WWI · Battle Death Record
Victor Chapman
Sergeant, French Air Service (Aeronautique Militaire) · New York
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Victor Chapman
- Entered the Service From
- New York
- Rank
- Sergeant
- Service
- French Air Service (Aeronautique Militaire)
- Unit / Regiment
- Lafayette Escadrille (N.124, Escadrille Americaine)
- War
- WWI
- Date of Death
- June 23, 1916
- Awards
- Medaille Militaire, Croix de Guerre with two Palms
- Burial / Memorial
- Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial, Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France
- Grave
- Plot D, Row 1, Grave 33
Their story
Victor Emmanuel Chapman, a New York-born volunteer, was a founding member of the Lafayette Escadrille and the first American aviator killed in combat in World War I. On June 23, 1916, while recovering from a head wound, he took off to deliver oranges to a wounded friend, joined comrades in a dogfight over the Verdun sector, and was shot down and killed by German pilots. His remains (identification was never definitively confirmed) are buried at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, while a cenotaph stands at the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial near Paris.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.