Uncle Jack in World War I: Part 1

Unfortunate news.  I finally received a substantive response from the National Military Records Center (NMRC) in St. Louis, Missouri about the personnel file for granduncle Jack Bonn (1896-1985).  Tragically, his file was one of those lost in a major fire in 1973.

Click here for the story about the fire.^[1]I mentioned Jack 4 years ago in a post about the death poem of his great-grandmother and my 3GG, Bertha Mikkelsdatter Vikheim (1812-1883).  See it here.

It took 3 years to get a response!  I was seeking Jack’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF).  Then COVID hit and operations were drastically pared back.  I submitted additional requests in 2021 and 2022.  The pandemic effect on NMRC became a national news item because military veterans were unable to receive their benefits without the release of their files from St. Louis.

Uncle Jack as we called him was born Orville Philip Bonn (1896-1985).  He was the eldest son of my immigrant Norwegian great-grandparents Bernt Olsen Bonn (1856-1937) and Bertha Aaberge (1865-1936).  My grandfather Bertram Bonn (1902-1964) was his younger brother.

The loss of the file is terribly disappointing.  Exploring the life of Jack Bonn is one of my highest genealogical priorities.  He looms large in family history because of his reported exploits in World War I, his barnstorming after the war, and his somewhat eccentric and even mysterious lifestyle.  The OMPF, I believe, would have resolved questions about the exact nature of Jack’s role in the war, his activities in France, the details of how he was injured, and what degree of disability he suffered as a result.  The file almost certainly would have included medical examinations at Veteran’s Administration facilities.

Many questions have been raised about Jack’s life.  Whenever I get together with Bonn family members, we invariably talk about him.  He never married – although there were many girlfriends – and never seemed to have a job.  He said he was a ghost writer for Hollywood screenwriters and claimed Ernest Hemingway as a friend.  In his will, he gave his entire estate, nearly $100,000, to endow a scholarship fund in the name of his mother at Montevideo High School.  Where all this money came from is unknown.  His only known source of income was his government disability pension.  On the other hand, he did live rather frugally.  For at least 30 years, he lived out of a small trailer.  I don’t think he ever bought a house.

The family legend is that Uncle Jack was a flying ace in World War I.  The story I personally remember hearing from my parents when I was 11 or 12 is that Jack shot down two German planes in combat, but it was never documented because verification was difficult to obtain.  You needed two witnesses, which was not always possible, given combat and weather conditions.  Others in the family don’t remember that story specifically, but the general understanding is that he was a pilot in France against the Germans, was shot down, and that engine oil splashed on his face, causing some sort of damage to his eyes.  The eyesight problem allowed him to receive disability payments from the U.S. government.^[2]Telephone calls with Stephen Bonn and David Bonn, 30 October 2023, and Susan Quella on 1 November 2023.

After the war, Jack was a barnstormer and experimental parachute jumper.  He promoted himself as the Flying Fox.  Jack’s parachute exploits were genuinely daring and I hope to write a separate post about that.  I believe he held the world record for the shortest parachute jump from an airplane for some years, about 100 feet.

Jack also published a novel in 1931 based on his wartime experiences, Ravens.^[3]O’Philip Bonn, Ravens, Los Angeles, California: California Graphic Press, 1931.  It’s a turgid read that I have never been able to finish.

Even without his military personnel file, let’s review Jack Bonn’s service in World War I by examining online records, surviving correspondence, and the memorabilia he left behind, including two scrapbooks of photographs and clippings.

Orville Philip Bonn served in the U.S. Army for 3 years and 1 month.  His official enlistment date is 5 March 1917.  He began as a private in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, which was the military aviation wing of the U.S. Army from 1914-1918, and then renamed the U.S. Army Air Service in May 1918.^[4]Website – https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Aviation_Section,_U.S._Signal_Corps : viewed 3 November 2023.  Jack was honorably discharged as a sergeant first class on 11 March 1920.

