Aces

Joe Foss. Never met him, but met "Pappy" Boyington and "Duke" Cunningham.

Hans Ulrich Rudel. I love the Stuka.
Bernie the K.

A friend of mine is a "60% ace". Paul Carll flew P-40's and P-47's with the 57th FG, 64th FS "Black Scorpions". Since the 57th was a tactical unit, there was not much air to air combat. Paul made the most of his limited aerial combat and had one victory in the P-40 and two in the P-47 - all three being Me-109's. He was with the 57th at the time of the "Palm Sunday Massacre", but was not on the flight schedule that day. Paul's P-40 #32 is pictured in the Osprey book on the P-40 in the MTO, and paintings of his airplanes are at the 57th FG page at www.web-birds.com . Paul is a true gentleman, and I have been able to attend three P-47 Pilots Assoc. reunions as his guest.

Jim

PS: As far as "real" aces go, I have to mention Robert S. Johnson. His book "Thunderbolt !" which I read in 1959, got me hooked on the P-47. I finally got to meet him at a P-47 Pilots reunion in 1993. Berny is right about Bob - a very down to earth man who really appreciated and enjoyed the fact that people were interested.

I like Erich Hartmann. He had a lot of talent for the job he had to do. I also like Don Gentile, he is from my home state of Ohio.

Jerry

Pierre Closterman - a French WWII fighter-pilot flying Tempest Mk V ! Aleksander

Robert S. Johnson, 56 FG, P-47 Ace, with 28 kills, all air to air. I met the man once and it was great talking with him. A down to earth person.

My favorite ace is Commander David McCampbell, the Navy's top scoring ace of WWII. My username (Rebel99) was his old radio callsign from the U.S.S. Essex