Did You Know of This Unsung World War I Hero
Eugene James Bullard was born on Oct 6,1895
Contributed by Col Suellyn Wright Novak
As a Military Historian, I spend a great deal of time reading, but I had never heard this story. I believe that is probably true for you as well. But we the people, need to know these unheralded heroes. Eugene James Bullard was born on Oct 6,1895 in Columbus, GA, the seventh of ten children born to William (Octave) Bullard (a former slave of planter Wiley Bullard) and Creek Indian mother Josephine (Yokalee) Thomas. He completed five years of public school, before deciding to work his way to France, where slavery had been outlawed. During a 1913 boxing match in Paris, he determined to settle there, changing his middle name to Jacques.
Eugene Jacques Bullard has the distinction of being America’s first African-American military pilot. He began his military career as a teen-aged infantryman in the Third Marching Regiment of the French Foreign Legion, where he was severely wounded for the second time at the Battle of Verdun. During his convalescence he was awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre. Being found unfit for the infantry, he became an aerial gunner, then won acceptance to pilot training. He excelled as a SPAD VII pilot, bagging two German kills.
After the United States entered the war against Germany, Bullard hoped to, along with his fellow American pilots, be transferred to the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Forces. But he was not one of the 29 selected, continuing training with the French. He graduated pilot training on May 17,1917 and then went on to advanced flying training at Chateauroux.
The next stop was more advanced training at the Avord School of Military Aviation. Upon graduation, Bullard became one of 269 American pilots in the Lafayette Flying Corps, the collective name for American volunteers flying in the French Air Service. He was promoted to Corporal on August 8, 1917. On August 8, 1917 he was sent to more advanced training and reassigned to Spa-93, one of France’s top fighter squadrons, equipped with the fast, maneuverable SPAD VIIs and Nieuports. In mid-September 1917, Bullard flew two combat sorties, before having his first fighter-versus fighter aerial combat. After six days of flying combat, he was transferred to Spa-85, another crack unit. The unit fought the Fokkers of Baron Manfred von Richtofen’s “Flying Circus.”
In November 1917 he scored his first unconfirmed aerial victory. After a hard rolling break, to avoid a head-on, Bullard fired on and the German plane began to come apart. Bullard followed the crippled craft down, but began taking fire from German machine gun crews on the ground. Busy saving his hide, he did not see the Fokker impact the ground. He tried desperately to make it back to French lines. But his engine quit and he had to put ‘er down in no-man’s land. Sheltering in a shell hole, he was rescued by his aircraft mechanic and soldiers. They led horses to drag Bullard’s badly damaged aircraft back to the airfield and repaired it. The German’s smoking engine, loss of fabric and loss of power should have classed it a confirmed victory, but as he had not seen it crash, it was classed an unconfirmed victory.
On a cold, cloudy, turbulent late November morning, his squadron was cruising at 12.000 feet in the Verdun battlefield area, when an especially tall cloud caused Bullard to lose sight of his squadron. But he did spot a seven-plane formation of German Pfalz D.III fighters below. He flamed this enemy plane for his first confirmed kill. A racial incident later ended his military career. After being discharged, he followed a varied career path, as a boxer, a drummer in a band, and managing a nightclub.
As he was fluent in German, he was recruited in 1939 by the French counter-intelligence network to report on what he heard from his night club’s German guests. When the Nazis took over France, Bullard escaped to Spain, then Portugal, and on to America, where he worked as a security guard and longshoreman, as well as other jobs. He died on September 14,1994 of stomach cancer. He was buried in the French War Veterans section of Flushing Cemetery, in the New York City borough of Queens.