Arthur Raymond Brooks was a hero of World War I and a gracious man. I consider him virtually each day.
I’m a journalist to my core and I owe a weekly “From the Archives” report at present (sorry for being late), so I’ll share my story of Arthur.
He’s now being honored by his hometown of Framingham by being inducted into town’s corridor of fame, posthumously in fact. The ceremony will happen on April 28.
I interviewed Lt. Arthur Raymond Brooks a yr earlier than he died in 1990. If you go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, he instructed me then, you possibly can see his biplane hanging from the rafters. I ponder if it’s nonetheless there. Tens of 1000’s of individuals should have seen his aircraft through the years.
Arthur was the nation’s final surviving World War I ace after I interviewed him over the cellphone one November day. He instructed me he may nonetheless recall seeing the beard of a feared German pilot from the cockpit of his biplane throughout World War I.
“I was trying to ram him,” Brooks instructed me, his gun had jammed. “He was a splendid young man and dodged me.”
I used to be amazed. How may he be so calm about an opponent who wished to kill him over the battlefields of France? I take into consideration all he stated to me and the invitation he gave to journey to New Jersey to interview him at his residence. He wished to share his story face-to-face with out struggling to listen to.
I by no means went, or not less than I didn’t go quick sufficient as a result of Arthur died on July 17, 1991, on the age of 95.
Framingham’s Hall of Fame states he graduated as valedictorian from Framingham Academy and High School in 1913 and from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1917. He enlisted within the U.S. Army Signal Officer Reserve Corps and attended the School of Military Aeronautics with the Royal Flying Corps in Canada. An American World War I flying ace, he’s credited with capturing down a number of enemy plane. He was a pioneer within the improvement of radio navigational aids (NAVAIDs) utilized by pilots for location and navigation, in addition to air-to-ground communications. Lt. Brooks participated in early endeavors to commercialize aviation as a passenger-carrying enterprise. Lt. Brooks was one of many earliest industrial pilots concerned with carrying mail (air mail) for the U.S. Postal Service.
To me, he was dwelling historical past.
He spoke of opponents and outliving all his conflict buddies.
I wrote again then that Brooks by no means deliberate on being a dwelling legend, “I never tried to plan this or that, I just did it. … I personally knew when I was at the front we were building what I called an air force.”
He added it felt “normal” to fly “like I never stopped flying since the day I was born.”
Growing previous, he shared, was tough. “I’m the only chicken left to carry on. I’m taking the trouble to tell aviation history for the young boys and girls I lecture.”
He was buried in his hometown of Framingham. He instructed me that’s the place he wished to relaxation along with his entire household. “I’ve always had it in my heart to be buried in my hometown. I’ll be buried there unless I die in an airplane.”
If I had made that journey, I’m positive I might have seen him wink and smile at that final line.
I didn’t go the space — I do now. Lt. Arthur Raymond Brooks taught me that lesson.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”