author
James R. (James Rogers) McConnell
1887–1917
An American volunteer aviator who turned frontline experience into vivid wartime writing, he is best known for Flying for France, drawn from his service before the United States entered World War I. His life was brief, but his memoir remains a direct, personal window into the Lafayette Escadrille and the war in France.
1 Audiobook
Flying for France: With the American Escadrille at Verdun
by James R. (James Rogers) McConnell
About the author
Born in Chicago on March 14, 1887, James Rogers McConnell was an American pilot and writer who served with France during World War I. Before becoming an aviator, he volunteered in the American Ambulance Service, and he later joined the Lafayette Escadrille, the famous unit of American flyers fighting for France.
McConnell wrote Flying for France while recovering from injuries after a landing accident. The book combines memoir, war reporting, and personal reflection, and it helped introduce many readers to the experience of American volunteers serving in France before the United States officially entered the war.
He was killed in action in France on March 19, 1917, just days after his thirtieth birthday. Because of that short life, his reputation rests largely on a single book, but it endures as a vivid firsthand account of courage, idealism, and the early air war.