James Armand Meissner

James Armand Meissner (July 20, 1896 – January 16, 1936) was a World War I flying ace credited with eight aerial victories and awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses.

Early life and service

James A. Meissner was born in Londonderry, Nova Scotia, to Clara (née Ayer) and Carl A. Meissner. His father was an executive with U.S. Steel. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School there in 1914. He enrolled at Cornell University College of Engineering in Ithaca, New York to study engineering. As a member of the college's corps of cadets, he enlisted in the U.S. Signal Corps as a member of the first class of the School of Military Aeronautics on 17 May 1917. At any rate, the feat earned the Distinguished Service Cross and the Croix de Guerre. He shot a second plane down near Jaulny on 30 May, colliding with an Albatros fighter in the process.

Postwar life Meissner was discharged as a major on 25 March 1919 and returned to Cornell to complete a Master of Engineering degree. After receiving his diploma, Meissner moved to Birmingham, Alabama and began working at Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company's rail mill. He married Elva Kessler, daughter of William H. Kessler, a landscape architect from Augusta, Georgia, on June 20, 1930.

In 1919, he and Henry Badham (father of director John Badham) organized the Birmingham Flying Club, nicknamed the "Birmingham Escadrille" and leased a tract of land near Ensley to set up an airfield (Roberts Field). The club was recognized, with the assistance of Alabama's adjutant general Colonel Hartley A. Moon, as the 135th Observation Squadron on 21 January 1922 under Meissner's command. It was Alabama's first Air National Guard unit and the 7th in the United States. Meissner was its first commanding officer.