On the campus of the University of Virginia stands a winged, twelve-foot-tall bronze statue entitled The Aviator. Curiously, the aviator is a memorial to a UVA dropout, James Rogers McConnell. McConnell was a fighter pilot in the famous squadron of American volunteers who fought for the French before the United States entered World War I, the Lafayette Escadrille. Before joining the Escadrille, McConnell served in France as an ambulance driver. He documented the front lines both on the ground and in the air in his book Flying for France, a bestseller published shortly before his death. The modest Jim McConnell revealed very little about himself in his book. Even while he was at the front, McConnell kept in regular contact with his family and friends through letters. Many of these original letters are still preserved today. Author Steven T. Tom has sifted through a mountain of primary source material to go beyond Flying for France and tell the complete story of Jim McConnell's short but famous life.
Author
Tom, Steven T.
Title
The Aviator
Details
English text, 60 bw-photos. 288 pages.
State
new
Subtitle
A Biography of James R. McConnell, Lafayette Escadrille Fighter Pilot
Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 77 Lower Valley Road PA 19310 Atglen, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
