Alan Roesler:
CLASS OF 1964
Bettendorf High SchoolClass of 1964
Bettendorf, IA
Alan's Story
My latest book, "A Pair of Aces and a Trey," was just released for sale by Casemate Publishers in the US on March 2. This is the complete biography of America's top scoring World War I observation pilot, and his two observers, one a fellow ace, while the other attained three confirmed victories. The most famous of these was William P. Erwin, Dallas' favorite son in 1927, for his later participation in the Dole Air Race, and whose replica airplane currently hangs from the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas. Its 214 pages are loaded with five color profiles, seven maps, and 69 high-quality photographs. There's plenty of action. Even though this was an observation squadron, this aggressive trio attacked enemy planes and strafed enemy troops and gun positions whenev...Expand for more
er possible. Erwin's missions were so dangerous that he wrote off four of his airplanes due to forced landings, eight of the 13 squadron crewmen killed in action during the war were flying missions with him, as well as three accompanying pursuit pilots, three more accompanying pursuit pilots being shot down and taken prisoner, and two of the seven squadron crewmen wounded in action. And in the final week of the war, all three escaped from behind enemy lines after being shot down. This highly decorated team was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and subsequent Oak Leaf Clusters and Bar a total of ten times. In summary, what we have here is a significant contribution to documenting the history of WWI aviation. Observation squadrons had their share of aces too.
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