This month’s VCoM comes from the 1933 National Chicle
Sky Birds (R136) release. The Sky Birds set is one of my favorite vintage sets
because many of the pilots included are from WWI, one of my historical
interests. Some of the pilots on the list; Manfred von Richthofen (the Red
Baron), Eddie Rickenbacker (America’s first Ace), Charles Lindberg and Amelia
Earhart.
This specific card was one of my Grey Whale wants
because it is Quentin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt’s son. After the U.S. entered
WWI in 1917 all four of Teddy Roosevelt’s sons joined the military with all
four seeing combat. Quentin was a pilot in the 95th Aero Squadron
and on July 14, 1918 he was shot down over German held territory.
He was so highly regarded by the Germans that he was buried
with full military honors. Following WWII when the Normandy American Cemetery
was established in France Quentin’s remains were moved to the cemetery and
reinterred next to his brother Teddy Roosevelt III, who died in France in 1944.
The card is in nice condition, besides the rounded corners with some paper separation it is a nice specimen. For some reason the illustrator shows Quentin as a gunner but he was in fact a pilot.
