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#Black fighter pilot crack#
Liking the idea of being part of a unit with crack troops appealed to Bullard, so he put in his request to join the regiment. It was during this time when he learned Americans and other volunteers were now allowed to transfer to Metropolitan French Army units, including the 170th French Infantry Regiment – nicknamed “Les Hirondelles de la Mort,” or “The Swallows of Death.” Assigned to the 3rd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment as a machine gunner, he saw combat near the Somme River. So when World War I broke out in August 1914, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion at a time when volunteers from overseas were only allowed to serve in the French colonial troops. He became a relatively good boxer in Paris and also worked in a music hall.įrance had been good to Bullard, and he quickly fell in love with the country. On a visit to Paris, he liked what he saw and how he was treated and decided to settle in France. Stirred by all the possibilities, he stowed away on a ship bound for Scotland, arriving at Aberdeen and made his way south to Glasgow.
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A long time back his father had pointed out to him that Bullard was a French name and that at least one ancestor had hailed from there. He had been told that the way to escape racial prejudice was to head to Europe, particularly France (he once said he witnessed a near lynching of his dad). They reached the United States and took refuge with the Creek Indians.Īn adventurer by nature, he left the small town of Columbus and moved to Atlanta by himself while still in his teenage years. His father’s ancestors had been slaves in Haiti to French refugees who fled during the Haitian Revolution. A largely unsung and non-known hero of the World War One was the fascinating Eugene James “Jacques” Bullard of the Lafayette Flying Corps.īullard was born in a three-room house in Columbus, Georgia, the seventh of ten children born to William (Octave) Bullard, a black man who was from Martinique, and Josephine (“Yokalee”) Thomas, a Creek Indian.