{"id":1908,"date":"2017-07-19T12:56:20","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T18:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=1908"},"modified":"2020-09-28T16:15:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T22:15:18","slug":"alfred-august-gaipa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/alfred-august-gaipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Alfred August Gaipa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Palermo, Italy, November 17, 1890 \u2013 Winter Park, Florida, July, 1980).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Gaipa\u2019s family emigrated from Palermo around 1902; his father was a glove maker who settled in Jersey City.2<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Gaipa attended Rutgers, graduating in 1914, and then went on to study law at Columbia and Fordham.3<\/a>\u00a0 According to the autobiographical letter he wrote in 1922 for the\u00a0Rutgers Alumni Monthly<\/i>, he went to London in July 1916, \u201cin the employ of the London Southwestern Bank Ltd. Remained in London two months where from I was transferred to Paris, where I remained till American diplomatic relations were severed with Germany. Returned to New York and volunteered for the service.\u201d4<\/a><\/p>\n

He attended ground school at Kelly Field at the University of Texas, graduating August 25, 1917.5<\/a>\u00a0 There were about thirty-six men in this ground school class; ten, including Gaipa, were selected for training in Italy, and these ten were among the 150 men of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201cSecond Oxford Detachment\u201d who sailed to England on the Carmania<\/i>. \u00a0They left New York for Halifax on September 18, 1917, and departed Halifax as part of a convoy on September 21, 1917. \u00a0According to the diary entry for September 24, 1917, in War Birds<\/em>, Gaipa assisted Fiorello La Guardia in teaching the men Italian during the Atlantic crossing. \u00a0Once arrived at Liverpool (October 2, 1917), however, the men learned that their linguistic efforts had been wasted, for they were to remain in England and to repeat ground school at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford University. \u00a0A month later, on November 3, 1917, most of the detachment (minus twenty who were posted to Stamford) went to Harrowby Camp near Grantham in Lincolnshire to attend machine gun school, Gaipa among them.<\/p>\n

While fifty of the men at Grantham were sent on to flying schools on November 19, 1917, the rest, including Gaipa, continued their course at Harrowby Camp through the end of November. On November 29, 1917, they celebrated Thanksgiving in great style, with many of the men who were already at flying schools coming in to join them. Festivities included a football game between the \u201cUnfits\u201d and the \u201cHardly Ables.\u201d6<\/a>\u00a0 Gaipa appears in at least one of the photos<\/a> taken of the players that day. Robert Alexander Anderson recalled that they \u201ccelebrated well into that night and in high spirits ended up tossing a little fellow by the name of Gaipa\u2014he was the smallest man in the Detachment\u2014from one man to another.\u201d7<\/a>\u00a0 (Gaipa\u2019s passport gives his height as 5 foot 2 inches.8<\/a>)<\/p>\n

A few days later, on December 3, 1917, word was received that the remaining men were posted to squadrons for flight training. Gaipa was assigned to No. 31 Training Squadron at Wyton about fifteen miles northwest of Cambridge.9<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The
This is from the list Foss drew up showing where cadets were posted on December 3, 1917. \u00a0In addition to Gaipa, Allen Tracy Bird, John Hurtman Fulford, Temple Paul Hardin, Francis Kinloch Read, William Winslow Wait, Galloway Grinnell Cheston and Allison Henderson Chapin went to No. 31. T.S. Earl Adams, Robert Alexander Anderson, Guy Maynard Baldwin, Thomas John Herbert, and Stanley Cooper Kerk were already there, having been posted in the middle of November 1917.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to his own laconic account of his military service, Gaipa was commissioned a first lieutenant in April, 1918.10<\/a>\u00a0 There is a cablegram to Pershing dated May 13, 1918, confirming the appointment, which had been recommended in a cablegram dated April 8, 1918.11<\/a>\u00a0 Gaipa\u2019s R.A.F. service record only provides information starting in August of 1918. On the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0of that month he was transferred from 14 Training Depot Station (Lake Down, Wiltshire) to 48 Wing. He was then attached to the Aircraft Acceptance Park at Castle Bromwich.12<\/a>\u00a0 There is a record of his ferrying an F.E.2b (E7090) from Lympne to Orley two days after the armistice.13<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
Gaipa and others helping William Weir, President of Britain’s Air Council, and General Mason Patrick, head of the American Air Service, to get planes from England to France.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gaipa returned to the U.S. on the\u00a0Mauretania<\/i><\/a>, departing Liverpool on November 25, 1918, and arriving at New York on December 2, 1918.14<\/a>\u00a0Other \u201ccasual officers air service\u201d on board included second Oxford detachment members Anderson,\u00a0Bonham Hagood Bostick, Walter Chalaire, Raphael Sergius De Mitkiewicz, Bradley Cleaver Lawton, Joseph Kirkbride Milnor, Dudley Hersey Mudge, Francis Kinloch Read, Homer Ireland Smith, and Lynn Lemuel Stratton.<\/p>\n

