor of literature at Lake Forest College, and Leoline (Waterman) Bridgman, a writer. Ray entered Yale University in 1913 and was majoring in History when in his Junior year in the Spring of 1916 he departed school to enlist in a Red Cross relief organization in Europe to help the Allied cause. Ray was a pacifist and abhorred everything about war. Yet in spite of his strong beliefs, he served in France courageously for nearly 2.5 years. In his last year of service, after the United States entered the conflict, Captain Bridgman was Squadron Commander of the U.S. 22nd Aero Pursuit Squadron. In one of his final letters home, Ray wrote: "My squadron has done well in its brief career. We have had twenty official victories in about six weeks. A third of my pilots have been lost during this six weeks. It is heart-breaking to see one's friends disappear day after day. It seems a long century since I set sail for Europe. America is a far-off dream. I wonder what the future holds. The pall of war obscures everything with its darkness."
Captain Bridgman's overseas service was best summed up by his friend, James Norman Hall in the history of the Lafayette Flying Corps when Hall wrote of his colleague: "He was one of the keenest pilots, one of the most aggressive fighters the Squadron ever had, and this despite the fact that he hated war with his whole soul . . . There was never any doubt about the nature of his battles or the closeness of his contact with enemy planes. His Spad was always a battle-scarred old bird, and if he happened to be flying a new machine, in a week's time wings and fuselage would be plastered over with patches of fabric . . . No American volunteer has tried harder to live up to an ideal duty."
Sources:
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One," by Dennis Gordon. Schiffer Military History; Atglen, PA: 2000.
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps," by James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff. Kennikat Press; Port Washington, NY: 1920.
Contributor: Mark (47274205)
Captain Bridgman's overseas service was best summed up by his friend, James Norman Hall in the history of the Lafayette Flying Corps when Hall wrote of his colleague: "He was one of the keenest pilots, one of the most aggressive fighters the Squadron ever had, and this despite the fact that he hated war with his whole soul . . . There was never any doubt about the nature of his battles or the closeness of his contact with enemy planes. His Spad was always a battle-scarred old bird, and if he happened to be flying a new machine, in a week's time wings and fuselage would be plastered over with patches of fabric . . . No American volunteer has tried harder to live up to an ideal duty."
Sources:
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps: The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One," by Dennis Gordon. Schiffer Military History; Atglen, PA: 2000.
-- "The Lafayette Flying Corps," by James Norman Hall and Charles Bernard Nordhoff. Kennikat Press; Port Washington, NY: 1920.
Contributor: Mark (47274205)
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