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WW1 "Foggione" Pilot, Allen Bevin


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"Italian sentry at front lineson Monte Grappa - Note crosses on graves because it was diddicult to get the bodies down"

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This is a photo of Lt. Bevin that was taken in England and remained unidentified in the Imperial War Museum until seen by one of Bevin's fellow pilots 50 years later who notified Bevin. - Lt. Bevin certainly has "aged" from his time at Princeton.

 

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Bevin is wearing the uniform pictured in this post.

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As stated earlier, "Foggione" Pilots are extremely rare. I would like to hear from any others that have artifacts from this small group of pilots and enlisted personnell.

 

Hope you enjoyed it!

 

FINI

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Dennis,

 

Like so many of your posts, this one has been a lot of fun reading through. Rarely does a collector get a chance to see such historic items. Maybe its time for a book. I'm thinking a title like..."Cool American Groups of WWI".

 

Mark

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Croix de Guerre
Dennis,

 

Like so many of your posts, this one has been a lot of fun reading through. Rarely does a collector get a chance to see such historic items. Maybe its time for a book. I'm thinking a title like..."Cool American Groups of WWI".

 

Mark

 

 

How about' "Incredibly Freakin' Rare Stuff that Dennis Owns"? thumbsup.gif:lol:

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Dennis,

I have 3 groupings to the Italian group. 1 has wings and documents etc, the others are photo groupings. I will try to post some photo's in the near future. Paul

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Croix de Guerre

Okay I am going to state the obvious,,in the last few months Dennis had been kind enough to share some of the rarest WWI Aviation uniform groups that many of us are ever likely to see. Groups of this historical significance rarely if ever are shown in a public setting.

 

I'm saying this as if can be discouraging to take the time to photograph all this, write the descriptions and put in all up in a pleasing format and afterwards hear nothing in response. I joked with Dennis that sometimes, I don't even know what to say after seeing his posts but just wow!,,,simply wow!!!,,,. I look on dumbfounded. :blink: I hesitate to comment as I feel like anything I might say would be anti-climatic. I equated it to walking up to Leonardo Da Vinci as he was painting the Mona Lisa and saying "Nice Paintin' Leo"! I'm sure he would have appreciated the sentiment (if I said it in Italian! :lol: )

 

I am biased obviously as I know Dennis personally and I collect WWI aviation, however I would like to thank him publicly for sharing his outstanding collection with us all and to encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.

 

Thank you Dennis and please don't stop posting, we may not always say it but we eagerly look forward to viewing your collection and hope to see more in the future.

 

Tom

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teufelhunde.ret
Okay I am going to state the obvious,,in the last few months Dennis had been kind enough to share some of the rarest WWI Aviation uniform groups that many of us are ever likely to see. Groups of this historical significance rarely if ever are shown in a public setting.

 

I'm saying this as if can be discouraging to take the time to photograph all this, write the descriptions and put in all up in a pleasing format and afterwards hear nothing in response. I joked with Dennis that sometimes, I don't even know what to say after seeing his posts but just wow!,,,simply wow!!!,,,. I look on dumbfounded. :blink: I hesitate to comment as I feel like anything I might say would be anti-climatic. I equated it to walking up to Leonardo Da Vinci as he was painting the Mona Lisa and saying "Nice Paintin' Leo"! I'm sure he would have appreciated the sentiment (if I said it in Italian! :lol: )

 

I am biased obviously as I know Dennis personally and I collect WWI aviation, however I would like to thank him publicly for sharing his outstanding collection with us all and to encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.

 

Thank you Dennis and please don't stop posting, we may not always say it but we eagerly look forward to viewing your collection and hope to see more in the future.

 

Tom

 

Could not state it any better - will only add, behold friends - you are viewing the finest collection of this nature, in existance and you may never again see anything of this depth... ever again. Semper Fi, Darrell

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Thnaks for posting this group Dennis. The Princeton Flying School is one of my pet projects. I have a fairly complete history of the group form it's inception to the time the guys went overseas and included are some of the photos you posted. The shot of the flipped Jenny is neat. It was apparently a popular subject - there were quite a few photos taken of it.

 

Is the orange fabric ID'd ? Did it come from this Jenny ? They apparently got creative and painted the PU seal on the wings and also put stripes on both bottom and top wings to ID the airplanes.

