Florimond Duke was born in 1895 in Rochester, New York. He served with the American Field Service in the French Army from April to November 1917, and then enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve on December 5, 1917, going on active duty beginning January 26, 1918. He then attended the School of Military Aeronautics at Cornell University from January to April 1918, and then Army Flight training from April 1918 until he was commissioned a 2d Lt in the Army Air Service and was awarded his pilot wings on August 14, 1918. After serving briefly in France, Lt Duke returned to the United States and received an honorable discharge on February 20, 1919. After World War I, Duke worked for Time Magazine, and later joined the U.S. Army Reserve as a Major in the Signal Corps shortly before World War II, on August 15, 1940. Maj Duke went on active duty beginning September 24, 1940, and served in the Office of the Undersecretary of War in Washington, D.C., from September 1940 to March 1941, and then as a Military Attache in Cairo, Egypt, from March 1941 to October 1942. His next assignment was with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Washington, D.C., from October 1942 to February 1944, and then in Europe from February 1944 until he parachuted into Hungary in March 1944. Col Duke was captured and taken as a Prisoner of War on March 17, 1944, and after spending 396 days in captivity at Colditz Castle, he was repatriated by American forces on April 16, 1945. He then returned to the U.S. and served with the OSS until it was disbanded in September 1945. Col Duke left active duty and joined the Army Reserve on December 8, 1945, and retired from the reserves on February 17, 1963. Florimond Duke died on April 4, 1969.