Best known as the pre-eminent trainer of WWI, the Curtiss JN “Jenny” also served in the Mexican Punitive Expedition against General Francisco “Pancho” Villa. President Wilson had ordered the expedition after Villa’s bandit army pillaged the town of Columbus, NM.

The First Aero Squadron, equipped with eight old Curtiss JN-3 training planes, was sent into action in March 1916. Commanded by Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois, they joined Pershing’s forces to begin reconnaissance flights over Villa-controlled Mexican territory.

On one mission, two Jennys encountered hostile crowds who attacked the planes with stones and knives. But Lts. H.A. Dargue and J.E. Carvery got back in the air and delivered senior officers carrying important dispatches to the U.S. consul in Chihuahua City, northern Mexico.

In August 1917, the First Aero Squadron left for Europe to attain a notable World War I combat record. Curtiss and other manufacturers produced more than 4,500 Jennys for American forces during the war, as well as hundreds more for the English and British Empire air services.

At prices as low as $50, Jennys by the hundreds appeared all over the country after the war. It became the first plane to fly a regular airmail schedule. In the hands of skilled pilots, the Jenny earned the title “Queen of the Barnstormers.”