They, Too, Followed the Brave Music

THEY, too, followed the brave music-those gallant Arizona boys-when Old Glory went to battle in other wars not so long ago. Before Arizona was a state, in robust territorial days, many Arizonans signed up to become some of the hardest riders and best fighters in that distinguished company, the Rough Riders, in the War against Spain. Troops A, B, and C of the First U. S. Volunteer Cavalry were formed in Arizona and were captained by Arizona men. The Phoenix members of the Women's Relief Corps, Grand Army of the Republic, made a regimental flag of sheer silk which was erected high on a block house at Daiquiri in Cuba telling friend and foe alike that the boys and men from Arizona had arrived. And they fought valiantly and some returned and some did not return. One of the most colorful figures in all that colorful array of Rough Riders-bankers and bums, cowboys and frontiersmen, businessmen and storekeepers-was the Sheriff of Yavapai County-Bucky O'Neill-who gave his life for the cause of his country at Santiago Hill one bright day in July, 1898.

When the bugles sounded, those Rough Riders, who but a few months before had followed the pursuits of peace, became hard and tried and efficient men, and never had the Stars and Stripes flown so proudly as it did in the sweep of their charge.

And the Arizona boys followed the brave music when the United States of America hurled back the aggressor's challenge in World War I.

One of the brilliant American aces in that war was a young Phoenician, Frank Luke, Jr., for whom Luke Field was named. In September of 1917 young Frank Luke enlisted as a private in the signal corps at Tucson, Arizona. He asked for service in the flying branch of the Armed Forces of his country and was ordered to active duty in the School of Military Aeronautics at Austin, Texas. He had planned to be a mechanic but flying had such fascination for him that he became a cadet and not long after enlistment had taken his first solo flight. In January, 1918, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Aviation Section, Signal Corps, U. S. Army and not long after was sent to France. He did wonderful things in a plane, brave, crazy things, and became recognized as one of the most effective fighters in the Allied Air Forces. He received the Distinguished Service Cross with oak-leaf cluster and three-bars; the Rockwell Field Medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Aero Club of America medal of honor and bravery and the Italian War Cross.

His citation for the Congressional Medal of Honor, bestowed posthumously, reads: "Near Murvaux, France, September 29, 1918. After having previously destroyed a number of enemy aircraft within seven days, he voluntarily started on a patrol after German observation balloons. Though pursued by eight German planes which were protecting the enemy balloon line he unhesitatingly attacked and shot down in flames three German balloons being himself under heavy fire from ground batteries and the hostile planes. Severely wounded, he descended to within fifty meters of the ground, and flying at this low altitude near the town of Marvaux opened fire upon enemy troops, killing six and wounding as many more. Forced to make a landing and surrounded on all sides by the enemy, who called upon him to surrender, he drew his automatic pistol and defended himself gallantly until he fell dead from a wound in the chest."

And so ended the brief and brilliant career of Lt. Frank Luke, Jr., of World War I. It's a soldier's business to fight and Lt. Luke was a soldier.

As long as the brave music sounds, and as long as the young men of America follow the music, America, and the good soil of our country, and the people of America are safe and strong.

They were a gallant lot, too, those Arizona boys who rode with the Rough Riders for their flag and their country in the War against Spain. To their memory was this statue erected before the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott. Typical of courage and colorful vigor displayed by those hard-riding, hard-fighting Arizona boys was Captain Bucky O'Neill.