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54-584: The estimations of number of pilots range from 180 to over 300. The generally accepted number of pilots who successfully completed French flight training is 209. Of these, 180 served in combat. More than 50 Flying Corps personnel (including members of the Lafayette Escadrille) initially served in the Ambulance Corps of the American Field Service . AFS Surgeon-General Col. Edmund L. Gros, M.D.

108-941: A contact person for an AFS student, organizing fund raising events, and arranging activities for AFS students. As a volunteer-driven organization, AFS depends on donations of time to implement and monitor the delivery of programs. On a European level, the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) serves as the umbrella organization for many AFS partner countries in and around Europe, currently including 26 AFS partner countries: Austria, Belgium (both Flemish and French organizations), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark & Sweden, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and Tunisia. EFIL does not engage in active student exchanges between countries. Instead, it supports member organizations in

162-703: A group, the Americans who flew in the war for France's air service, the Aéronautique militaire , are collectively known as the La Fayette Flying Corps . Altogether, 265 American volunteers served in the corps. On 8 February 1918, the squadron was disbanded, and 12 of its American members inducted into the U.S. Air Service as members of the 103rd Aero Squadron . For a brief period, it retained its French aircraft and mechanics. Most of its veteran members were set to work training newly arrived American pilots. The 103rd

216-449: A hundred prominent colleges or universities around the country. Also represented were a smaller group from America's professional class: doctors, lawyers, architects, painters, brokers, businessmen, poets and writers. This literate group produced many letters, diaries, journals, and even poetry. The AFS collected many of these writings into Friends of France , published in 1916. The Service used this volume to recruit more volunteers to

270-560: A request: Would they forego ambulance driving for trucking supplies to the front? Eight hundred AFS recruits joined the camion service, including John Kautz, who published Trucking to the Trenches in 1918. After the war the Field Service produced three hefty volumes of writings from numerous AFS alumni, including excerpts from the previously published books above. Following the Great War,

324-578: A trial. The success of Section Z was immediate and overwhelming, and by April 15, 1915, the French created American Ambulance Field Service operating under French Army command. This marked the formal beginning of American Ambulance Field Service, three units of which made their mark during battles in northern France, the Champagne, Verdun and the Vosges. By the summer of 1916, the Field Service severed its ties with

378-579: Is called the "Parlamentarisches Patenschafts Programm" (PPP) and over the years the German authorities have made many efforts to present this as their "own program". Not only AFS Germany but all competitors are more or less behind-the-scene service providers so people may not recognized who is doing this program in Germany. AFS hosts German CBYX students throughout the US, and administers the scholarship for US students located in

432-579: Is credited with initiating the corps. Sixty-nine Corps members died during the war, 42 of them in action against the enemy. The rest were results of disease, accidents, wounds, and suicide. The planes weren't very sturdy, and sometimes guns jammed, too, just when they were needed. The Corps is credited with 159 enemy kills. It amassed 31 Croix de Guerre , and its pilots were awarded seven Médailles militaires and four Légions d'honneur . Eleven of its members were deemed flying aces , claiming five air kills or more. The core squadron suffered nine losses and

486-532: Is now part of the escadron 2/4 La Fayette . Dr. Edmund L. Gros , a founder of the American Hospital of Paris and organizer of the American Ambulance Field Service , and Norman Prince , a Harvard-educated lawyer and an American expatriate already flying for France, led the attempts to persuade the French government of the value of a volunteer American air unit fighting for France. The aim

540-674: The American Expeditionary Force were assigned to Escadrille N.471, an air defense squadron stationed near Paris. American flyers served with this French unit until 18 July 1918, and it is sometimes referred to as the Second Escadrille Américaine. Later, the Escadron de Chasse 2/4 La Fayette retook the unit designation of "La Fayette", this time however in the French Air Force . The first major action seen by

