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| Lieutenant Leigh Wade, 27 years old, was pilot of the Boston, was born in Cassopolis, Michigan
of a family that had come over on the Mayflower. As a very bright child, school bored him and he was a poor
student excelling only in mathematics, which he found fascinating. Craving adventure, he left home at an early
age and joined the National Guard to hunt down Pancho Villa (and Lowell Smith) with General Pershing. Fascinated
by Pershing's airplanes, Wade transferred to the Air Service and was sent to the Royal Air Force in Toronto for
flight training and then to France where he flew the nimble but somewhat fragile Nieuport fighter planes. He
and Les Arnold were recognized as the most skillful and proficient at flying complex aerial combat maneuvers
which they passed on to their fellow pilots. Eventually Wade was given command of the 120th Aero Squadron where
he tested and flew every aircraft used by both sides during the war. Upon his return home he became an
experimental test pilot. He set a new altitude record of 27,120 feet, suffering severe frostbite in the
process. Using his highly developed flying skills, he survived numerous engine and airframe failures. Wade was
compulsively neat, orderly, and extremely fastidious earning him the approbation of "The Sheik of Cassopolis"
by his fellow crew members. | ||
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