Bill Lambert was a native of Ironton, Ohio moving to Canada at the outbreak of the war where he could be close to the Curtis flying school hoping to work on his pilot training. He soon decided to join the R.F.C. He trained in Canada and was assigned to #24 Squadron, R.F.C. at the Front. He served with distinction attaining 22 victories and was the first American to win the British Distinguished Flying Cross.
He was not recognized as the 2nd highest scoring Ace for American until 1968 when the U.S. Air Force realized that Lambert was left out of their study on fighter pilots from W.W. I because Lambert had chosen to stay with the British when America entered the war; “The British had a lot of money invested in my training, I didn’t believe it was right to switch to the U.S. Air Service when we got in the war and leave them high and dry.”
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