594-629: The American Field Service ) is an international youth exchange organization. It consists of over 50 independent, not-for-profit organizations , each with its own network of volunteers , professionally staffed offices, volunteer board of directors and website . In 2015 , 12,578 students traveled abroad on an AFS cultural exchange program, between 99 countries. The U.S.-based partner, AFS-USA, sends more than 1,100 U.S. students abroad and places foreign students with more than 2,300 U.S. families each year. As of 2022, more than 500,000 people have gone abroad with AFS and over 100,000 former AFS students live in

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648-586: The Escadrille SPA.124 Jeanne d'Arc . A total of 224 Americans served in the unit. Of those, 51 died in combat, while another 11 died of other causes. Fifteen became prisoners of war . Eleven pilots became aces . Not all American pilots were in the Lafayette Escadrille; over 200 fought for France as part of the La Fayette Flying Corps . On 3 April 1918, eleven American pilots from the Air Service of

702-697: The European Youth Forum . AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world. AFS-USA, Inc. (a.k.a., AFS-USA) is the AFS partner organization in the United States and is a registered 501(c)(3). Approximately 1,100 participants go abroad with AFS-USA annually. Over 1,000 international AFS students from other countries are hosted in

756-499: The Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway and Syria . Students participating had to be nominated by their teachers. As of 2023 , there are over 60 AFS organizations worldwide serving over 80 different countries, providing exchange opportunities for over 13,000 students and teachers annually. AFS is one of the largest volunteer-based organizations of its kind in the world with more than 50,000 volunteers worldwide and more than 5,000 in

810-582: The "gloriously exciting and grandly humanitarian" work of an ambulancier on the Western Front. Also published in 1916, Ambulance Number 10 , by Leslie Buswell, was composed of the author's letters back to the States. Buswell went on to assist Henry Sleeper in the AFS's recruiting and fundraising offices in Boston. Other literary "ambulanciers" brought their letters and journals and memoirs to American publishers in

864-710: The A.F.S. during the First World War. Seventy AFS Ambulance Drivers assisted the efforts to liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April and May 1945. In September 1946, Stephen Galatti , president of AFS, established the American Field Service International Scholarships. During the 1947–48 school year, the first students came from ten countries including Czechoslovakia , Estonia , France , Great Britain , Greece , Hungary ,

918-679: The AFS became sponsors for the French Fellowships —graduate student scholarships for study in France and in the US—which were ultimately administered by the Institute of International Education and were precedents for the Fulbright Foundation exchanges. AFS also created an association for its veterans, publishing a bulletin, organizing reunions and contributing a wing to house its memorabilia at

972-603: The AFS were formerly known as American Field Scholarships. AFS-USA awards financial aid and scholarships to students each year, including via the following programs: Escadrille Lafayette The La Fayette Escadrille ( French : Escadrille de La Fayette ) was the name of the French Air Force unit escadrille N 124 during the First World War (1914–1918). This escadrille of the Aéronautique Militaire

1026-577: The Air Service, or died of wounds received. The Group La Fayette totalized eight citations at the orders of Air Army, bearing the right to wear the Fourragere with ribbon colors of the Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (France) , as well as the Fourragere with ribbon colors of the Médaille Militaire . At the decommission of the unit on January 1, 1918, the following registry noted: La Fayette Escadrille became

1080-709: The American Ambulance and moved its operations from cramped quarters in Neuilly to Paris, onto the spacious grounds of the Delessert château at 21 rue Raynouard in the Passy area of Paris. There, it grew rapidly over the next year, continuing to provide "sanitary sections" to the French Army, while also serving as a recruitment source of combat pilots for the newly formed Escadrille Lafayette , one of whose prime movers, Edmund L. Gros,

1134-650: The British and Belgian armies in the north. In early 1915, one of those drivers, A. Piatt Andrew , was appointed "Inspector of Ambulances" by Robert Bacon , head of the American Ambulance and one of Andrew's colleagues from the Taft Administration. The newly appointed inspector toured the ambulance sections of Northern France and learned that the American volunteers were bored with so-called "jitney work," transporting wounded soldiers from railheads to hospitals far back from

