Victor Chapman was Kiffin’s best friend in the squadron, and a man who was fearless to the point of being foolhardy. Even Kiffin begged him to take it easy. He had a habit of leaving the formation to attack large groups of German planes, forcing the other pilots to follow rather than abandon him to his fate. Bill Thaw’s shattered elbow and Kiffin’s lacerated face resulted from one such incident. Here Victor poses beside his plane after a battle that left him with a head wound. Note the shattered windscreen and the bullet holes (ripped fabric) immediately behind the cockpit. A control rod was also shattered, and Victor had to hold the broken pieces of the rod together with one hand to fly the plane home. Some historians believe that Victor’s opponent that day was the great German ace Oswald Boelcke, but others are not convinced. (Photo courtesy Courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina.)