1 cu ft
Call No. 168.7008
IRIS Nos. 0125910-0125919, 1004901, 1020253
First Lieutenant. Coast Artillery Corps, 1917-1919. Born in West Plains, MO. BS, U of Missouri, 1917. First American credited with an aerial victory (as observer-gunner in French plane) while a member of the US Service in World War I. Died in Dayton, OH.
Personal papers relating to Thompson's World War I duty and his aerial victory, 5 February 1918. Includes personal correspondence with his parents (1917-1918), official correspondence (1918), a personal diary (1913-1918), and a scrapbook (1917-1919). Scrapbook contains clippings, copies of some reports, and some correspondence relating to Thompson's claim of first aerial victory by a member of the US Air Service. Also includes a translation of 1967 study by the Saarbrucken (Germany) Archives supporting his claim and a copy of a 1974 issue of Aerospace Historian containing an article by Royal Frey on the official recognition of Thompson's claim.
Related materials located elsewhere in the Document Collection, Air Force Historical Research Agency, include two oral history interviews, no transcripts available (1963, 1968).