n Feb. 5, 1918, Lt. Stephen Thompson recorded the first combat victory in American aviation history. It certainly wasn’t the most conventional way to get a win. Thompson was in a French aircraft, and he wasn’t even supposed to be in the air!
Lt. Thompson was in France assigned to the United States’ 12th Aero Squadron. The Americans, at this time, were leaps and bounds behind Europe in the development and logistics of aerial warfare. The 12th Aero Squadron didn’t even have their planes at the time, and they needed training before taking off into the fight. Thompson and his comrades were watching a French bomber squadron and trying to soak up everything they could, presumably fairly wide-eyed at the new technology while trying to stay composed in front of their more seasoned French counterparts.
