When Kiffin found out about the war on august 3, 1914 he offered his services to France by him and his brother writing a letter to the General of France who was in New Orleans. They didn't wait for a response, they boarded a ship and sailed to Europe on
August 7,1914 and they enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.
On May 9,1915 he was shot in the leg when his unit charged La Targette, north of Arras, after 6 weeks of being in the hospital he requested that he be put in the Fighter/Pursuit Squadron that is now known as the Lafayette Escadrille. On May 18, 1916 Kiffin who was in a Nieuport Fighter Plane shot at and destroyed a German Aircraft over the Alsace Battlefield.
After the attack on the enemy plane he became the first American pilot to shoot down an enemy plane during WWI. For this action he was awarded two medals, The Croix de Guerre, and the Medaille Militaire. On May 26, 1916 he was wounded in the face during an aerial battle with an enemy plane but he refused hospital care.
On September 23, 1916 during a fight with a German Two-man Reconnaissance plane, he was shot in the chest(but it was closer to the throat region) with an exploding bullet, he died instantly and his aircraft fell between the French Trenches.
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