The Brief but Greatly Achieving Career of Lieut. Frank Luke, Jr.—His
Mysterious End
Innumerable are the instances, never to be reckoned, of the sudden
meteoric flame of splendid daring—the sudden flash of the courageous
soul in achievement, and the equally sudden extinction—that a thousand
attested circumstances assure us characterized the terrible passing
of the Great War. Happily for the world, always the better for new
evidence that “divinity still lives in the hearts of men,” very many of
those deeds of devoted heroism have been written into history for the
inspiration of high-minded youth.
There was no experience more aptly described as meteoric than that of
Frank Luke, Jr., who joined the 27th Aero Squadron near Château-Thierry
late in July, 1918, did brilliant service in that connection, and
before the end of September had utterly disappeared from the knowledge
of men—one of the missing never definitely accounted for.
Frank was a Phoenix, Arizona, boy, barely twenty when he entered the
service. After a period of training in Texas he was sent to France and
had further training at Issoudun and was then sent to join the squadron
near Château-Thierry. He was an enthusiast for flying, never getting
enough of it. It was like second nature to him, and he adhered to no
rules but his own, apparently indifferent to safety regulations when
in the air, and so impatient of restrictions that he almost invariably
got lost from his flight when it went out in formation. This gave rise
among his fellows to the belief that he was afraid to follow, his
getting lost being the deliberate result of “funk.” In course of time,
however, they came to understand that Frank Luke held no acquaintance
with fear. He simply had a method—method and initiative—and put
his abilities to their most effective use. It was so good a method,
so wisely reasoned and so admirably executed that in the space of
seventeen days he shot down eighteen enemy balloons and planes.
[Illustration: Lieutenant Frank Luke
He joined an Aero Squadron near Château-Thierry, late in July, 1918,
and before the end of September he disappeared without being heard from
again.]
Lieut. Col. Harold E. Hartney, Chief of Gunnery in the Air Service, at
that time Commander of the Squadron to which Luke belonged, gave an
account of the young aviator’s first exploit. August 6, 1918, the First
Pursuit Group, which included the 27th Squadron, was operating on the
Château-Thierry sector. The work was seriously interfered with by heavy
barrages of pursuit planes maintained by the enemy to prevent Allied
reconnaissance over the territory being evacuated. Col. Hartney says: