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Rene Phelizot was a big game hunter, and the first soldier to carry an American flag in WWI.

Rene was born Claude Rene Phelizot 27th July 1881 in Paris, France, to a French father, Victor Phelizot and an American mother Kate Noonan. Victor and Kate had married in Ohio in 1867 and had two children before leaving for France where three more children were born, including the youngest, Rene. The family returned to the United States in 1882. Rene grew up in Chicago, where his mother ran a boarding house in Division Street.

In 1901 went travelling around the world

Around 1908 Rene went to Africa and became an ivory hunter. Rene used to visit Paris regularly, and was well known there as his hunting exploits were reported in the newspapers. Rene was on holiday in Paris in July 1914 when France was invaded by Germany.

Rene was among several Americans who joined the French Foreign Legion in order to fight for France. On the 21st August 1914, the foreign volunteers marched behind the flags of their countries to the Hotel des Invalides where they were officially welcomed by the French government. On the 25th August, the Americans marched behind a American flag carried by Phelizot and Alan Seeger, from the Palais Royal to the Gare Saint-Lazare to board a train for Rouen.

In December 1914 Rene was promoted to private first class.