Description
Carroll Dana Winslow was one of the first US citizens to enlist in the French Aeronautique Militaire during WW1.
Beginning in August 1915, he spent ten months in training, before being posted to MF.44, a Farman two seater squadron engaged in artillery observation and photographic reconnaissance on the Verdun front.
He spent two months at the front, between May and July 1916, before requesting to be trained as a scout, or fighter pilot. His request was granted, but his training was interrupted when his daughter fell ill, and his wife returned to the United States briefly. It was while back home that he wrote and published his autobiography, “”With the French Flying Corps””.
Upon his return to France in January 1917, he duly completed his scout pilot training and in March was assigned to Nie.112 as a scout pilot. He served with this unit for barely a month before obtaining a release and returning to the United States with his family in March 1917.
Following his return from France, in June 1917 he was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant in the US Air Service and was assigned as an instructor at Dayton, Ohio.
A year later, in June 1918, he transferred to Marine Aviation and became a gunnery sergeant. He was made an instructor with the Marine Aviation Department at the Marine Flying Field, Miami, Florida, where he served until discharge in December.
Carroll Dana Winslow died on 27th December 1932 in New York, aged just 32.
