Introducing Kiona Smith-Strickland, our shiny new contributor.
Frank Luke, Jr with his Spad XIII Frank Luke, Jr with his Spad
XIII A simple telegram plunged America into the Great War. The
Zimmermann telegram, intercepted by American intelligence in
April 1917, revealed Germany’s efforts to encourage Mexico to
invade the United States. For a towheaded kid from Arizona named
Frank Luke, Jr., and other citizens of the states along the
Mexican border, the threat of invasion was real and personal.
Anti-German sentiment swept the nation that spring. Sauerkraut
became “Victory Cabbage”, the precursor to Freedom Fries, and
suspicion fell on families of German descent such as the Lukes,
whose name had been Luecke just a generation before. The
immigrants’ son Frank Luke, Jr. had a lot to prove when he
joined the Army a few months later.  By the time Luke completed
flight training, received his commission, and joined the 27th
Aero Squadron in France in July 1918, the surge of American
forces onto the Western Front pr