[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 188 (Thursday, November 29, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H9701-H9702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE: THE AMERICAN LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, as we remember the 100th anniversary 
of the great World War I, it is vital to honor American pilots who 
fought for freedom in Europe before the United States officially 
entered the war.
  Under the French Air Service, the Lafayette Escadrille was formed. It 
was an all-American, all-volunteer squadron.
  In 1916, 224 Americans formed the unit. They wore French uniforms, 
and assembled on their biplanes was a courageous Native American chief.
  Being a pilot in World War I was deadly dangerous. The life 
expectancy of an Allied pilot was 11 days. Daily combat operations saw 
casualty rates of 400 percent. Fifty-one Americans were killed in 
combat, and the Americans downed 199 enemy planes. They flew in all the 
major battles over the Western Front's bloody trenches of no man's 
land.
  In 1918, when the United States entered the war, these men of the 
Lafayette Escadrille were incorporated into the United States Air 
Service. These young flyboys of World War I were some of America's 
best. They went over there and flew the skies fighting

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for freedom, proudly proclaiming, ``Lafayette, we are here.''
  And that is just the way it is.

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