Orville P. Bonn Military Timeline

• 26 Feb 1917         =   Initial sign-up, Montevideo, Minnesota
• 5 March 1917     =   Enlistment, Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri
• Apr – Sep 1917    =   Camp Kelly, San Antonio, Texas
• 18 Sep 1917         =   Departed USA on troop ship RMS Carmania
• 2 Oct 1917           =   Disembarked at Liverpool, England
• Oct – Dec             =   England, locations unknown
• 20 Dec 1917        =   Arrived Le Havre, France
• 23 Dec 1917        =   Arrived Tours, France
• Dec 1917 – May 1919  =  Tours Aerodrome, Tours, France
• 13 May 1919       =   Departed Saint Nazare, France on troop ship USS. Tiger
• 26 May 1919      =   Disembarked at Hoboken, New Jersey
• May 1919 – Mar 1920   =    Two airfields (dating unknown): Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York + Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida
• 11 Mar 1920        =    Discharge, Carlstrom Field, Florida

The enlistment timing in March 1917 is significant because the United States had not yet entered the war.  Germany shocked President Woodrow Wilson on 31 January 1917 by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare on Atlantic shipping, including U.S. merchant vessels.  Wilson severed relations with Germany on 3 February, but still hoped to avoid war.  However, a number of U.S. ships were sunk by German subs during February.  Then the British forwarded the infamous Zimmerman Telegram to Wilson on 24 February.  This revealed that Germany had been secretly plotting with Mexico against U.S. interests.  Patriotic feeling ran high in the country, probably explaining Jack’s decision to enlist when he did.  President Wilson finally went before Congress on 2 April 1917 to request a declaration of war.

At the time of enlistment, Jack was 20 years old and employed as a mechanic at N. J. Anderson Machine Shop and Automobile Garage in Montevideo, Minnesota.  A letter of recommendation from N. J. Anderson dated 26 February 1917 attests that Orville Bonn, while nine months in employ, displayed “unusual mechanic ability,” and they regretted his departure.  The letter presumably was provided by Jack during enlistment.

By April, Jack was shipped to Camp Kelly, just outside San Antonio, Texas.  Camp Kelly became a key aviation training center for U.S. operations during World War I, eventually producing over 300 “aero squadrons.”  At the time Jack arrived there, though, the camp was still being established.  The first arrivals had to sleep on the ground without tents or cots and build their own barracks and latrines!

Few countries had “air forces” at this time and commercial air flight did not exist.  The U.S. Army was just beginning to set up the infrastructure to wage war in the skies.  The high command realized that the only way to quickly help the war effort was to rely on our Allies, so most U.S. pilots received training in Britain, Canada, or France before being deployed.

Keep in mind that American involvement in World War I only lasted 17 months.  It ended 11 November 1918, now celebrated as Veteran’s Day.  Thus, the timing of this post.  So, while several hundred air squadrons were created, only 45 made it to the front line and only 38 were involved in combat.  There were also balloon companies.

Jack remained at Camp Kelly until September 1917.  By this point, he had been promoted to corporal.  At some point, Jack was assigned to the 34th Aero Squadron.  The history of the 34th is worth reading here on Wikipedia.  The squadron, about 200 men, arrived in England on 15 September 1917 and began training as aviators, machine gunners, etc.  After 3 months, they were dispatched to France, arriving in the city of Tours on 23 December 1917.

The U.S. Army Air Service involved many types of aero squadrons, including flying, training, ground support, construction, etc.  Even flying squadrons were sub-divided into pursuit, reconnaissance, and bombardment.  Pursuit squadrons were the combat biplanes that we normally associate with World War I.  Like most squadrons, the 34th never saw combat.^[5]See the link here, a list of which aero squadrons served in France and which saw combat.  It was assigned to the Second Air Instructional Center (2d AIC) at Tours Aerodrome.  In other words, the 34th was an instructional squadron, assigned to train the men who went to the front.  Its primary instructional mission was to train “aerial observers and observation pilots.”  It was not a unit that trained pilots engaged in aerial combat.  It was focused on reconnaissance training, helping to train both the pilots and the observers who sat behind them and took photographs from the air.

The image above is an official portrait of the 34th Aero Squadron at Tours Aerodrome.^[6]Wikipedia dates the image to November 1917, but the unit history states they didn’t arrive in France until December 1917, so this begs to be deconflicted.  I suspect it is meant to read … Continue reading  The image is not only attached to the squadron’s Wikipedia page, but Uncle Jack had a large print copy he kept in one of his scrapbooks.  This is clearly his unit.  The man with the moustache standing in the back row by the tail of the airplane could well be Jack.  The airplane behind the men is a Salmson 2A2, an observation plane.