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1188-677: The Escadrille Lafayette was claimed by over 4,000 people, "including a dozen well-known Hollywood personalities and several high government officials. Also, from the beginning there was a great deal of confusion between American pilots who were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, a designated all-American aviation squadron of the French Service Aeronautique; and the Lafayette Flying Corps , an unofficial paper organization highlighting in its roster published during

1242-690: The French Army as "foreign sanitary sections" during World War I. The first was Henry Harjes’’ "Formation" units under the American Red Cross, followed by Richard Norton's American Volunteer Motor-Ambulance Corps, organized in London under the St. John's Ambulance (the British Red Cross). Later, both would merge —under the American Red Cross—as the "Norton-Harjes". In the summer and fall of 1917, when all

1296-682: The Museum of Franco-American Cooperation in Blérancourt, France. When World War II broke out, AFS reorganized its ambulance service, sending units first to France and then to the British Armies in North Africa, Italy, India-Burma and with the Free French for the final drive from southern France to Germany. 2,196 men served in the A.F.S. during World War II. Twenty-five were sons of drivers who served in

1350-868: The Northeast. The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program is part of a broader government-wide presidential initiative that prepares American citizens to be leaders in a global world. NSLI-Y encourages a lifetime of language study and cultural understanding by providing more than 600 fully funded scholarships to American high school students. As of 2023, NSLI-Y offers academic scholarships to learn Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Persian (Tajiki), Russian, and Turkish through summer and year-long programs in Jordan, Morocco, China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and other countries around

1404-579: The U.S. When war broke out in 1914, the American Colony of Paris organized an "ambulance" —the French term for a temporary military hospital—just as it had done in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 when the "American Ambulance" had been under tents set up near the Paris home of its founder, the celebrated Paris-American dentist, Thomas W. Evans . The "American Ambulance" of 1914 took over the premises of

1458-465: The U.S. Tens of thousands of volunteers and a small staff make the AFS program happen worldwide. AFS volunteers are both young and old, busy professionals and retirees, and students and teachers. AFS provides development and training opportunities for volunteers. AFS volunteers help in many areas including facilitating the AFS mission in the local community and schools by finding and interviewing students and families. Further involvement includes serving as

1512-446: The U.S. annually. AFS-USA is supported by a volunteer base of over 5,000. Study abroad programs range from two week group trips, to traditional year-long exchanges. Students on traditional exchanges live in volunteer host families, and study at a local high school. Other programs include community service, university classes, or language classes. Public Diplomacy Initiatives at AFS-USA offer support for international students to study in

1566-526: The U.S. government, over the actions of a supposed neutral nation, led to the name change to La Fayette Escadrille in December 1916, as the original name implied that the U.S. was allied to France rather than neutral. The Escadrille was disbanded on 18 February 1918. The American personnel transferred to the United States Army Air Service as the 103d Aero Squadron , while the French formed

1620-568: The United States and for U.S. students to study abroad via full funded scholarships by grant-making foundations or by the Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Department of State. The Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX) was launched in 1983 by the U.S. Congress and the German Parliament. AFS currently provides 50 merit-based, full scholarships for U.S. students and 60 scholarships for German participants. In Germany it

1674-599: The West Bank. Countries that formerly participated include Algeria, Ethiopia, Yemen, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, and Syria. The YES Abroad Program also provides scholarships for high school students in the US to spend an academic year in countries with significant Muslim communities, including as of 2023 Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, North Macedonia, Senegal, Thailand, and Turkiye. Former host countries include Egypt, Mali, Oman, Philippines, and South Africa. Scholarships awarded by

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1728-547: The coming years. William Yorke Stevenson produced To The Front in a Flivver in 1917, stayed on in France after militarization, and composed From "Poilu" to "Yank" in 1918. Robert Imbrie published Behind the Wheel of a War Ambulance in 1918, as did Julien Bryan with Ambulance 464: Encore des Blesses . The AFS recruits who joined the Service in late spring 1917, after Congress's declaration of war, were greeted by Piatt Andrew with

