Early Life and Service
Festner was born in Holzkirchen, Kingdom of Bavaria on 30 June 1894. He originally served with, and was wounded with, the infantry before switching to aviation. He was a mechanic with Flieger Abtleilung Nr. 1 in October 1914. Posted to FA 7b in February 1915 as a Gefreiter, Festner learned to fly unofficially, and then underwent training with FEA 2b and FEA 5b.
He served briefly with two seater units FA 18 and FA 5b, arriving at FA 18 on 10 September 1916 and FA 5b five days later. His next posting was to Jasta 11 on 10 November 1916.
Under the command of Manfred von Richthofen, Festner quickly claimed 2 victories in February 1917 before claiming another 10 during 'Bloody April'.
Read more about this topic: Sebastian Festner
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or service:
“It is easy to see that, even in the freedom of early youth, an American girl never quite loses control of herself; she enjoys all permitted pleasures without losing her head about any of them, and her reason never lets the reins go, though it may often seem to let them flap.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The dialectic between change and continuity is a painful but deeply instructive one, in personal life as in the life of a people. To “see the light” too often has meant rejecting the treasures found in darkness.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“We could not help being struck by the seeming, though innocent, indifference of Nature to these men’s necessities, while elsewhere she was equally serving others. Like a true benefactress, the secret of her service is unchangeableness. Thus is the busiest merchant, though within sight of his Lowell, put to pilgrim’s shifts, and soon comes to staff and scrip and scallop-shell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)