Honoring a local hero
American Legion pays tribute to WWI ‘ace’ Louis Bennett Jr.By JOHN WICKLINE, Staff Writer
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Weston's American Legion Post 4 has spent hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours restoring a room on the second floor of the public library in hopes of bringing it back to a prominent place in the mind of the community.
It was during those hours when local Legionaires decided they needed to do something to bring the person for whom the library is named back to that same prominent place in the mind of the community.
Accompanied by the Lewis County Honor Guard from the American Legion, Lewis County commissioners this week honored the memory and military service of Louis Bennett Jr., a Weston native who distinguished himself over the skies of France in World War I as a flying ace before being shot down and killed. A 21-gun salute and a wreath-laying marked the ceremony, which was performed on the anniversary of Bennett's death.
Bennett became interested in flying while a student at Yale University.
After graduating in 1917 and with American's involvement in the first World War on the horizon, he established the West Virginia Flying Corps at an airstrip near Beech Bottom in Brooke County. He dreamed of the group flying together as a U.S. Army Air Corps unit, but was turned down by the government.
Bennett left for Canada in October 1917 to join the Royal Flying Corps. He visited with family in Wheeling before embarking for England in 1918, where he was assigned to the No. 40 squadron, one of the country's most feared and decorated fighter squadrons.
Flying an S.E.5a biplane, Bennett had his first successful mission on Aug. 15, 1918, shooting down a German Fokker plane. That day launched a successful string of missions over the next two weeks that led to Lt. Bennett achieving "ace" status. By Aug. 23, he had downed three more airplanes and seven observation balloons. But the next day brought an end to the remarkable aviator's luck.
After downing two more observation balloons to bring his kill total to 12, Bennett himself was brought down by anti-aircraft fire. He managed to land the plane before it burst into flames.
"A German pilot landed beside him and took him out of the plane," said Robert Schramm, the museum curator and the author of "The Aviator." "He took him to a field hospital that used to be an old church."
With a broken leg and badly burned, Bennett died from his wounds. He was honored by his foes by being buried in a German military cemetery near Waverin, France. Ironically, it was the only military recognition he
would receive for his service. Britain, France and the United States all declined to award any medals posthumously, the only American ace not honored by any government. The war ended 80 days later.
"His mother, Sallie Maxwell Bennett, felt he should get some kind of honors," Schramm said. "She decided to provide her own memorials."
The first memorial came when Sallie Bennett traveled to France to retrieve her only son's remains. The converted church had been destroyed during the fighting, and she pledged her family's money to have it rebuilt. The chapel bears a bronze plaque "to the memory of Lt. Bennett, Aviator U.S.A."
The idea for the next memorial came when Mrs. Bennett was attending a service at Westminster Abbey in London where Gen. Jack Pershing placed the Congressional Medal of Honor on the tomb of an unknown British soldier.
Mrs. Bennett, who lost a husband just days before her son was killed, noticed sunlight coming through a plain window and falling on the tomb. She commissioned a stained glass window be placed there in memory of her son.
The British Flying Corps window portrays the Archangel Michael looking favorably upon another angel. That angel's face bears the likeness of Louis Bennett, and it also includes the seal of the West Virginia Flying Corps in the corner. It was installed in 1922.
Mrs. Bennett in 1924 approached renowned sculptor Henry Augustus Lukeman, most known for his carving of Gen. Robert E. Lee at Stone Mountain, Ga., to do a monument that would honor her son's bravery. "The Aviator" bore the face of Lt. Bennett and was West Virginia's first monument to World War I when it was dedicated on Nov. 11, 1925, on the campus of the Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling.
Wheeling was chosen because Mrs. Bennett was from the city, and it was the last place her son had visited prior to leaving for the war.
"When it was completed, the U.S. government came to her to ask if it could be placed at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.," Schramm said. "She said that it was going to be in Wheeling. She felt it should be on the National Road where people passing by could see it."
A few years after its dedication, the monument was visited by noted aviator Charles Lindbergh, who laid a wreath at its base.
The monument was moved in 1968 to Linsly's new campus, and it has remained there since. The statue has become an endearing symbol to those involved with the school.
"The image is on the senior rings still today," Schramm said. "On the monument, it says 'Ready to Serve.' To the Linsly School, it is a symbol of service."
