WWI · Battle Death Record
Ernest Giroux
First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Service · Massachusetts
Personnel File — Core Information
- Name
- Ernest Giroux
- Entered the Service From
- Massachusetts
- Rank
- First Lieutenant
- Service
- U.S. Army Air Service
- Unit / Regiment
- 103rd Aero Squadron
- War
- WWI
- Date of Death
- May 22, 1918
- Awards
- Distinguished Service Cross, Croix de Guerre with Palm
- Burial / Memorial
- Commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing, Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial
- Grave
- Tablets of the Missing
Their story
On May 22, 1918, First Lieutenant Ernest A. Giroux of the 103rd Aero Squadron flew a combat patrol led by 1LT Paul Baer near Laventie, France, when the formation encountered eight enemy fighters of Jasta 18; Giroux attacked the superior enemy formation and was shot down behind German lines, his body never recovered. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm, and is the only American aviator listed as Missing in Action to receive the DSC. He is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at Flanders Field American Cemetery in Waregem, Belgium.
Compiled from American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and National Archives (NARA) records and public sources.
This record is one of more than 200,000 in our historical archive. Some information may have been corrupted or lost over decades of data conversion. Corrections are welcome — please contact the archive.