Paul Lockwood During the Great War

Flying aces, disputed authors, and letters from the front

Paul Lorenzo Lockwood, shown circa 1917 with his three oldest children

When Paul Lockwood served at the front during WWI he wrote letters home constantly. You can read a transcript of the letters Paul sent to his wife, Clara Hoyt Lockwood, during the war (compiled and transcribed by his great-granddaughter in 2002), but two are missing from the collection. They were held back by Paul, and not discovered by his grandson (and namesake) until 2007.

The two letters may not have been mailed because they would have worried Clara; in them, Paul mentions his request to work as a confirmation officer for the 1st Pursuit Group:

Confirmation officers were soldiers who “proved” a pilot’s kill by physically visiting the crash site, sometimes behind enemy lines (five confirmed kills would make a pilot an Ace). Their work was also critical to understanding the military technology that was being used by the opposing side. In Paul’s service record, his commanding officer later confirmed that Paul had become a confirmation officer, noting that Paul was “frequently under the enemy’s fire at considerable personal danger. His entire service has been excellent.”

Perhaps this work explains how Paul had come to know some of the war’s most famous flying aces. In 2005, the younger Paul Lockwood discovered his grandfather’s copy of a famous book by Eddie Rickenbacker. Here is young Paul Lockwood’s description of the discovery, and what it revealed to him about his “Grampy Paul:”   

“When my mother moved out of her Maine house last year, she gave me ‘first crack’ at the wall full of books they had bought from the old homestead in Stamford, Connecticut.  I took several [...] and came across one other book I immediately tucked away: Fighting the Flying Circus, by Eddie Rickenbacker.  Eddie Rickenbacker was the most famous U. S. ace of WWI and fought the Red Baron’s squadron, among others.   Fighting the Flying Circus is a rather famous WWI aviation book that was printed for many years and may still be obtained through rare book stores, occasionally. 

When I looked through the book, I found a hand written inscription on the first page that reads, ‘To Paul Lockwood in memory of our trips along the front—with the compliments and affection of Laurence L. Driggs—July 8, 1919.’  Since the book’s title page credits Laurence Driggs with writing the ‘Forward’ and ‘Maps,’ I was fairly impressed that, obviously, my grandfather spent time at the front with someone who helped write Fighting the Flying Circus.

I contacted several WWI historical web sites and, when I described the book and inscription, the information created quite a stir among the experts.  It turns out there is an ongoing controversy (among the WWI aviation history geeks, anyway) as to whether Eddie Rickenbacker actually wrote the book.  The prevailing opinion is that Rickenbacker lacked the talent to write a book and Driggs, a well known author of the time, actually ghostwrote it for Rickenbacker.  What the historians found intriguing was that Laurence Driggs made the inscription in a copy of Fighting the Flying Circus he gave to my grandfather as a gift.  It seems that, at the time, only the actual author had the right to inscribe anything in a book giving it to someone as a gift.  The fact that Driggs made such an inscription is another piece of evidence supporting the ‘Driggs as actual author’ theory.

[...]I found several passages my grandfather wrote about spending some time with Driggs.  It seems my grandfather was expecting Driggs to help him write some stories, although getting them published seemed remote due to the American market being flooded by war information.  I do remember my father telling me that my grandfather did, indeed, print his material as a magazine that was distributed around the war front and that this magazine was, technically, the first aviation periodical ever published.  Would that a few of those remained!  Anyway, I found it interesting that my grandfather (who later became editor of the Stamford Advocate and was no slouch in the writing department) hobnobbed with a well-known author, and that the connection between them would provide a clue to a historical argument still unresolved almost a century later.  It is entirely possible that my grandfather was privy to the truth in the matter.