Veterans' Memorial Project

James Burr Hickman

Hoopeston, IL

World War I

College: Liberal Arts & Sciences

Graduation Year: 1915

Service Branch: Army

Rank: Lieutenant

Date of Birth: 08/10/1892

Date of Death: 05/08/1919

Affiliations: Phi Kappa Sigma; Daily Illini Staff

Lt. Hickman initially enlisted in the ambulance corps at Northwestern University. Delayed in entering active service he applied for, and was granted, permission to enter the flying service. He finished his ground school training of military aeronautics at the University of Illinois and was assigned to the flying field at Dallas, Texas. He was commissioned July, 1918, as second lieutenant, and in August was transferred to the aerial gunnery school at Dayton. From Dayton he was sent to France for the last stage of acrobatic flying and was finally assigned to the 41st Aero Squadron, Fifth Pursuit Group, Second Army of Occupation at American Headquarters in Coblenz, Germany. On May 5, 1919, while taking off at the Treves, Germany, airdrome of the American Army his plane went into a tail spin and crashed to the earth. He is buried at Floral Hill Cemetery, Hoopeston, Illinois.

-submitted by Ted Hamady, Washington, DC, aviation researcher; and information taken from Alumni News, Vol IV, No. 18, June 15, 1919

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