Of Alpena, Michigan, and educated at Thornton Military Academy. At the age of seventeen, he ran away, lied about his age, and volunteered for service in the Lafayette Escadrille. He had six official planes shot down before his final mission and was unofficially credited with the seventh to qualify as an “Ace.” He was transferred to the United States Air Force 103rd Squadron and became the first Air Service pilot killed when his Spad XIII fighter crashed following a high-altitude dive on March 12, 1918