BIRDS OF WAR

The United States was a little late to the "Big War", although we were there to end it.  But Americans had been fighting in that war almost from the beginning.
The flying machine was just catching the interest of the world when the Austria-Hungarian Archduke and his wife were assassinated to light the fuse of WWI. 
Young Americans, eager to fly, joined Canada and France in their efforts to build a Flying Force.  Early on that force was for observation of the enemy forces in order to move ground troops into battle position.  The first shots at and from the enemy plane were mostly from a hand gun, a duel in the air.  Then came the fitting of machine guns and the aerobatics and the emergence of "Aces" of the air.
February 1st 1918 marks the formation of the U.S. Army Air Service and by the war's end there were 45 squadrons with 740 planes and 800 pilots........Medicineman!