1782-522: The field of intercultural learning. The European Union and the Council of Europe are the organization's core Partners for fundraising, policy-setting and sharing. The main activities include networking and advocacy, training and seminars for volunteers and staff, establishing new partner countries in Europe, and coordinating Europe-wide projects. It is an important European Youth organization and an active member of

1836-603: The front lines. French army policy prohibited foreign nationals from traveling into battle zones. In March 1915, Andrew met with Captain Aimé Doumenc, head of the French Army Automobile Service and pleaded his case for the American volunteers. They desired above all, he said, "to pick up the wounded from the front lines..., to look danger squarely in the face; in a word, to mingle with the soldiers of France and to share their fate!" Doumenc agreed to give Andrew

1890-483: The group as an aerial reconnaissance photographer. The exploits of the Lafayette Escadrille are also captured in several works of historical fiction including: Falcons of France by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (1929) and To the Last Man by Jeffrey Shaara . The Lafayette Escadrille is part of the 2018 short documentary Raoul Lufbery: Fighter Ace . The film subject is fighter ace Raoul Lufbery , it

1944-421: The much larger, federalized U.S. Army Ambulance Service , it had numbered more than 2500 volunteers, including some 800 drivers of French military transport trucks. It had actively recruited its drivers from the campuses of American colleges and universities, promoting morale by creating units with volunteers from the same schools. All financed their own uniforms and transportation to France where they worked under

1998-559: The same conditions as French ambulance drivers—with the same pay—and often found themselves serving under extremely dangerous missions on the Front. By the end of the war, some 127 men who had served with the AFS had been killed and a notable number of individuals and units had earned the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de Guerre for their heroic actions as drivers. Other volunteer ambulance corps served

2052-462: The same time, a large percentage of volunteers signed up for the military, thenceforth members of USAAS units, but remaining identified with their AFS past—a past kept alive through the work of HQ, still at 21 rue Raynouard, where a Bulletin was published and where visiting ambulance drivers could find temporary lodgings and meals. The young AFS drivers came from "prominent families in the States," and had attended, or were still attending, one of almost

2106-575: The squadron was 13 May 1916 at the Battle of Verdun and five days later, Kiffin Rockwell recorded the unit's first aerial victory. On 23 June, the Escadrille suffered its first fatality when Victor Chapman was shot down over Douaumont . The unit was posted to the front until September 1916, when the unit was moved back to Luxeuil-les-Bains in 7 Army area. On 23 September, Rockwell was killed when his Nieuport

2160-511: The third flight unit (Escadrille) of the Groupe de Chasse 2/5 La Fayette . The group was the subject of one of the "We Were There" historical books for young adults. The story of the Lafayette Escadrille has been depicted in three feature films: The Lafayette Escadrille also appears in "Attack of the Hawkmen", an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in which Indy is temporarily assigned to

2214-594: The unfinished Lycée Pasteur in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine—and was run by the nearby American Hospital of Paris. The volunteer drivers of 1914 found themselves behind the wheels of motorized, not horse-driven, vehicles: Model-Ts, purchased from the nearby Ford plant in Levallois-Perret. In the fall of 1914, when the war front moved away from Paris, the American Ambulance set up an outpost in Juilly and sent out detached units of volunteer drivers to serve informally with

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2268-500: The unit's weak notorious status in the United States, the Escadrille proved useful for the French and Americans, taking into consideration that before the First World War, aircraft were not considered combat units. Initially, there were seven Americans pilots: Victor E. Chapman , Elliott C. Cowdin , Bert Hall , James Rogers McConnell , Norman Prince, Kiffin Rockwell , and William Thaw II . The full roster included 38 pilots. The unit's aircraft, mechanics, and uniforms were French, as

2322-480: The volunteer ambulance services were invited to join the new U.S. Army Ambulance Service, Norton's units simply disbanded, while Harjes’, under the American Red Cross, moved into Italy where they would subsequently serve under the USAAS. Once the Americans entered the war, many drivers joined combat units, both French and American, serving as officers in a variety of assignments, notably in air force and artillery units. At