 

Here's a couple of shots realated to the topic - notice No. 2 is still in one piece.

 

I'm fairly certain I know exactly where Bevin's crash occurred. I've located the spot where the field used to be and it runs roughly east/west. The western borders a road, the eastern border is the Delware and Raritan Canal. That portion of the field still floods so I suspect this is where #2 went in. Looks like a normal landing at the very soggy end of the field. Notice all the muck on the undercarriage.

 

Anyway, this was one of only two accidents at the field. The other involved Denny Holden and Statnton (again !) hitting the telehraph wires at the west border of the field. The airplane flipped upside down before landing that way on the road collapsing the top wing and totalling the airplane. It's a wonder neither man was injured.

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Frank Stanton, as I understand it, was in the BEF in the Dardenelles and wounded at Gallippoli. He learned to fly at the Curtiss facility in Buffalo New York before being hired to fly at Princeton.

 

He later helped establish the Dayton Airport - when it was just hard pack sand on the beach. Someone who knew him well said he was a straigh-laced man who never cursed. Charlie Grant told me after the Holden accident, Stanton got out of the crushed jenny "cussing to beat the band".

 

Here's another shot of him - and the other instructors and mechanics.

Stanton, Paul Culver, Edward Kenneson

Muery, Earl Southee, "Mac"

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Here's another. This one of Charles Grant - later a fairly famous aeronautical engineer. His brother Duncan was attached to the 148th Aero and killed in a crash in early 1918.

 

Your shot of Bevin in the Jenny was taken - as were most of the "formal" photos - by local photographer Orren Jack Turner. Turner's son-in-law apprenticed with him in the 40's and still had some of the original glass negs when I found him in the mid-80's. I suspect your shot has Turner's signature stamped in the corner.

 

Really a beautiful group and two on my favorite topics - the Princeton group and Foggia. My only really interesting grouping is named to Philip Kissam - Bevins classmate at Princeton and a Foggiani....

 

Before you get too excited, Kissam lobbied so hard to get to France (he hated the idea of flying Capronis) he was eventually sent to France for pursuit training. The "double training" took so long, he didn't get to the front until 6 November so only had 5 days - and no combat flying - with the 213th Aero Squadron.

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IMPERIAL QUEST

Let me echo my thoughts on these magnificent WWI groupings and the guys who post them.

 

A few months ago, I was under the false notion that if I could not contribute facts or figures, or tell Tom and Dennis something that they did not already know about a particular group...then I had no business posting thumbsup.gif or w00t.gif or :o , as guys "like this" might get annoyed by such comments - a phone call from Tom set me straight on that. Although these guys are not looking for praise, they ARE looking to share and converse with the members here on the forum who share the same interest in aviation. I can tell you that I have talked by phone with Dennis at least three times, and with Tom, well...more times than I care to remember ;). Talking to these two about "aviation stuff" is like getting in the middle of a couple of kids making a quick stop at the candy store on the way to the circus.

 

The enthusiasm, and dare I say love for this time period and the artifacts they represent, is a real treat and a welcomed change from the snobbish and elitist mentality that some with collections of this magnitude could (and do) have. With each passing conversation, I come to realize more and more, that they are just regular guys with some super stuff!

 

Perhaps in part, WWI was too much of a European feud and too long ago to hold the interest of the collector on the broad scope. Unfortunately, a lot of us forget that WWI was the last war fought when medieval style tactics was king on the battlefield, and the first where technology ruled the skies above. Yes, this war was long ago, but we are still benefiting and suffering from the inventions of that war; what I am saying is that is still a lot to be learned. Through these groupings, we can bring the past alive and connect with the individuals who once lived it. I have talked to other collectors who have 20 -30 years in the field who thought that they had seen everything - until looking at these groupings on our forum. As an example, using my own novice mindset and inexperience in this area, I felt intimidated by what I saw and really didn't know what to say, as I had NEVER even seen items like this -even in a museum.

 

I can't speak for anyone else but myself when I say that I am honored to see these fabulous groupings here, and if the posting stops...well then Dennis and Tom...consider yourselves call blocked, and we won't be BFF's (Best Friends Forever) any more!!!! :lol:

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