Alfred P. Page
U.S. Army Air Service
3rd Regiment Air Service Mechanics
16th Company
The daughter of WWI veteran Alfred Page read an article where the Veterans’ Legacy Foundation presented a North Carolina WWI Service Medal to a family member of a veteran and wanted to know if she may be able to have one for her father. The medals are very scarce, but one was obtained, refurbished and presented to her at a ceremony at the NC State Capitol in a ceremony involving several families of WWI veterans. Page was from Robeson County and served overseas from July 9, 1918 to September 7, 1919.
Excerpt from A History of the Third Regiment Air Service Mechanics:
“When the United States entered the World War, one of the most stupendous problems confronting the Government was that of organizing and equipping an Air Service commensurate with the army that was to be put into the field. Military aeronautics had been developed on only a small scale.
In their keen competition with the Central Powers for supremacy of the air, the Allied Nations had made giant strides in the development and production of military airplanes during the two and a half years they had been in the war before we joined them. It was arranged, therefore, that France should do-operate with the United States in producing the enormous fleet of airplanes that was to contribute so largely in the winning of the war.
Raw materials and manufactured airplane parts were to be furnished from America, and the French mechanics were to build the planes in French factories. In order to release experienced French airplane mechanics from field service with the French Motor Transport Corps, the United States was asked to furnish for service with the French Army, seven thousand automobile mechanics. And thus it came about that the Motor Mechanics Regiments, later the Air Service Mechanics Regiments, were organized.”
Fayetteville, North Carolina (2013)
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