Courtesy Photo Alpena’s Phelps Collins leans against a plane in this undated image. Collins was the first member of the U.S. Air Service to perish on a combat mission.

This coming Monday, May 26, is Memorial Day. At Alpena’s Little Flanders Field and at numerous other sites across Northeast Michigan, family members and friends will reflect on the men and women who gave America’s 340 million-plus residents cherished freedom.

An Alpena resident, who gave his life in support of freedom, was World War I aviator Captain Phelps Collins.

Many residents will recall that the current Alpena Regional Airport and Combat Readiness Training Center complex was once called Phelps Collins Field.

According to Dayton, Ohio’s National Museum of the United States Air Force, Collins was the first member of the U.S. Air Service to perish on a combat mission.

Phelps Collins Early History

Collins was born in Alpena in 1894. His father was William Collins, the president of the Alpena Flyer Motor Car Company (1910 to 1914). His father was later associated with Cadillac automobiles.

According to the Michigan Air National Guard’s 127th Wing website, as a teenager, he left Alpena to attend the Thornton Military Academy. After completing his secondary education, he spent a year at the University of Idaho. He returned to Alpena, where he opened a construction materials company.

The Lure of Aviation

The 127th Wing’s website account went on to state, “Collin’s lure of the airplane was strong. He was 10 years old when the Wright Brothers made their first flight at Kitty Hawk. Neighbors later recalled how young Phelps would play in the family’s yard with a model airplane.”

When World War I started in Europe, combat airplanes began to appear for the first time in significant numbers. Collins was among the hundreds of young men who were eager to get into the air service even before the United States entered the war.

Collins Enters the War Front

With some help from friends and his Congressman, Collins initially traveled to France to serve as an ambulance driver at the front. This was the time of trench warfare, and the conditions were often grisly. After 10 days as an ambulance driver, on Sept. 17, 1917, Collins was able to sign on with the French military.

Collins excelled as a pilot and quickly earned two aerial victories flying with the Escadrille. Collins was said to be such a skilled pilot that even experienced aviators would watch as he took off from his unit’s grass field. In January 1918, Collins and many of the other American flyers got their wish. With America now in the war, many of the American pilots transferred into American units. For most, nothing really changed; it was the same unit at the same field with the same airplanes. However, there were new uniforms and a new American chain of command.

A Michigan Air National Guard website and 1963 United States Air Force Museum correspondence to Robert Westrope, Editor of The Alpena News, provided detailed insight on Collins’ entry into aerial combat.

Collins and up to 300 young men, mostly from well-to-do American families, eventually found their way to Europe to fly with the French military in what was called the Lafayette Escadrille — a French unit filled with Americans.

Collins scored two aerial victories – shooting down an enemy aircraft – while flying with the Lafayette Escadrille, and had three more “probable” victories, none of which could be confirmed using the aerial combat victory rules of the day.

Had all three of those probables been confirmed, Collins would have earned status as an “ace” – a term that was just beginning to capture the public imagination.

Some seven months after Collins began flying as a member of the Escadrille, the U.S. Army began to arrive in France in significant numbers. As it did so, U.S. flying squadrons were created, and Collins and others were transferred to American units.

The Fateful Last Flight

On March 12, 1918, the pilots of the 103rd Aero Squadron received an alert call that a flight of German bombers was headed toward Paris.

A flight of four 103rd pilots, including Collins, was sent out in SPAD VIII aircraft to intercept the enemy force. The 103rd pilots would search in vain for the opposing force, never finding the reported raid.

As the four American aircraft searched for the phantom German raid, Collins’ aircraft peeled off on its own.

Aircraft at the time were not equipped with radio, so Collins’ intentions were unknown. Did he think he saw an enemy aircraft? Was there a maintenance issue?

Collins then flew in a circle for perhaps 30 minutes, and then his aircraft nosedived into the ground. According to the official report, it is believed that Collins, exhausted from numerous months of daily combat sorties, flew too high and passed out from a lack of oxygen.

With the crash, Collins became the first U.S. military pilot to die while flying a combat mission with an American unit. The news of Collins’ death was big news back home in Alpena, and across the nation as America mourned an early aviation hero.

Collins Legacy is Recognized

Just after World War I, Alpena constructed an Armory building on Water Street near the current City Hall. On the wall is a bronze plaque recognizing Collins and other Alpena area residents who perished in what was known as “The Great War.”

On the plaque, in Latin under the list of names, was the phrase, “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

In 1931, when Alpena County’s new public airport opened, the field was named Phelps Collins Field. The field began to be used for military training in the 1930s and was put to increasing use during World War II. The field, managed by the Michigan Air National Guard, has served as a training center since World War II.

The Michigan Air National Guard is comprised of the 127th Wing at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and the 110th Air Wing at Battle Creek Air National Guard Base. The MI-ANG also operates the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center and the Grayling Aerial Gunnery Range in northern Michigan.

Collins’ remains are interned at the Lafayette Flying Corps Memorial just west of Paris, France. The cemetery is administered by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes historic feature stories and op-eds for various Michigan newspapers. As a Vietnam-era veteran, he served in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserve. He served on the public affairs staff of the Secretary of the Navy. He grew up in Alpena and resides in suburban Detroit.