2376-454: The war the names of approximately 231 American volunteer aviators who flew with more than 90 French operational escadrilles. Already existing confusion was exacerbated after a screening of the film Flyboys in 2006. Five French officers and 38 American pilots, also known as "The Valiant 38", were members of the Lafayette Escadrille. A Cross (†) indicates that the individual was killed in action , including those who subsequently entered

2430-754: The world. The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program originated in the FREEDOM Support Act, which was sponsored by U.S. Senator Bill Bradley and was passed by Congress in 1992. FLEX provides full merit-based scholarships to students from the countries of the former Soviet Union. As of 2023, students come to the US from a variety of countries in Eurasia including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czechia, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES)

2484-425: Was Victor Chapman . Edmond Genet became the first American casualty of World War I following the U.S. entry into the war. Other Americans had died previous to the U.S. declaration of war, but since Genet had been active in the Escadrille since before the U.S. entry into the war, his death only a few days after the U.S. declaration of war made him the first official U.S. casualty. After the Great War, membership in

2538-586: Was composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters . It was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette , French hero of the American Revolutionary War . In September 1917, the escadrille was transferred to the United States Army under the designation 103rd Aero Squadron . In 1921, the French Air Force recreated a N124 unit who claimed lineage from the war-time La Fayette escadrille and

2592-438: Was credited with 41 victories. There is frequent confusion between the terms Lafayette Escadrille and Lafayette Flying Corps, exacerbated by the inaccuracies in the movie Flyboys . The following pilots are not listed as part of the Flying Corps by the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial Foundation. https://www.lafayettememorialclefs.org/ AFS Intercultural Programs AFS Intercultural Programs (or AFS , originally

2646-643: Was credited with a further 45 kills before the Armistice went into effect on 11 November. The French Escadrille SPA.124 , also known as the Jeanne d'Arc Escadrille, continued Lafayette Escadrille's traditions in the Service Aéronautique. Nine pilots died in the Lafayette Escadrille while others perished after leaving the unit. More sustained non-fatal injuries. The planes flown were flimsy, and not as safe as those of later years. Engines and other parts failed, and machine-guns often jammed when they were needed. One man asked to be moved back to his infantry unit, where "he could be safe." The first pilot to be killed in action

2700-460: Was downed by the gunner in a German Albatros observation plane and in October, Norman Prince was fatally injured after crashing on final approach to his airfield. The squadron, flying Nieuport, later Spad, scouts, suffered heavy losses, but it received replacements until a total of 38 American pilots eventually served with the squadron. So many Americans volunteered to fly for France that they were eventually farmed out to other French squadrons. As

2754-690: Was initiated by The Department of State in the aftermath of Sept. 11. It aims to build bridges of understanding between Americans and people in countries with significant Muslim populations. Students from over 40 countries come to the US for academic year programs. As of 2023, students come from the following countries: Albania, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Egypt, Gaza, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkiye, and

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2808-405: Was the Field Service's in-house physician. When the United States entered the war in April 1917, the French Army successfully appealed to the Field Service for drivers for its military transport sections —and so, no longer limited to medical transport, the organization renamed itself the "American Field Service", thus establishing today's well-known acronym, "AFS". Before the AFS was absorbed into

2862-487: Was the commander, Captain Georges Thénault . Five French pilots were also on the roster, serving at various times in command positions. Raoul Lufbery , a French-born American citizen, became the squadron's first, and ultimately their highest scoring flying ace , with 16 confirmed victories. Two unofficial members of the Escadrille Américaine, lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda, provided countless moments of relief from battle stress to fliers. A German objection filed with

2916-399: Was to have their efforts recognized by the American public and thus, it was hoped, the resulting publicity would rouse interest in abandoning neutrality and joining the fight. Authorized by the French Air Department on March 21, 1916, the Escadrille de Chasse Nieuport 124 ( Escadrille Américaine ) was deployed on April 20 in Luxeuil-les-Bains , France, near Switzerland's border. Despite

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