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On Apr. 1, 1916, Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing approved Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois’ plan for the use of the 1st Aero Squadron during the Punitive Expedition in Mexico. Meant initially to maintain operational communications, the squadron also pioneered the U.S. Army’s use of the airplane for reconnaissance.
After Pancho Villa crossed the U.S.–Mexico border in the early morning of Mar. 9, 1916 and attacked Columbus, New Mexico, the U.S. launched an expedition into Mexico to capture the bandit. This expedition became a trial for some new technologies—notably motorized vehicles and the airplane—that would become standard in all future U.S. military operations.
In command of the Army’s only aerial unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, was Captain Foulois, who had enlisted in 1898, received his commission in 1901, and transferred from the infantry to the Signal Corps in 1906. He had actively participated in the Wright brothers’ trials of the 1909 Wright Flyer before the Army accepted it as its first airplane. Then, after being ordered to take the plane to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and teach himself how to fly it, Foulois became the Army’s only active pilot. By 1914, he had activated the 1st Aero Squadron, and two years later, with Foulois in command, the unit became the first in the U.S. Army to deploy an aircraft operationally.
On Mar. 15, 1916, the squadron deployed from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Columbus to join Pershing’s expedition. At that time, the squadron consisted of eleven officers, eighty-two enlisted men, one civilian technician, and the Army’s eight wood, wire, and fabric Curtiss JN-3 Jenny training biplanes. Upon arriving in Columbus, the squadron uncrated its planes and conducted a couple of test flights. On Mar. 19, it was ordered to report to Pershing’s headquarters in Mexico where it flew mail and dispatches between Pershing’s main bases of operations. Looking to expand the scope of his squadron’s usefulness, Foulois outlined for Pershing additional operations his squadron could conduct. On Apr. 1, Pershing approved Foulois’ proposal: essentially, the squadron would maintain communications between the base camp and advanced forces and provide frontline aerial reconnaissance when troops came into contact with Villa’s forces.
Although Foulois left the squadron in September 1916, it remained assigned to Pershing until the end of the expedition the following February. Reports of the usefulness of aircraft in Mexico were conflicting. Early in the campaign, Pershing complained that airplanes were “of no material benefit” for scouting or communications. Indeed, the terrain, altitude, and weather conditions in northern Mexico beat up the fragile Jenny airplanes and caused several crashes. Later in the campaign, however, as older planes were replaced with more powerful Curtiss R-2 aircraft, Foulois reported the squadron “rendered efficient service in reconnaissance and in maintaining communications with the troops away from the base camp.” In one instance, the squadron located advanced forces that had lost contact with Pershing. They had unexpectedly encountered one of Villa’s bands and pursued them for seven miles before giving up the chase when the sun set.
During the 1st Aero Squadron’s ten months of service with the expedition, it gained significant aerial experience, and its tests of new equipment in varying environmental conditions would benefit America’s fledgling air service during World War I. Foulois, who would command the U.S. Air Service for Pershing’s American Expeditionary Forces in France, later stated:
"The work of the 1st Aero Squadron proved beyond dispute to the most hardened former soldier and congressman that aviation was no longer experimental or freakish. There is no doubt in my mind that the support later given to the Air Service…had its roots in the performance and determination of my splendid crew [during the Punitive Expedition]."
Article by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.27.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2026 14:48 |
| Story ID: | 561465 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 14 |
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