commander, General John Pershing, created a divided tactical aerial force, with, first, Brigadier General William Kenly, then Benjamin Foulois, and, finally, Mason Patrick as Chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, and Mitchell as Air Commander, Zone of Advance. A less-than-clear chain of command insured a collision between Foulois and Mitchell, but Pershing wanted Mitchell in charge of combat operations.
Some Americans had already acquired combat experience in France, serving with French and British squadrons before the United States entered the war. Among the most famous were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, including Norman Prince (five victories) and Raoul Lufbery (seventeen victories). These veterans transferred to the Air Service and provided the cadre for new squadrons arriving from the United States. After advanced training, American squadrons joined French and British units for combat experience. Only when American ground units were ready for combat did Air Service squadrons join American armies. Flying French SPAD and Nieuport fighters and French Breguet and British DH-4 bombers, all-American units under American command began operations in March and April 1918. Lieutenants Alan Winslow and Douglas Campbell gained America's first aerial victories on April 14, 1918, in French Nieuport fighters armed with British Vickers machine guns.
The United States may have been slow in developing aerial weapons, but its ground commanders quickly put them to use. Airmen flew infantry contact patrols, attempting to find isolated units and reporting their location and needs to higher headquarters. Of these missions, the 50th Aero Squadron's search for the "Lost Battalion" in the Meuse-Argonne during the offensive of September and October 1918 is perhaps the most famous. Two airmen, pilot Harold Goettler and observer Erwin Bleckley flew several missions at low altitude, purposely attracting German fire to find out at least where the "Lost Battalion" was not. They paid with their lives but helped their squadron narrow its search. For their heroism, Goettler and Bleckley won two of the four Medals of Honor awarded to American airmen during the war. The other two went to Eddie Rickenbacker and Frank Luke for aerial combat.
Reconnaissance missions to determine the disposition and makeup of enemy forces were critical and were usually carried out by aircraft flying east at low altitude until shot at. Allied ground troops, for example, needed to know about German activity at the Valleroy railroad yard during the battle of St. Mihiel or, best of all, that the "convoy of enemy horse-drawn vehicles [was] in retreat along the road to Thiaucourt."
