Biography

Marc Lagen served as a World War I Balloon Observer (1918-1919) for three tours, with both the French Army and the American Air Service. The role of the observer was often a dangerous one, since the tethered balloons filled with highly flammable gas were an easy - and tempting - target for German pilots.

Marc Aloysius Lagen was born in Dubuque, Iowa, July 11, 1882. He enlisted in the National Guard prior to the U.S. entry into World War I and was briefly stationed at the Mexican border in 1916. In 1917, he was discharged from the National Guard in order to join the Army, and in November he accepted a commission as First Lieutenant in the Air Service, Signal Officers' Reserve Corps. He arrived in France in late December and served with the French 54th Aerostiers for several months before his assignment to the U.S. Air Service's Third Balloon Section. He was promoted to captain in late October 1918 shortly before the armistice, and continued in the Balloon Service post-war for several more months before returning home in March 1919.

Before the war as well as after, Lagen was a theatrical manager in New York, managing such artists as “Lada” (stage name of Emily Schupp), an interpretive dancer. Schupp was the daughter of William Schupp and Emily Kugler Schupp, born May 24, 1889. She and Marc Lagen were married on July 7, 1922; their child, William, was born in July 1923. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Seattle, where Marc became the manager of his father-in-law's whaling company. Lagen was a founding member of the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club. He died in 1946.

Source:

Biography derived from collection materials.

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