GENE BULLARD STATUE UNVEILED

摘要

Following the U.S. Air Force announcement that it was naming its newest jet trainer in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen (see P. 8), on October 9 a statue was unveiled at Warner Robins, Ga., of a half-black, half-Cherokee pilot from nearby Columbus who flew in combat a quarter-century before those celebrated African-Americans. Eugene Jacques Bullard's remarkable, peripatetic life from 1895 to 1961 encompassed such varied vocations as prize fighter, infantryman in the French Foreign Legion, jazz drummer, Paris nightclub owner and spy. But to aviation historians he is best known for entering the French air service through the Lafayette Flying Corps, qualifying as a flier on May 5, 1917, and serving in Escadrilles N.93 and Spa.85. Between August 27 and November 11 of that year, he claimed two unconfirmed aerial victories. Unlike six other black World War I pilots who flew for foreign nations, however, Bullard was never allowed to serve in the air arm of his own country.