The Hunting Falcon and Kurt Vonnegut and AI

Christopher A. Lawrence
June 17, 2026

One of our discoveries in researching for the book The Hunting Falcon was that Hans Buddecke’s uncle-by-marriage that he was working with in Indianapolis in 1913/1914 was Indianapolis businessman and brewer Albert Lieber. Albert Lieber was the grandfather of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (i.e. Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, etc.).

Now in a discussion with my co-author Jay Karamales over the 6.65 pounds in royalties we have made from the book from July 2025 – December 2025, I decided to check if AI had picked up on our findings. After all, while the financial reimbursement for writing is not overwhelming, the emotional rewards more than compensate, especially as our work on the Hunting Falcon was new and original research. We could make more money working at McDonalds (“would you like fries with that”) than we do from writing

So I asked Yahoo AI: “Did Hans Buddecke know Kurt Vonnegut?” It’s response:

“Hans Buddecke and Kurt Vonnegut are connected through family. Buddecke was the grandfather of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. This familial link suggests that while they did not know each other personally (as Buddecke died in 1918 and Vonnegut was born in 1922), their lives are intertwined through family history.”

No…. he was not Kurt Vonnegut’s grandfather. Do not know how AI determined that. They, of course, reference a blog post from this site: WWI Air – The Dupuy Institute

Now, suspect they had some problem with my wording, which was:

“Hans-Joachim Buddecke’s story starts before the war in Indianapolis, working for his American uncle (later the grandfather of author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.)….”

Anyhow, one must cross-check everything you get from AI. I have not asked this question to other AI (probably should, but Yahoo AI is the one I used for data quieries).

As far as I know, we are the only source that connects German ace Hans Buddecke with Kurt Vonnegut.

On the other hand, I did have fun asking Yahoo AI who was the leader in historical analysis. But it also makes a factual error in that response.

Christopher A. Lawrence

Christopher A. Lawrence is a professional historian and military analyst. He is the Executive Director and President of The Dupuy Institute, an organization dedicated to scholarly research and objective analysis of historical data related to armed conflict and the resolution of armed conflict. The Dupuy Institute provides independent, historically-based analyses of lessons learned from modern military experience.
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Mr. Lawrence was the program manager for the Ardennes Campaign Simulation Data Base, the Kursk Data Base, the Modern Insurgency Spread Sheets and for a number of other smaller combat data bases. He has participated in casualty estimation studies (including estimates for Bosnia and Iraq) and studies of air campaign modeling, enemy prisoner of war capture rates, medium weight armor, urban warfare, situational awareness, counterinsurgency and other subjects for the U.S. Army, the Defense Department, the Joint Staff and the U.S. Air Force. He has also directed a number of studies related to the military impact of banning antipersonnel mines for the Joint Staff, Los Alamos National Laboratories and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation.
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His published works include papers and monographs for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation, in addition to over 40 articles written for limited-distribution newsletters and over 60 analytical reports prepared for the Defense Department. He is the author of Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka (Aberdeen Books, Sheridan, CO., 2015), America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam (Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia & Oxford, 2015), War by Numbers: Understanding Conventional Combat (Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE., 2017) , The Battle of Prokhorovka (Stackpole Books, Guilford, CT., 2019), The Battle for Kyiv (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2023), Aces at Kursk (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024), Hunting Falcon: The Story of WWI German Ace Hans-Joachim Buddecke (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024) and The Siege of Mariupol (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2024).
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Mr. Lawrence lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

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