Quentin Roosevelt

Quentin Roosevelt
Quentin Roosevelt
	Lt. Roosevelt in the 95th Aero Squadron, WWI in France
Born	November 19, 1897; Washington, D.C., U.S.
Died	July 14, 1918 (aged 20); Chamery, near Coulonges-en-Tardenois, France
Buried	Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, U.A. Concession Territory, U.S., U.A.
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Army Air Service
Years of service	1917–1918
Rank	Second Lieutenant
Unit	95th Aero Squadron
Battles / wars	World War I German spring offensive; Second Battle of the Marne †;
Awards	Croix De Guerre (with palm); Purple Heart; Victory Medal

Quentin Roosevelt (November 19, 1897 – July 14, 1918) was the youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Roosevelt. Inspired by his father and siblings, he joined the United States Army Air Service where he became a pursuit pilot during World War I and shot down one German aircraft.^[1] He was killed in aerial combat over France on Bastille Day (July 14), 1918. He is the only child of a U.S. president to have died in combat.^[2]

Early life

Childhood

Quentin was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest child of Theodore Roosevelt's household, which included half-sister Alice, sister Ethel, and brothers Ted (Theodore III), Kermit, and Archie.

Quentin was three years old when his father became president, and he grew up in the White House. By far the favorite of all of President Roosevelt's children, Quentin was also the most rambunctious.

Quentin's behavior prompted his mother, Edith, to label him a "fine bad little boy". Amongst Quentin's many adventures with the "White House Gang" (a name assigned by T.R. to Quentin and his friends), Quentin carved a baseball diamond on the White House lawn without permission, defaced official presidential portraits in the White House with spitballs, threw snowballs from the White House's roof at unsuspecting Secret Service guards, and occasionally rode on top of the family elevator^[3] with his friend, Charlie Taft, the son of Secretary of War and future President William Howard Taft. The Secret Service were alarmed to see a fire and smoke behind the White House, only to see Quentin with a makeshift brick chimney baking some potatoes.^[4]

He quickly became known for his humorous and sometimes philosophical remarks. To a reporter trying to trap the boy into giving information about his father, Quentin admitted, "I see him occasionally, but I know nothing of his family life." The family soon learned to keep him quiet during dinner when important guests were present.

Once, when his brother Archie was terribly ill, it was Quentin (with the help of Charles Lee, a White House coachman) who brought the pony Algonquin to his room by elevator, sure that this would make his brother smile.

Education

Quentin started his education at Force Elementary School and then attended the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia.^[5]^[6] Later he was a student at the Evans School for Boys and Groton School.

Quentin consistently scored high marks and displayed the intellectual prowess of his father. He was admitted to Harvard College in 1915. By the time Quentin was a sophomore at Harvard, also like his father, he was showing promise as a writer. Quentin was posthumously awarded an A.B. (War Degree) by Harvard, Class of 1919.

Personal life

Quentin was engaged to Flora Payne Whitney, the elder daughter of Harry Payne Whitney and Gertrude Vanderbilt. Gertrude was a great-granddaughter of the shipping and railroad millionaire, "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. Harry objected to Flora's relationship with Quentin because Harry disapproved of the Roosevelt family in general and the liberal Republican Theodore Roosevelt in particular.

Quentin's letters to Flora and his father charted the course of America's entry into the war. While Theodore and Quentin were initially neutral, Theodore was incensed over the sinking of the British passenger ship RMS Lusitania in May 1915, in which 128 Americans drowned. Theodore campaigned vigorously on behalf of the 1916 Republican presidential nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, during which he severely criticized Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was reelected on a neutrality platform, but took the country to war during his second term.

Quentin came to agree with his father, writing to Flora in early 1917 from Harvard University, where he was studying: "We are a pretty sordid lot, aren't we, to want to sit looking on while England and France fight our battles and pan gold into our pockets."

Military service

All the Roosevelt sons had military training prior to World War I. With the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, there was a heightened concern about the nation's readiness for military engagement. Only the month before, Congress had belatedly recognized the significance of military aviation by authorizing the creation of an Aviation Section in the Signal Corps. In 1915, Major General Leonard Wood, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt since the Rough Rider days, organized a summer camp at Plattsburgh, New York, to provide military training for business and professional men at their own expense. It would be this summer training program that would provide the basis of a greatly expanded junior officers corps when the country entered World War I. During August 1915, many well-heeled young men from some of the finest East Coast schools, including Quentin Roosevelt and two of his brothers, attended the camp. When the United States entered the war, commissions were offered to the graduates of these schools based on their performance. The National Defense Act of 1916 continued the student military training and the businessmen's summer camps and placed them on a firmer legal basis by authorizing an Officers' Reserve Corps and a Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). Quentin, just out of the rigors of Groton and Harvard, did not really enjoy the training, but stuck it out anyway.

