Chapman Field Park is named for Victor E. Chapman, the first American pilot to die in World War I. He served in the Lafayette Escadrille, a French aero squadron of American volunteers who went to France to defend democracy before the United States officially entered the war, and the squadron itself was named for Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. Chapman was killed in action over the battle of Verdun on June 24, 1916, and he is buried within the Tomb of the Lafayette Escadrille outside Paris. After the United States entered the war in April 1917, the U.S. Army Air Service created Chapman Army Airfield in his memory on land then used as the US Army’s Cutler Aerial Gunnery Field, and on November 15, 1918, it was formally renamed the Victor Chapman Military reservation and used as a training airfield for pilots. The French Air Force still maintains an active-duty squadron named the Lafayette Escadrille in memory of the American flyers who served in World War I. After World War I ended, military activity at Chapman Field declined, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture leased parts of the airfield to cultivate tropical plants, including the first rubber and mango trees in the United States, while parts of the property were used in winter for aerial gunnery practice. Military activity revived during World War II, when Women Air Service Pilots, or WASPs, provided some Army and Navy flight and navigator training to male cadet pilots, trained first in Curtiss JN “Jenny” biplanes before advancing to more sophisticated aircraft, and towed targets for anti-aircraft gunnery practice despite the danger, which wounded many pilots. Their commander and chief advocate was Florida aviator Jacqueline Cochran. After 30 years without recognition, the WASPs received official veteran status in 1977, and in 2009 these women were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.