Alan F. Winslow – Second Lieutenant, United States Army Air Service

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A. F. WINSLOW BURIED
Full Military Honors Paid Noted Diplomat In Washington

WASHINGTON, August 24, 1933 – Funeral services were held here today for Allan Francis Winslow, noted aviator and diplomat.  An escort from Fort Myer accompanied the ashes to Arlington National Cemetery where they were buried.

Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Winslow of South Haven, Michigan, his father and mother, and his sister, Mrs. J. D. Briggs of Boston, attended the burial.  Jay Pierrepont Moffett, chief of the Division of Western European Affairs, in which Mr. Winslow held his latest post in the State Department, went to the funeral with other members of the Division.

Wallace Murray, chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs; Richard Southgate, Assistant Chief of International Conferences, and other State Depatment friends were present.

The first U.S. Air Service aerial victories by fighter planes in the American sector in France were by Lieutenants Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell, two pilots of the 94th Aero Squadron, which had just been transferred to the Front.

On Sunday morning, April 14, 1918, they were on “alert” at Gengoult Aerodrome near Toul, France. German planes were reported in the area and the two U.S. pilots, completely inexperienced in aerial combat, took off in their Nieuport N.28s. Almost immediately they saw two German aircraft and attacked them directly over the flying field at less than 1,000-feet altitude, in full view of not only the Americans at Gengoult Aerodrome, but of the French citizens of Toul. Lieutenants Winslow and Campbell shot down two German airplanes and were back on the ground in a matter of minutes.

This initial fighter combat by the U.S. Air Service, although probably successful due as much to luck as skill, convinced the French people that the Americans were “super-human.”

  • WINSLOW, ALAN F.
  • Second Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army
  • Pilot, 94th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service, A.E.F.
  • Date of Action: June 6, 1918
  • General Orders No. No. 121, W.D., 1918

Citation:

The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Alan F. Winslow, Second Lieutenant (Air Service), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in the Toul sector on June 6, 1918.

While on a patrol, consisting of himself and two other pilots, Second Lieutenant Winslow encountered an enemy biplane at an altitude of 4,000 meters near St. Mihiel, France. He promptly and vigorously attacked, and after a running fight extending far beyond the German lines shot his foe down in flames near Thiaucourt.

  • WINSLOW, ALAN F
  • 2LT AIR SVC USA IL
  • DATE OF DEATH: 08/15/1933
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 4  SITE 3088
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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