Lafayette Escadrille

Nearby, in the parkland of the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial honors the United States’ first combat aviators, 49 of whom are entombed in the memorial crypt, their sarcophagi arranged beneath stained glass windows depicting their famous air battles.

First created in 1916, the Lafayette Escadrille was composed of volunteer American pilots who fought under French Capt. Georges Thenault before the United States’ official declaration of war.

Chapman served in the famed Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of American pilots flying for France.

He is buried at a Lafayette Escadrille memorial in France.

There are names that history and aviation buffs will recognize: Victor Chapman, the first to die, shot down, it is said, while flying oranges back to a friend wounded at Verdun; Raoul Lufbery, America’s first great ace, with 17 confirmed kills; and Norman Prince, a founder of the Lafayette Escadrille, whose father later had him interred in the National Cathedral in Washington.