After the war Gaipa worked for the Gillette Safety Razor Company, travelling extensively and living in England, France, Brazil, and Italy, before settling in Florida.15<\/a><\/p>\n

mrsmcq August 13, 2017<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Gaipa\u2019s place and date of birth are taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925<\/i>, record for Alfred A Gaipa (1916). His date and presumed place of death are taken from Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935\u2013Current<\/i>\u00a0, record for Alfred Gaipa. The photo is a detail from a photo<\/a> taken at Grantham during Thanksgiving festivities; see below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Gaipa\u2019s date of arrival (July 22, 1902) is recorded in his 1916 passport application. For his father\u2019s arrival at New York in 1901 and his trade, see Ancestry.com,\u00a0New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957<\/i>, record for Gioachino Gaipa; for his trade see also Ancestry.com,\u00a01910 United States Federal Census<\/i>, record for John [Gioachino] Gaipa. For the arrival of Alfred August Gaipa\u2019s mother and older brother, see Ancestry.com,\u00a0New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957<\/i>, records for Vincenza Machi and Francesco Gaipa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See\u00a0The Scarlet Letter<\/i>, p. 55 and\u00a0passim<\/i>; Fordham University,\u00a0General Register 1916<\/i>, p. 105; Columbia University in the City of New York,\u00a0Catalogue 1914\u20131915<\/i>, p. 240.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cClass Letters and Personal Items,\u201d p. 24.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Chalaire, \u201cThanksgiving Day with the Aviators Abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Mallahan, \u201cShot with Luck,\u201d p. 155.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S. Passport Applications, 1795\u20131925<\/i>, record for Alfred A Gaipa (1916).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Foss, \u201cCadets of Italian Detachment Posted Dec 3rd<\/sup>\u201d (in Foss, Papers).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cClass Letters and Personal Items,\u201d p. 24.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See cablegrams 874-S and 1303-R].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The National Archives (United Kingdom),\u00a0Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918-1919<\/i>, record for A. Gaipa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0History of London Branch of the Supply Section and of Liquidation Section<\/i>, chart 10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, Army Transport Service.\u00a0Lists of Incoming Passengers, 1917 – 1938<\/i>, Passenger list for casual officers, Air Service, on\u00a0Mauretania<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

15<\/strong><\/a> See \u201cClass Letters and Personal Items,\u201d pp. 22 & 24; [\u201cFour American businessmen\u201d]; Gilliard, \u201cAlfred A Gaipa\u201d; and documents available at Ancestry.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Palermo, Italy, November 17, 1890 \u2013 Winter Park, Florida, July, 1980).1 Gaipa\u2019s family emigrated from Palermo around 1902; his father was a glove maker who settled in Jersey City.2\u00a0\u00a0Gaipa attended Rutgers, graduating in 1914, and then went on to study law at Columbia and Fordham.3\u00a0 According to the autobiographical letter he wrote in 1922 for … Continue reading “Alfred August Gaipa”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1925,"parent":30,"menu_order":47,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1908","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5917,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1908\/revisions\/5917"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}