My father was one of those people like many in his generation who considered Charles Lindbergh a great American Hero. This is one of the things we never agreed on. After I had read some of the awful things that Lindbergh had said as spokesman for the American First movement, I had concluded the famous aviator was blind to evil, bigoted and an outspoken fool. Since becoming editor of the Doughboy Center, however, one episode has been brought to my attention by several readers and I think it should be shared with others. Also, although I cannot say I've changed my opinion about him much, I think this does shed a little light on one reason why Lindbergh so ardently opposed America's entry into the Second World War.

After landing the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris on May 31,1927 to a tumultuous welcome, Lindbergh, while being driven to the American Embassy, asked to pay a visit to the tomb of France's Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. This gave both a clue to his strong feelings about the fallen of the Great War and a preview to the great gesture to follow. Several days later he was invited by King Albert to visit Brussels for a few days. At the conclusion of the successful visit, Charles Lindbergh directed his newly world famous aircraft to Waereghem, Belgium, site of the American Flanders Fields Cemetery. This is where the Doughboys who died while serving under the command of either the British or Belgian Armies were buried. Bringing the Spirit of St. Louis low over the graves and monuments, Lindbergh opened a window, dropped a wreath of flowers on the graves of his fellow Americans and then continued his journey. Charles Lindbergh had been too young to serve in the First World War, but it appears that he held his countrymen who had fallen in the war in great esteem. Maybe the regret and sadness he felt over their deaths led him to make some of the poor judgments of his later life with which some of us still associate him.