THE BLACK SWALLOW OF DEATH
______Eugene Jacques Ballard's humble origins as the son of a former slave in Georgia would not have caused anyone to guess that he would someday be a war hero, and an aviator at that.
______Airplanes hadn't even been invented yet when Bullard was born in 1894. They still hadn't been invented when he ran away from home at the age of eight. But after wandering the United States and Europe doing menial jobs and educating himself for 12 years he was given the opportunity to show what he was made of.
______Bullard joined the French Foreign Legion after the outbreak of the Great War. He distinguished himself in several actions, including the Battle of Verdun during which he was badly wounded. Declared medically unfit for further service in the Infantry he requested a transfer to the flying corps. On May 7th 1917 he became the first African-American fighter pilot.
______He flew at least twenty combat missions with the Franco-American Lafayette Squadron during the war and in the process shot down five enemy planes, making him the first African-American "ace." Among the decorations he earned in the trenches and in the air, Bullard wore the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur. He even earned a nickname: The Black Swallow of Death.
______Bullard became the very picture of a "Knight of the Air." He flew a SPAD emblazoned with a heart pierced by a dagger with the motto "Taut Song Qui Est Rouge..." All Blood Runs Red.
______Unfortunately, he was a man ahead of his time; when the U.S. entered the War the Lafayette Squadron was disbanded and most of the pilots sent to serve with the American Air Service. Bullard was not one of them as the Army did not want to commission him and place him in charge of whites. The French, for their part, were happy to retain him but would not give him a commission. An argument with a superior officer later ended his service in the air. When World War One ended he was serving in the 170th Infantry Regiment of the French Army.
______Bullard remained in France after the war, becoming a successful businessman, but left after the Germans took over. A generation before the more-famous Tuskeegee Airman, Eugene Bullard took to the skies but never became famous the way they did. He died in relative obscurity in 1961, but was buried with full honors provided by French officers.
______A copy of his first biography, The Black Swallow of Death, and his French medals used to be on display at the museum of the United States Air Force, ironically, the same organization that denied him a chance to serve his OWN country in the air. Tragically, the medals recently disappeared.
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HOW WERE MEMBERS OF THE POTSDAM GUARD RECRUITED?
