Our drama unfolds on Sunday afternoon September 29, 1918, World War 1 is drawing to an end after four years of bitter fighting. The Western Front Battlefield still stretches 300 miles from the Flanders seacoast across France to Switzerland. Near Verdun, France, a section of this battlefield is called the Saint Mihiel Salient. On both sides of the trench lines, church bells are heard ringing softly. Everything has been still, with no action anywhere. Suddenly, this all changes as a lone American fighter plane crosses over the trenches into Germany.

It is a French built "SPAD S.X111," one of the best allied fighter planes of World War 1. The SPAD was 20 feet 8 inches long, with a wing span of 26 feet 7 inches. Powered by a 165 hp engine, with the fantastic maximum speed of 139 mph. Armament was two fixed forward firing .303 Vickers machine guns. The pilot had to aim his plane instead of aiming the machine guns. The guns were synchronized to fire through the whirling propeller. If it became damaged, the pilot would shoot down his own airplane! Soon the Germans developed an interpreter gear, this kept the machine guns from firing when the propeller was directly in front. In this high tech age, it is hard to grasp the stark simplicity of those early airplanes (frames covered with fabric like a plastic table cloth). It certainly took courage just to fly one without having to fight with it. The logo on this lone plane's side read "

Balloon Busters 1st Pursuit Group, 27th Aero Squadron" and  number 26 belonged to 2nd. Lt. Frank Luke Jr. United States Air Force.

Now, airplanes at this time were too light and radios too heavy for Aerial Reconnaissance. Therefore, both sides developed huge sausage shaped gas balloons filled with hydrogen. These balloons were raised and lowered every day, tethered with a long steel cable. The balloons could go as high as 6000 ft. A small basket hung below the balloon, with one or two observers, along with their telephones.

The balloons were well protected by many aircraft guns

and several fighter planes. Pilots who made a habit of going after balloons had much shorter life expectancies than other pilots. But 2nd. Lt. Frank Luke Jr. was an exception. He loved to shoot down balloons. The other pilots called him "The Arizona Cowboy Balloon Buster," as he came from Phoenix, Arizona. In seven days Frank shot down three

German fighter planes and eleven balloons! On this Sunday afternoon, he was out

to "flame" three more, as they were all clustered close together. Every other bullet in his machine guns was a tracer bullet, this would cause the balloon to catch on fire rapidly. That is the reason for the expression, to "flame" a Balloon. As he approached, the "Huns," as the Germans were called during World War 1, worked frantically to reel in their balloons. The air was filled with flak as the antiaircraft gunners opened up. Lt. Luke "flamed" the first two in rapid succession. The observers bailed out in their parachutes. But as he made a pass at the third,  his plane was hit by the gunners. It wobbled as large holes appeared in the wings. As the last balloon went down in flames, his engine began to sputter and cough.

Frank had been in such a hurry to leave his airfield, his

WWI balloonists were told to "drop out" quickly in case of attack, and in this drawing, entitled A Leap for Life, an Allied observer in parachute harness heeds the advice. As he jumps, his weight will pull the chute from it's aluminum pack on the outside of the gondola.

gas tank was only partially refueled. This mistake would cost 2nd Lt. Frank Luke Jr. his life!
As his plane ran out of gas, he landed behind German lines. The plane was in the church cemetery, in the village of Murvaux, France. He was quickly surrounded by German ground soldiers. They called out for him to surrender, instead he drew his gun (pistol). After a short fire fight, Frank was dead. Today, in the Meuse-Argonne cemetery in France, his grave is number 13. He was one of the only two allied fighter pilots of World War 1 to be awarded our highest medal for valor, the Congressional Medal of Honor! His statue stands in front of the Capitol building

in Phoenix, Arizona.

Out in the desert valley, the largest fighter plane base in the United States bares his name. Frank Luke Jr. was only 21 years old, but he was one of our war heroes who died that you and I might live!