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| The Son: Peyton March, Jr, (1897–1918) As a Lafayette College Baseball Player |
Army Chief of Staff General Peyton C. March was the most prominent active member of the American military to lose a son during the Great War. His second son, Second Lieutenant Peyton C. March Jr, still an undergraduate at Lafayette College, enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. Lt. March was killed in a military airplane training crash at Hicks Field in Texas on 13 February 1918. March Field (now March Air Reserve Base) in California was named in his honor the following month. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 30, Site 1476).
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| The Father: General Peyton March (1864–1955) Army Chief of Staff |
On 4 March 1918, General March assumed the position of Acting Chief of Staff of the Army and despite his undiplomatic managerial style, performed outstandingly for the duration of the war. Theodore Roosevelt wrote to General March—shortly before his own son Quentin was killed in France—“You have already drunk of the waters of bitterness; I suppose I shall soon have to drink of them; but whatever befalls, you and I hold our heads high when we think of our sons.”
Sources: Lafayette College Magazine, Find a Grave, History.net
Pretty sure more pilots died in training than in combat in WW1.
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