Eddie Rickenbacker

“ The silvery ball climbs upward two or three hundred feet with a soft roar; there it gracefully curves in its trajectory and begins slowly to fall, shedding a powerful light upon the surrounding landscape and casting its beckoning signal for a score of miles around. ”

“ Loomis is very fast on his feet—even in flying costume. He covered that hundred yards in something under ten seconds. He left my aeroplane far in the rear and I had to hurry up to see his finish at the bottom of the front-line American trench.
The doughboys covered his last dash with a splendid fusillade of bullets directed into the German trenches. Both sides were standing up and exposing themselves to enemy fire in the excitement of Loomis's homerun. ”

“ Generally speaking an aeroplane can sail along for a mile without losing more than a thousand feet altitude. Thus Loomis could make eight miles without engine power provided he were eight thousand feet above ground. Provided also that no contrary wind was blowing him backwards during this time—and also providing that no rifle and machine-gun bullets were able to terminate his progress as he drew nearer and nearer to the ground. ”

“ The Americans had the advantage from the first, for Loomis had kept his Nieuports at a good altitude above the Breguets and the Fokkers had tried to attack them from below. Loomis dived steadily at the tail of the nearest Fokker. This latter had no course open but to try and outdive him. Another Fokker got on Loomis's tail and another Nieuport followed on his tail. Soon the whole menagerie was streaming along in this fashion, every machine pouring streams of tracer bullets into the machine ahead of him. ”

“ Plenty of other aeroplane formations were in the vicinity. I discerned hostile planes and friendly planes, American, British and French. It was evident that the Fokkers below desired to attract to their aid one or more of their adjacent squadrons before attempting to force a battle with 94's Nieuports. Lieutenant Loomis, on his part, had no desire to press matters. His instructions were to defend the Breguets, not to take on any combats that happened to offer themselves. If the Fokkers refused to come in and attack them, Lieutenant Loomis's Formation would have no fighting to do. ”

“ The remaining three pilots of his formation passed the encircling enemy machines only to find that this protracted maneuvering had quite exhausted their fuel. One by one their motors spluttered and died. The entire formation dropped to earth, some landing safely, others crashing in shell holes, all of them finding themselves behind the German lines.
Squadron 94's greatest loss on that fatal day was Alan Winslow, the Chicago boy who had the honor of bringing down the first enemy machine conquered by the pilots of the Hat-in-the-Ring Squadron. ”