Lieutenant Kenneth MacLeish, USNRF (19 September 1894 – 15 October 1918) was a Naval aviator during World War I. Born in Glencoe, Illinois, MacLeish was one of the twenty-eight original volunteers in the first Yale Unit which he joined as a Navy Electrician, 2nd Class on 26 March 1917. He was appointed as an Ensign in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps 31 August 1917; promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on 1 June 1918, and to Lieutenant in mid-August of the same year. MacLeish was the brother of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish, and like him, attended Yale College. A member of the class of 1918, he left school to serve in the war. The young officer wrote home constantly, and his letters show the youthful enthusiasm and subsequent weariness of combat that is characteristic of men