Original Items: Only One Grouping Available. Aerial imagery was first used comprehensively to plan an engagement in the early months of 1915. At the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, British intelligence distributed 1,500 photographic maps of the German trench fortifications to British infantry commanders and, for the first time, aerial observers coordinated artillery barrages with an infantry advance. Despite being a strategic failure for the Allies, the engagement demonstrated the increasing sophistication of imagery interpretation and exploitation techniques for intelligence and cartographic purposes.

This is a wonderful grouping attributed to Sergeant Donald Lewis Palmer! The grouping consists of items related to his time in service as well as his time working with a film production company in Hollywood, California as well as ABC Television! Palmer grew up in the area around Bartlesville, Oklahoma before enlisting in the US Army. He was a part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Aviation Section in 1917. While training as an Aerial Photographer in England, his aircraft caught fire while in flight. The pilot stalled the aircraft and it fell tail first, with the end result of the flames being extinguished. During his time in the service he was a member of the 25th and 138th Aero Squadrons.

The Items In This Grouping:
- British Avro 504K Manufacturer’s Plate Museum Display With Picture of Palmer and The Aircraft: This is a wonderful display which features the same aircraft in which the plate was removed from! The plate was riveted to the engine cowling of this once famous trainer aircraft.The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under license by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind that served in any military capacity during the First World War. More than 10,000 were built from 1913 until production ended in 1932.

- Dog Tag and Ring Museum Display: The display consists of a United Air Service ring, 3rd Army Ring, WWI Honorable Service Lapel device and Dog Tag from when he was with the 25th Aero Squadron. All items are in wonderful condition with crisp details.

- Text Book on Aerial Gunnery: It is named to Sergeant Don L. Palmer on the cover page. This is a 1917 dated book printed under “Authority of His Majesty's Stationary Office” by Harrison & Sons.

- Pathe News Guest Medal For The International Petroleum Exposition in Tulsa, Oklahoma: The International Petroleum Exposition (IPE) was a specialized trade fair held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at varying intervals from 1923 to 1979. Its main purposes were to display the latest oil industry technology, sell equipment and services, and to educate industry workers and the general public about the production of oil. Pathé News was a producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom. Its founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent era. The Pathé News archive is known today as British Pathé. Its collection of news films and movies is fully digitized and available online.

- Delegate Medal For International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators of U.S. & Canada, Cincinnati, Ohio, August 9, 1954: IATSE was founded in 1893 when representatives of stagehands working in eleven cities met in New York and pledged to support each other's efforts to establish fair wages and working conditions for their members. IATSE has since evolved to embrace the development of new entertainment media, craft expansion, technological innovation and geographic growth.

Today, IATSE members work in all forms of live theater, motion picture and television production, trade shows and exhibitions, television broadcasting, and concerts as well as the equipment and construction shops that support all these areas of the entertainment industry. IATSE represents virtually all the behind the scenes workers in crafts ranging from motion picture animator to theater usher.

During a period when private sector union membership has been in sharp decline, IATSE has continued to grow. Since 1993, IATSE's membership has increased from 74,344 to 160,000 which it attributes to its willingness to adapt its structure to protect traditional jurisdiction and accommodate new crafts.

Other items include various membership cards and buttons for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Veterans of WWI, ABC Television, Parking Passes for “Production Staff” and more!

This is a wonderful opportunity to add some items from a period in which aerial warfare was still in its infancy stage, and from a member who continued his passion for photography working in the film industry after the war!

Comes more than ready for further research and display.

25th Aero Squadron
The 25th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.

The squadron was assigned as a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron as part of the 4th Pursuit Group, Second United States Army. Its mission was to engage and clear enemy aircraft from the skies and provide escort to reconnaissance and bombardment squadrons over enemy territory.

The squadron saw limited combat, and with Second Army's planned offensive drive on Metz canceled due to the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron returned to the United States in June 1919 and was demobilized .

The current United States Air Force unit which holds its lineage and history is the 25th Space Range Squadron, based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado and assigned to the Nevada Test & Training Range. On March 31, 2020, it was announced that the 25th would be moved to the newly formed United States Space Force. This transfer will make the 25th the oldest unit in the USSF.

138th Aero Squadron
The 138th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.

The squadron was assigned as a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron as part of the 5th Pursuit Group, Second United States Army. Its mission was to engage and clear enemy aircraft from the skies and provide escort to reconnaissance and bombardment squadrons over enemy territory.

The squadron was never fully organized, and with the Second Army's planned offensive drive on Metz canceled due to the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron was assigned to the United States Third Army as part of the Occupation of the Rhineland in Germany. It returned to the United States in August 1919 and was demobilized.

The squadron was never re-activated, and there is no United States Air Force or Air National Guard squadron that carries its lineage and history.