From breaking wild horses in Colorado to fighting the Red
Baron's squadrons in the skies over France, here in his own words is the
true story of a forgotten American hero: the cowboy who became our
first ace and the first pilot to fly the American colors over enemy
lines.    
Growing up on a ranch in Sterling,
Colorado, Frederick Libby mastered the cowboy arts of roping, punching
cattle, and taming horses. As a young man he exercised his skills in the
mountains and on the ranges of Arizona and New Mexico as well as the
Colorado prairie. When World War I broke out, he found himself in
Calgary, Alberta, and joined the Canadian army. In France, he
transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as an "observer," the
gunner in a two-person biplane. Libby shot down an enemy plane on his
first day in battle over the Somme, which was also the first day he flew
in a plane or fired a machine gun. He went on to become a pilot. He
fought against the legendary German aces Oswald Boelcke and Manfred von
Richthofen, and became the first American to down five enemy planes. He
won the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action.  
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Libby's memoir of his cowboy days in the last years of the Old
West evokes a real-life Cormac McCarthy novel. His description of World
War I combines a rattling good account of the air war over France with
captivating and sometimes poignant depictions of wartime London, the
sorrow for friends lost in combat, and the courage and camaraderie of
the Royal Flying Corps. Told in charming, straightforward vernacular,
Horses Don't Fly is an unforgettable piece of Americana.