T.B. Murphy - Kiffin Rockwell, the Lafayette Escadrille and the Birth of the United States Air Force

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2431-0

2016 T.B. Murphy. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Members of the Lafayette Escadrille with a French commander; left to right: James McConnell, Kiffin Rockwell, Col. Georges Thenault, Norman Prince and Victor Chapman (Dan Patterson Studio)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To my wife Cortney,
who always believed I could write this book.
And to my children:
Jack, Eliana, Kiffin, Joseph and Daniel.

Researching and writing this book took me over fifteen years, so I have many people to thank. I must first thank the U.S. Air Force Academy Library staff for the treasures I found in the special collections. My fascination with history started in those quiet rooms after trudging up the winding marble staircase to the sixth floor. It was there in the archive that I found Kiffin Rockwells war letters, and his story has captivated me ever since. Thank you to my professors at the Academy: to Colonel Mark Wells for leading a demanding program in the history department; to Lt. Colonel John Farquhar for introducing so many bright-eyed cadets to the idea of air power; and to Lt. Colonel Vance Skarstedt for mercilessly teaching a hardheaded kid how to write. Thank you to my good friends who suffered with me at the Academy: Paul Davidson (who is now my brother-in-law), Kadeen Mansor, Darren Moore, Jamison Scheeres, Matt Strohmeyer, Josh Weed, and Paul Whitsel. You all definitely encouraged me in this project.

Thank you to all the pilots who served as the inspiration for this book. To the guys in pilot training: Scott Fann, Scott Gunn, Matt Roles, J.R. Williams, and many othersI thought of our experiences multiple times while writing this book. Thank you to my first squadron, the Gamblers of the 77th Fighter Squadron: particularly to Bodhi Bacon for being the finest tactician, instructor, and leader one could hope for; to my good friend Nails Acer; and to Bruiser Bryant, who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Thank you to the men and women of the 35th and 309th Fighter Squadrons as well as the Nickel pilots in the 555th Fighter Squadron, the Buzzards in the 510th Fighter Squadron, and the Lions of the 31st Operational Support Squadron. And to the greatest squadron on earth, the Warhawks of the 480th Fighter Squadron, you are all warriors cut from the same cloth as our ancestors in the Lafayette Escadrille.

My time at the National Defense University with the College of International Security Affairs was incredibly valuable to this book. The professors led a rigorous and mind-stimulating program that renewed my motivation to write this story. My specific thanks go to: Dr. Paul Miller, who has an uncanny ability to look at a problem from all perspectives and find unique solutions; to Dr. Sean McFate for his useful teaching style and enthusiasm; and to Dr. Michael Bell, who convinced me that anyone could write a book.

To the many friends who encouraged me to start writing: Wes Roberts, Justin Golart, Joe Kreidel, Ben Gunn, and many others. And to Vandal Mann, Major Mary, and many others who read the manuscript. Thank you to Major General Barre Seguin, who encouraged me to complete the manuscript and get it published. I cant thank all of you enough.

I also have to thank the Rockwell family for their kindness to an outsider like me and their full support for this project. The late Kenneth Rockwell, Paul Rockwells son and Kiffins nephew, was a pleasure to meet and an amazing source of knowledge about Paul and Kiffin. Vance Brown, Kiffins grandnephew, has been an incredible source of encouragement and is the man who found a publisher for this bookI owe you more than I could ever repay! Kenneth Rockwells daughter, Sybil Robb, has also been a huge support and offered a wealth of pictures and research on Paul and Kiffin. Thank you!

Thank you especially to my family: to my Dad, who defined the idea of a fighter pilot to me at an early age and taught me so much about life; and to my Mom for her constant support, prayers, and nurturing home. My parents raised my sisters and me in a home centered on God, where learning, inquiring, and questioning were always presentI cant imagine growing up any other way! Thank you to my sisters Jenny, Megan, and Alison for putting up with your only brother and for taking an interest in Kiffins story. Your little nudges over the years kept me going. I will always be thankful for my wifes family, the Johnsons. Mom and Dad, you have been such an encouragement for this bookyour constant excitement about it was just what I needed to finally get it done!

My final thanks must go to my wife Cortney and our kids. Cortney, you have always been far more convinced that I would write this book than I ever was. You have heard snippets of this tale thousands of times over the last sixteen years, but you never stopped encouraging me to write them all down. I am happy to finally give you the full story, and I will be eternally grateful for all your support. My two older kids, Jack and Ellie, know a little about this project, but their sweet spirits motivated me more than they will ever know. My son Kiffin Fredric was the decisive inspirational force, however. I decided to finish this before his first birthday and completed the first draft just in time! And Joseph and Daniel were new additions during the edits and final drafts of the book for which I am forever grateful.

In closing, I again thank everyone listed above and the countless others who have been such a major part of my life. My highest thanks must always go to God, who has blessed my family and me in immeasurable ways and who gave me the strength and the endurance to write this book.

The history of mankind is a mystery in many waysoccasionally predictable, often baffling or perplexing, but sometimes extraordinary. And once every several generations, during these extraordinary times, an event occurs that cracks the foundation of society and ushers in a new era. These events lie almost exclusively in the realm of warfare, for it is human violence that has the greatest potential to fundamentally alter human society. Examples include the conquests of Cyrus the Great, his Greek counterpart Alexander, the civil war in Rome that left an empire in its wake, the Arab conquests after the death of Mohammad, the Mongolian invasions, and Western colonial conquests. None of these events occurred suddenly. Like a hurricane, ominous signs began to appear before the storm, and the storms fury was occasionally broken by short periods of peace. And just as in the aftermath of a hurricane, the period following the event was defined by the damage that remained and the new structures that arose.