And we continue with our American stories. Up next, a story on a few firsts. One astonishing, one tragic, and the 26-year-old lieutenant who accomplished both Thomas E. Selfridge.

Here to tell the story of Lieutenant Selfridge is Craig Dumay of the Grateful Nation Project,

an education organization that gathers, preserves, and shares the true stories of those who gave, quote,

the last full measure of devotion for our freedom,

unquote. Take it away, Craig.

Although you may not have heard of him, Thomas Ethelon Selfridge's name is directly tied to some of the most famous names and events in American history.

He crossed paths with Douglas MacArthur,

the Wright brothers, and Alexander Graham Bell, just to name a few.

And although Selfridge's life was tragically cut short at 26,

he holds major firsts in world history,

thanks to his passion for a new developing technology.

Thomas E. Selfridge was born into military royalty, if you can call it that. His uncle, Thomas Oliver Selfridge, also had two interesting firsts.

The first officer to receive a diploma from the recently established United States Naval Academy

in Annapolis, and eventually he and his father, Thomas Oliver Selfridge Senior, became the

first father-son, admiral duo in America.

A passion for advancing technology must have been embedded in the family genes.

During the Civil War, the uncle Thomas O. Selfridge Jr. briefly served as commander of the Navy's first ironclad warship, the famed USS Monitor. And he commanded the Navy's first

powered submarine, the USS Alligator, which he would later call a failure. It would be

another 40 years before the Navy finally commissioned a submarine. All that said, young Thomas Ethelon Selfridge was a shoe-in for a life of distinguished service to his country.

He would graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, 31st in the class of 1903,

the same year of the Wright brothers' first motorized flight.

And he'd graduate next to the future general, Douglas MacArthur, first in that West Point class. The Army had commissioned Selfridge as a lieutenant and assigned him to the field artillery,

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