Lt Col Clyde B. East was first selected by Air Command and Staff College’s Gathering of Eagles in 1986 and subsequently honored in 1994. As America’s highest-ranking reconnaissance ace, Clyde East’s flying career spans World War II, Korea, the Cuban...
Billy G. Edens was born 21 January 1923 in Cassville, Missouri and grew up in Tyronza, Arkansas. He joined the Army Air Corps on 27 June 1942 upon graduation from high school. He was accepted as an aviation cadet in May, 1943 and attended flight training in Alabama....
James “Stocky” Edwards, Canada’s greatest living ace, completed three combat tours during World War II and fought over the deserts of North Africa, the beaches of Italy and the farmlands of France and northwestern Europe. Edwards grew up during the...
Leon F. “Lee” Ellis flew 53 F-4C Phantom missions before he was shot down and taken prisoner in North Vietnam. Born on 9 October 1943 in Commerce, Georgia, Ellis graduated from the University of Georgia in 1965 with an Air Force ROTC commission and...
Donald D. Engen has excelled in almost every aspect of the field of aviation. Born in 1924, he was fascinated with aviation as a youngster. In the fourth grade, he announced to his parents that he wanted to be a naval officer and go to sea. Engen entered the Naval...
Captain Joe H. Engle was first selected by Air Command and Staff College’s Gathering of Eagles in 1983 and subsequently honored in 1987, 1989, 1995, 1997, and 2001, respectively. Engle became America’s youngest astronaut on 29 June 1965, at age 32, after...
Pat Epps directed the spectacular recovery of a WW II fighter buried beneath 256 feet of the Greenland ice cap. He is a native of Athens, Georgia, and the youngest son of Ben T. Epps, Georgia aviation pioneer. At age three his father was killed in an airplane crash,...
Herman Ernst, who began his military service as a trombone player in the Tennessee National Guard, was one of the first American aces of a new and highly specialized type of aerial combat–night fighting. His love of flying began in his youth in Chattanooga where...
Giora Even is Israel’s leading ace with 17 victories! Born in 1938 as Giora Epstein, he grew up in the traditional frontier-farmer lifestyle of his home, Kibbutz Negba. An avid aviation enthusiast as a young boy, he poured over flying books and studied the...
Frank K. “Pete” Everest, Jr. is one of an elite group of aerospace pioneers who led the way in establishing the United States Air Force (USAF). Included among his many accolades was the title “Fastest Man Alive,” as Everest was called after...