After the declaration of war, when the American Expeditionary Force was organizing, Theodore wired Major General John J. Pershing and volunteered to form a division and have his sons accompany him to Europe as privates. Pershing, who was a friend of Roosevelt dating back to the Cuban campaign, and had served under him when T.R. was president, accepted the proposal, but the War Department and President Woodrow Wilson overrode the decision. Roosevelt took the issue to Congress, but Wilson prevailed. In the end, all four of Theodore's sons served in World War I as officers, but Theodore spent the war making speeches for the Red Cross.

With American entry into World War I, Quentin thought his mechanical skills would be useful to the Army. Just engaged to Flora, he dropped out of college in May 1917 to join the newly formed 1st Reserve Aero Squadron, the first air reserve unit in the nation. He trained on Long Island at an airfield later renamed Roosevelt Field in his honor. Today, a shopping mall sits on the site that is also named Roosevelt Field.

Air service in France

Finally sent to France, Lieutenant Roosevelt first helped in setting up the large Air Service training base at Issoudun. He was a supply officer and then, in time, ran one of the training airfields. Eventually, he became a pilot in the 95th Aero Squadron, part of the 1st Pursuit Group. The unit was posted to Touquin, France and, on July 9, 1918, Saints, France. During the time that he was flying from Saints, he was billeted just half a mile away at Melina Thibault's home^[relevant?] in Mauperthuis, France where he roomed with supply officer Ed Thomas.^{[citation needed]} Roosevelt had one confirmed kill of a German aircraft during the German spring offensive, which he shot down on July 10, 1918. Four days later, in a massive aerial engagement at the commencement of the Second Battle of the Marne, he was himself shot down behind German lines.

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, commander of the 94th Aero Squadron (also known as the "Hat-in-the-Ring" Squadron), in his memoirs described Roosevelt's character as a soldier and pilot in the following words:

As President Roosevelt's son, he had rather a difficult task to fit himself in with the democratic style of living which is necessary in the intimate life of an aviation camp. Every one who met him for the first time expected him to have the airs and superciliousness of a spoiled boy. This notion was quickly lost after the first glimpse one had of Quentin. Gay, hearty and absolutely square in everything he said or did, Quentin Roosevelt was one of the most popular fellows in the group. We loved him purely for his own natural self.
He was reckless to such a degree that his commanding officers had to caution him repeatedly about the senselessness of his lack of caution. His bravery was so notorious that we all knew he would either achieve some great spectacular success or be killed in the attempt. Even the pilots in his own flight would beg him to conserve himself and wait for a fair opportunity for a victory. But Quentin would merely laugh away all serious advice.^[7]

Quentin's plane (a Nieuport 28) was shot down in aerial combat over Chamery, a hamlet of Coulonges-en-Tardenois (now Coulonges-Cohan).^[8] He was killed by two machine gun bullets which struck him in the head. The German military buried him with full battlefield honors. Since the plane had crashed so near the front lines, they used two pieces of basswood saplings, bound together with wire from his Nieuport, to fashion a cross for his grave. For propaganda purposes, they made a postcard of the dead pilot and his plane.^[9] However, this was met with shock in Germany, which still held Theodore Roosevelt in high respect and was impressed that a former president's son died on active duty. According to his service record, the site was at Marne Grave #1 Isolated Commune #102, Coulongue Aisne. The French government posthumously awarded him the Croix de Guerre with Palm.^{[citation needed]}

Final combat flight and death

Three German pilots have been credited with Quentin Roosevelt's shootdown and death at various times, and all three may have been responsible. Leutnant Karl Thom of Jasta 21, one of the leading German flying aces of the war, was in the vicinity with confirmed kills nearby; he was often credited with the downing but never made a formal claim.^{[citation needed]} Leutnant Christian Donhauser of Jasta 17 claimed credit and later publicized himself as Roosevelt's killer.^{[citation needed]} Sergeant Carl Graeper of Jasta 50 also claimed responsibility, though if he did fire the fatal shots, it would have been his only victory of the war.^{[citation needed]} All three may have been engaged in the dogfight in which Roosevelt was killed.

In 1921, Quentin's brother Kermit Roosevelt published Quentin Roosevelt: A Sketch with Letters, a collection of Quentin's correspondence and tributes written after his death. Pages 169–171 describe the circumstances of his final flight. One letter was written by American pilot Lieutenant Edward Buford, who had witnessed Roosevelt’s last mission and later described the events to his family.Roosevelt, Kermit (1921). "The Last Patrol". Quentin Roosevelt: A Sketch with Letters. New York: Scribners. pp. 169–172.

