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| CRG |
MEREDITH LOVELAND DOWD
from the career of daring that was his by choice. As a boy at Asheville School, he showed
from the career of daring that was his by choice. As a boy at Asheville School, he showed
his adventurous, never-say-die temperament on the football field and as a member of the
baseball and track teams. The school paper said of him, "While at Asheville he displayed the
qualities which led him to give his life for his country --- courage, manliness, determination,
honesty . . . . . . He was a student of good ability and a boy of strength and fineness." At
Princeton he played on the Freshman and Varsity baseball teams, the Freshman football
team, and was on the Varsity football squad. He was also a member of the Elm Club.
team, and was on the Varsity football squad. He was also a member of the Elm Club.
The voice of adventure called him to France in November, 1916 in the American Field
Service, for no man with his instincts could sit and study in a classroom while a war was
going on. He went out to Section One near Verdun and plunged into the work with
enthusiasm and vigor. A comrade tells of his service on the famous and dangerous
Esnes-Montzéville run. It was on this work that Meredith showed us his energy, his
untiring and unselfish desire to work until it seemed to us that there was no limit to his
endurance."
As a member of the escadrille eventually commissioned in the American Air Service. As a
member of the escadrille guarding the city of Paris, he had an accident while "contour
chasing," that dangerous and difficult training in accuracy in which the pilot attempts to
keep as close as he can to the surface of the ground. "Had dipped my wheels in the Oise
River and jumped telephone wires and bridges," he wrote, "and then decided to see how
close I could skim along a field of wheat." Before he realized it his wheels had touched the
wheat and were pulling him in with the result that he suddenly found himself upside down,
but fortunately unhurt and undismayed. The French soldiers who came running to the
scene found him smilingly but ruefully regarding the wreck of his machine. Soon after this
he went to the front assigned to the 147th Aero Squadron. On October 26th, he and three
others were ordered to patrol the lines, but he was delayed on without him. He decided to
follow and continued alone to the adventure that was to be his last.
last.
His commanding officer, Captain James A. Meissner, filed the following official report
which was later used as a basis for the award of the Distinguished Service Cross:
"Lieutenant Meredith L. Dowd, A. S., U. S. A. went on patrol over the lines on the
afternoon of October 26, 1918, at about two o'clock. Over the Bois de Dannevoux he
observed four German planes. According to the statement of Private M. M. Buckland,
305th Trench Mortar Battery, 80th Division, who saw the combat, Lieutenant Dowd first
showed his markings to the planes as if they were Allied planes. As they did not answer his
signal be attacked them immediately. The second time he attacked, one plane left the
formation and headed for Germany. Lieutenant Dowd attacked the remaining planes three
times, but the last time he drove on the formation, the plane which he had first driven off
returned above him and shot him down. He fell in a steep dive and was dead when found by the French."
from the career of daring that was his by choice. As a boy at Asheville School, he showed
from the career of daring that was his by choice. As a boy at Asheville School, he showed
his adventurous, never-say-die temperament on the football field and as a member of the
baseball and track teams. The school paper said of him, "While at Asheville he displayed the
qualities which led him to give his life for his country --- courage, manliness, determination,
honesty . . . . . . He was a student of good ability and a boy of strength and fineness." At
Princeton he played on the Freshman and Varsity baseball teams, the Freshman football
team, and was on the Varsity football squad. He was also a member of the Elm Club.
team, and was on the Varsity football squad. He was also a member of the Elm Club.
The voice of adventure called him to France in November, 1916 in the American Field
Service, for no man with his instincts could sit and study in a classroom while a war was
going on. He went out to Section One near Verdun and plunged into the work with
enthusiasm and vigor. A comrade tells of his service on the famous and dangerous
Esnes-Montzéville run. It was on this work that Meredith showed us his energy, his
untiring and unselfish desire to work until it seemed to us that there was no limit to his
endurance."
As a member of the escadrille eventually commissioned in the American Air Service. As a
member of the escadrille guarding the city of Paris, he had an accident while "contour
chasing," that dangerous and difficult training in accuracy in which the pilot attempts to
keep as close as he can to the surface of the ground. "Had dipped my wheels in the Oise
River and jumped telephone wires and bridges," he wrote, "and then decided to see how
close I could skim along a field of wheat." Before he realized it his wheels had touched the
wheat and were pulling him in with the result that he suddenly found himself upside down,
but fortunately unhurt and undismayed. The French soldiers who came running to the
scene found him smilingly but ruefully regarding the wreck of his machine. Soon after this
he went to the front assigned to the 147th Aero Squadron. On October 26th, he and three
others were ordered to patrol the lines, but he was delayed on without him. He decided to
follow and continued alone to the adventure that was to be his last.
last.
His commanding officer, Captain James A. Meissner, filed the following official report
which was later used as a basis for the award of the Distinguished Service Cross:
"Lieutenant Meredith L. Dowd, A. S., U. S. A. went on patrol over the lines on the
afternoon of October 26, 1918, at about two o'clock. Over the Bois de Dannevoux he
observed four German planes. According to the statement of Private M. M. Buckland,
305th Trench Mortar Battery, 80th Division, who saw the combat, Lieutenant Dowd first
showed his markings to the planes as if they were Allied planes. As they did not answer his
signal be attacked them immediately. The second time he attacked, one plane left the
formation and headed for Germany. Lieutenant Dowd attacked the remaining planes three
times, but the last time he drove on the formation, the plane which he had first driven off
returned above him and shot him down. He fell in a steep dive and was dead when found by the French."