ONLINE RESOURCES - 1      If you search for "Elliot Cowdin," using the Google search engine, (3-28-06), you will find about 331 links. Among the most helpful are the following. If time permits, you may want to visit some of the other sites.

THE HISTORY of the Lafayette Squadron      This is a very valuable resource for anyone interested in the Lafayette Squadron. It offers a very comprehensive revue of the history of the squadron and includes links to detailed biographies of many of the members, including Elliot Cowdin. It is in fact the very best revue of his exploits in France which I have been able to find on the net.      You can access the page by clicking on the title above. You may want to find the link to Cowdin's story by using your FIND function on "Cowdin", but I heartily recommend that you read the entire article. As time permits, you may want to visit the biographies of many of the heroes in the group.

 

L’Escadrille Lafayette : Unité Volontaire de Combat Oubliée de l’Amérique      This article, which is found on the website of the Institut de Stratégie Comparée, Commission Française d'Histoire Militaire, Institut d'Histoire des Conflits Contemporains, offers a very candid and rather unflattering picture of Elliot as he sereved in the flying forces in France. The article is written in English and is well worth reading, if a bit surprising. You can access the page by clicking on the title above.

 

ONLINE RESOURCES - 2      If you search for "Elliott Cowdin," using the Google search engine, (3-27-06), you will find about 28 links. Among the most helpful are the following. If time permits, you may want to visit some of the other sites.

Edwin W. Morse America in the War. The Vanguard of American Volunteers in the Fighting Lines and in Humanitarian Service, August, 1914 --April, 1917 New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1919       This is a really remarkable online resource. It appears to be the digitalization of an entire book, all 34 chapters of it. You can go directly to the page on which you will find the reference to Elliott Cowdin by clicking on: XXVII THE LAFAYETTE, OR AMERICAN, ESCADRILLE       You may want to use your FIND function on Cowdin to locate the entry on the page. If time permits, I heartily suggest that you read the entire page and then go to the homepage by clicking on the title above. There you will find the Table of Contents and will recognize entries for many of the familiar members of the Lafayette Escadrille including Victor Chapman, The first American aviator to fall, Kiffin Rockwell, Norman Prince, James McConnell, Edmond Genet, in the American Escadrille, Major Lufbery, Ace of American Aces, and Major Thaw, pioneer American Aviator.

 

ffrom the book 'Vive la France' by American journalist E. Alexander Powell 1916 The War in the Air       This very interesting article is important in that it refers to Elliott as a "Polo player." Just today, (3-27-06), I was contacted by Michael Perez, who informed me that he had recently acquired a painting of a horse, by a very famous artist, which appeared to have been commissioned by an "Elliott C. Cowdin" who had stud farm with a herd of brood mares. If it turns out that the horseman Cowdin is the same man as Cowdin the aviator, we have identified the existence of a previously unknown phase of his life and career. You can access this website by clicking on the title above.

 

FLY BOYS James Parks has assembled the world's finest squadron of pilots. They flew their last mission eighty years ago. BY ERIC DEXHEIMER       This article on the Denver Westword.com website is another remarkable resource for us. "When Andy Parks was growing up, once or twice a year his family would leave their home in Parker and fly to California or Florida or New York or Germany. Parks's father, James, a busy obstetrician and gynecologist, was flexible on these vacation destinations. Anywhere was fine with him--with one important stipulation. Wherever the Parks family traveled, there had to be a World War I pilot nearby."       It has only the briefest of references to Elliott Cowdin, but it does locate him in Indiana at the time James Parks interviewed him. I heartily recommend that you read the entire article by clicking on the title above. I think you will be amazed and intrigued by this account of the saga of James Parks and his quest for information regarding his obsession with World War I aviators over the years.

 
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RECOMMENDED READING

The Lafayette Flying Corps The American Volunteers in the French Air Service in World War One   by Dennis Gordon   Product Details Hard Cover: 504 pages; 11.3 x 8.9 x 1.8 inches Publisher: Shiffer Publishing 2000, Atglen, PA List Price: $59.95 ISBN: 0764311085

Book Description: from Amazon.com This new book contains not only a history of the legendary Lafayette Flying Corps, but also detailed biographies of the 269 volunteer American airmen and gunners of France's Service Aeronautique who flew in sixty-six pursuit and twenty-seven bomber/observation squadrons over the Western Front. Also included are the thirty-eight pilots of the Escadrille Lafayette. It is an accurate and absorbing account of the lives and combat experiences of the men who later formed the nucleus of the American Expeditionary Force squadrons. This ground breaking work contains comprehensive research, including details of war casualties and survivors, and many unpublished photographs., over 320 and b/w photographs, 8 1/2" x 11.

 

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