Stephen Mitchell Tyson was born on March 12, 1898, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second oldest of 12 children. The death of his mother Katharine in 1915, left Stephen feeling restless, and he did what many future pilots of the LFC did: he joined the American Ambulance Field Service in France, to drive ambulances at the front lines. He was fresh out of high school. Tyson then enlisted in the French Army as an aviator. After five months of training at various aviation schools throughout France, Tyson earned his brevet, or military pilot's license. It was October 16, 1917, almost a year to the day after he had come to France. He'd earned his license on the Caudron, an obsolete and primitive plane, but by the spring he would be flying a brand-new, 180-horsepower Spad fighter, the latest French aerial fighting machine. On December 19, Tyson was sent to the front as a member of Spad 85. It was the 19th of July, and the Germans had begun their historic second retreat from the Marne. Around 5:30 in the afternoon, Tyson was flying back and forth at 15,000 feet between Dormans and Château-Thierry, about 50 miles northeast of Paris. Tyson left his formation and went after eight German air-crafts without the rest of his patrol giving the Germans an 8 on 1 advantage and Tyson was shot down.