propriety¹⁹ that the value of his services was certainly not exceeded by the services rendered by any other observation officer in the American Air Service. And it must always in after life be a source of great pride and satisfaction to this officer to know that he successfully executed every mission upon which he was sent up to the day that he was shot down far behind the enemy lines in the Argonne after an unequal but protracted²⁰ combat with superior enemy forces.

Few men even in the Air Service had so many and so astounding²¹ adventures as befell the author of “Luck on the Wing,” and of these, fewer still lived to tell the story. In simple but vivid language Major Haslett tells in this book of many of his astonishing experiences. Life at the Front with him was just one adventure after another—from his first trip over the lines when he sat in the observer’s seat in a French plane perfectly²² at ease and in blissful ignorance of a French battery’s desperate efforts to signal him that there was a squadron of seven German Fokkers over him. Through this first adventure his amazing luck carried him safe (or was it a Divine Providence²³ moving as ever inscrutably?). And this same amazing luck carried him safely through an even more remarkable²⁴ adventure. While under heavy ground fire on an artillery²⁵ mission he was thrown out of his “ship” but caught the muzzle²⁶ of his machine gun as he went over, and in some way managed xxvito pull himself back into the airplane—and then completed his mission. But on September 30, 1918, even Major Haslett’s luck deserted²⁷ him and he was shot down and captured. The rest of the war he spent mainly in unsuccessful efforts to escape from German prisons.

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