Initially, there were seven Americans pilots: Victor E. Chapman, Elliott C. Cowdin, Bert Hall, James Rogers McConnell, Norman Prince, Kiffin Rockwell, and William Thaw II.

Raoul Lufbery, a French-born American citizen, became the squadron's first, and ultimately their highest scoring flying ace, with 16 confirmed victories.

[4] Two unofficial members of the Escadrille Américaine, lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda, provided countless moments of relief from battle stress to fliers.

The American personnel transferred to the United States Army Air Service as the 103d Aero Squadron, while the French formed the Escadrille SPA.124 Jeanne d'Arc.

[7]: 193 Not all American pilots were in the Lafayette Escadrille; over 200 fought for France as part of the La Fayette Flying Corps.

[12] The first major action seen by the squadron was 13 May 1916 at the Battle of Verdun and five days later, Kiffin Rockwell recorded the unit's first aerial victory.

On 23 September, Rockwell was killed when his Nieuport was downed by the gunner in a German Albatros observation plane[14] and in October, Norman Prince was fatally injured after crashing on final approach to his airfield.

As a group, the Americans who flew in the war for France's air service, the Aéronautique militaire, are collectively known as the La Fayette Flying Corps.

[citation needed] After the Great War, membership in the Escadrille Lafayette was claimed by over 4,000 people, "including a dozen well-known Hollywood personalities and several high government officials.

[18] Also, from the beginning there was a great deal of confusion between American pilots who were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, a designated all-American aviation squadron of the French Service Aeronautique; and the Lafayette Flying Corps, an unofficial paper organization highlighting in its roster published during the war the names of approximately 231 American volunteer aviators who flew with more than 90 French operational escadrilles.

[21][22] A Cross (†) indicates that the individual was killed in action, including those who subsequently entered the Air Service, or died of wounds received.

The exploits of the Lafayette Escadrille are also captured in several works of historical fiction including: Falcons of France by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (1929) and To the Last Man by Jeffrey Shaara .