Kermit also included an intercepted German communiqué of 14 July 1918 describing the engagement, which stated that Roosevelt had shown "conspicuous bravery" before being shot in the head. A later German bulletin further confirmed the death of "the son of former President of the United States." German reports credited a non-commissioned officer named Greper with the victory.^{[citation needed]} The German press, including the Kölnische Zeitung, reported on the encounter, describing Roosevelt as having died "the death of a hero" and noting that he was buried with military honors by German aviators.^{[citation needed]}

Funeral services for Roosevelt were witnessed on 15 July by Captain James E. Gee of the 110th Infantry, who was then a prisoner of war being moved through Chamery, near the crash site. Gee later recalled that about one thousand German soldiers stood in formation around the grave, and that officers explained the elaborate ceremony was conducted both to honor Roosevelt’s bravery and out of respect for his father.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 July 1918, during the Allied counter-offensive, Chamery was recaptured and Roosevelt’s grave was discovered. A wooden cross placed by the Germans bore the inscription:

Leutnant Q. Roosevelt

Honored and Buried by the Imperial German Army

Broken propeller blades and the remains of his aircraft were placed near the grave. American engineers later marked the site with a cross inscribed:

Here rests on the field of honor
Quentin Roosevelt
Air Service U.S.A.
Killed in action July 1918.

The French also placed an oaken enclosure with an inscription:

Lieutenant
Quentin Roosevelt
Escadrille 95
Tombé glorieusement
En combat aérien
Le 14 Juillet 1918
Pour le droit
Et la liberté

English translation: Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, Squadron 95, fallen gloriously in aerial combat, 14 July 1918, for right and liberty.

After Allied forces regained control of the area, Roosevelt’s grave became a place of pilgrimage for American soldiers. His death was deeply felt by his father, Theodore Roosevelt, who had strongly supported his son's decision to join the war. Theodore himself died less than six months later.^{[citation needed]}

In 1955, eleven years after the establishment of the World War II American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Roosevelt's remains were reinterred there beside his eldest brother, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who had died in 1944 after leading troops during the Normandy landings and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Quentin’s original gravestone was moved to Sagamore Hill as a cenotaph, while the German-made wooden cross that had marked his original grave is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.

Commemorations

In June 2007, several Roosevelt family members as well as members of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) visited the small monument in France at the French village over which Quentin was shot down in 1918. Their purpose was to restore the monument and prepare a report to the TRA on the work accomplished by this trip.^[10]

Quentin Roosevelt II (1919–1948), the third and youngest son of Ted, was named after Quentin, and also died in a plane crash.

On July 14, 2008, on the 90th anniversary of Quentin's death, the villages of Saints, Mauperthuis and Touquin held a commemoration of Quentin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was billeted in the village of Mauperthuis and based in Saints at the time of his death.^[11]

On Sainte-Marie-à-Py the Aux Morts des Armées de Champagne monument was made in 1923 by sculptor Maxime Real del Sarte.

On June 28, 2009, on the 90th anniversary of the departure of the USAS from Issoudun, Issoudun held a ceremony in honor of the American aviators and also included Quentin Roosevelt's name on the new plaque.^[12]

The community of Quentin, Pennsylvania, in Lebanon County, was named for Quentin Roosevelt.

There is a street in Château-Thierry, France named rue Quentin Roosevelt in his honor. Château-Thierry held a series of events and exhibitions in honor of the memory of Quentin Roosevelt in 2010.

Quentin Road in Brooklyn, New York, originally called Avenue Q, was renamed in 1922, possibly in honor of Quentin Roosevelt.^[13]^[14]

Garden City, New York has a Quentin Roosevelt Boulevard. Its Roosevelt Field – formerly an airfield and now site of Roosevelt Field Mall – was named for Quentin Roosevelt.

The French village Sancy-les-Cheminots in Aisne remembers Quentin Roosevelt in its Jardin de souvenir (Garden of remembrance). Formerly Sancy, this village was completely destroyed and has been rebuilt by donations of the railway workers (fr:cheminots) and of American donors, among them Mme Theodore Roosevelt and Mme Emily Carow, godmother of Quentin Roosevelt.

Quentin Roosevelt Blvd. on Naval Air Station (NAS) North Island, San Diego, CA is named in his honor.

A young Quentin Roosevelt and his father, Theodore Roosevelt, are mentioned in the 1953 children's story book Brighty of the Grand Canyon on the occasion of Quentin's first mountain lion hunt.