Remembering Eugene Jacques Bullard
Compiled by Patrice Greanville
Eugene Jacques Bullard was one of the first African-American military pilots, although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few Black combat pilots during World War I. Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French (the Black Swallow).
Eugene Jacques Bullard (born Eugene James Bullard; October 9, 1895 – 
October 12, 1961) was one of the first African-American military pilots,[1][2] although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few Black combat pilots during World War I (along with Pierre Réjon from France, William Robinson Clarke, a Jamaican who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, Domenico Mondelli from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire). Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French (literally "Black Swallow").
All Blood Runs Red, a biography of Bullard by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin, was published in 2019 by Hanover Square Press.
Early life
Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia, the seventh of 10 children born to William (Octave) Bullard, a Black man from Stewart County, Georgia, and Josephine ("Yokalee") Thomas, a Black woman said to be of African-American and Indigenous (Muscogee Creek) heritage.[3] His paternal ancestors had been enslaved in Georgia and Virginia according to U.S. census records, and his father was born on a property owned by Wiley Bullard, a slave-owning planter in Stewart County.[4][5][6][7] Bullard attended the 28th Street School in Columbus from 1901 to 1906, completing the fifth grade.[3]
During his youth, he suffered the trauma of watching a white mob attempt to lynch his father over a workplace dispute. Despite the rampant racism of Jim Crow-era Georgia, his father continued to voice the conviction that African Americans had to maintain their dignity and self-respect in the face of the white prejudice.[8] Despite this, Bullard became enamored with his father's stories of France, where slavery had been abolished and blacks were treated in the same way as whites. When Bullard reached his 11th birthday, he ran away from home with the intention of getting to France. Stopping in Atlanta, he joined a British clan of Romanis known by the surname of Stanley and traveled throughout Georgia tending their horses and learning to race. It was the Stanleys who told him how the racial barriers did not exist in Britain and reset his determination to now get to the United Kingdom.[3]
Disheartened that the Stanleys were not scheduled to return to the United Kingdom, Bullard found work with the Turner family in Dawson, Georgia. Because he was hard-working as a stable boy, young Bullard won the Turners' affection and was asked to ride as their jockey in the 1911 County Fair races.[9] In 1912, he made his way to Norfolk, Virginia, where he stowed away on the German freighter Marta Russ,[10] hoping to escape racial discrimination. Bullard arrived at Aberdeen, Scotland, and made his way first to Glasgowand then to London, where he boxed and performed slapstick in Belle Davis's "Freedman Pickaninnies", an African-American troupe.[10] While in London, he trained under the then-famous boxer Dixie Kid, who arranged for him to fight in Paris, France. As a result of that visit to Paris, Bullard decided to settle in France. He continued to box in Paris and also worked in a music hall until the start of World War I.
World War I
Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion
World War I began in August 1914. On October 19, 1914, Bullard enlisted and was assigned to the 3rd Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (R.M.L.E.),[11] as foreign volunteers were allowed only to serve in the Foreign Legion.[12]
By 1915, Bullard was a machine gunner and saw combat on the Somme front in Picardy. In May and June, he was at Artois, and in the fall of that year fought in the Second Battle of Champagne (September 25 – November 6, 1915) along the Meuse River.[13][14] He was assigned to the 3rd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment. On July 13, 1915, he joined the 2nd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment and also served with the 170th French Infantry Regiment. The 2nd Marching Regiment of the 1st Foreign Regiment and the 2nd Marching Regiment of the 2nd Foreign Regiment were serving as part of the 1st Moroccan Division. Commanded initially by Hubert Lyautey, Resident-General of Morocco at the outbreak of World War I, the division was a mix of the Metropolitan and Colonial French troops, including Legionnaires, zouaves and tirailleurs.[15] Towards the end of the war, the 1st Moroccan Division became one of the most decorated units in the French Army.[16] The Foreign Legion suffered high casualties in 1915. It started the year with 21,887 soldiers, NCOs, and officers, but ended with only 10,683.[12] As a result, the Foreign Legion units fighting on the Western front were put in reserve for reinforcement and reorganization. On November 11, 1915, the 3,316 survivors from the 1e and the 2eÉtranger were merged into one unit – the Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion (Régiment de Marche de la Légion étrangère), which in 1920 became the 3rd Foreign Regiment of the Foreign Legion. Bullard participated in the fighting on the Somme, Champagne, and Verdun, where he was severely wounded on March 5, 1916.
The Americans and other volunteers were allowed to transfer to the Metropolitan French Army units, including to the 170th French Infantry Regiment. The 170th had a reputation as crack troops, being nicknamed Les Hirondelles de la Mort (in English, 'The Swallows of Death').[17] Bullard opted to serve in the 170th Infantry Regiment, and the 170 military insignia is displayed on his uniform collar. At the start of 1916, the 170th Infantry along with the 48th French Infantry Division, to which the regiment belonged from February 1915 to December 1916, was sent to Verdun. During his convalescence, Bullard was cited for acts of valor at the orders of the regiment on July 3, 1917, and was awarded the croix de guerre.
Aviation
While serving with the 170th Infantry, Bullard was seriously wounded in action in March 1916 at the Battle of Verdun.[13][18] While recuperating, he learned to fly on a bet.[19] After recovering, he volunteered on October 2, 1916, for the French Air Service (French: Aéronautique Militaire) as an air gunner. He was accepted and underwent training at the Aerial Gunnery School in Cazaux, Gironde.[11] Following this, he went through his initial flight training at Châteauroux and Avord, and received pilot's license number 6950 from the Aéro-Club de France on May 5, 1917.[11][13]
Like many other American aviators, Bullard hoped to join the famous squadron Escadrille Americaine N.124, the Lafayette Escadrille, but after enrolling 38 American pilots in the spring and summer of 1916, the squadron stopped accepting applicants. After further training at Avord, Bullard joined 269 American aviators at the Lafayette Flying Corps on November 15, 1916,[20][21] which was a designation for all American pilots who served with the French Air Service, rather than the name of a specific unit.[22] American volunteers flew with French pilots in different pursuit and bomber/reconnaissance aero squadrons on the Western Front. Edmund L. Gros, who facilitated the incorporation of American pilots in the French Air Service, listed in the October 1917 issue of Flying, an official publication of the Aero Club of America, Bullard's name is on the member roster of the Lafayette Flying Corps.[23]
On June 28, 1917, Bullard was promoted to corporal.[11] On August 27, he was assigned to Escadrille N.93 (French: Escadrille SPA 93), based at Beauzée-sur-Aire, south of Verdun, where he stayed until September 13.[24] The squadron was equipped with Nieuport and Spad aircraft that displayed a flying stork/swan as the squadron insignia. Bullard's service record also includes Squadron N.85 (French: Escadrille SPA 85), September 13, 1917 – November 11, 1917, which had a bull insignia.[25][26] He took part in more than twenty combat missions, and he is sometimes credited with shooting down one or two German aircraft (sources differ).[14] However, the French authorities could not confirm Bullard's victories.[27]
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