Joe M. Jackson flew for his country in three wars! As a youth in Newnan, Georgia, Jackson was an avid model airplane enthusiast. After graduation from high school, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and, when the United States entered World War II, he became a crew...
Alexander Jefferson was born on 15 November 1921 in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia in June 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology. While working toward a master’s degree in chemistry from Howard...
Col “Bubba” Jenny entered the Air Force in 1964. During his 28-year career as a fighter pilot, Bubba flew over 5,000 hours in 10 different aircraft including the F-100, A-7, A-10, F-16, and F-117. Bubba was one of the few Misty pilots of Vietnam and, like many of his...
Eldon W. “Al” Joersz’s distinguished career as a combat fighter pilot, world speed record holder, and exceptional military leader began in the small town of Hazen, North Dakota. Born to a proud farmer and professional baker, he graduated Hazen High...
Gerald W. “Jerry” Johnson’s military career began as a second lieutenant fighter pilot with the mighty Eighth Air Force–30 years later he was the commander. Born in 1919, he interrupted his college education in September 1941 to enter the...
Howard “Scrappy” Johnson served as a fighter pilot flying over 7,000 hours in fifteen different fighter planes during his career. A Tennessee-born only child, Colonel Johnson moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1933. While growing up in Kentucky, he earned...
As a Korean War double jet ace, Colonel (ret) James K. Johnson’s career produced many “firsts. ” Graduating from the University of Arizona in 1939, he entered the Army Air Corps and attended pilot training at Randolph and Kelly Fields, receiving his...
General Leon Johnson, who received the Medal of Honor for his action during the famed Ploesti raid, is one of America’s most highly acclaimed air combat leaders of World War II. A West Point graduate, he was commissioned into the Infantry in 1926. Deciding...
Lieutenant General Michelle D. Johnson achieved many historical firsts such as being the United States Air Force Academy’s first female cadet wing commander; the Academy’s first female Rhodes Scholar; the Academy’s first and only female inductee into the National...
During the initial days of Operation DESERT STORM, Major General (ret) Paul “PJ” Johnson heroically lead a bold search and rescue mission deep into enemy territory to locate a downed Navy crew. Born in 1958 in Gadsden, Alabama, Johnson spent his childhood...
Robert S. Johnson was the first American Ace to exceed Eddie Rickenbacker’s World War I total of 27 aircraft destroyed, and was the second-highest scoring American ace in the European Theater during World War II. Johnson grew up in Lawton Oklahoma, then home of...
Sam Johnson, a seven-year prisoner of war in Vietnam, endured nearly three years in “Alcatraz,” a top-secret, high-security facility reserved for the most resistant American prisoners during the Vietnam War. An only child from a middle-class family,...
A pioneer of the “jet age,” A.M. “Tex” Johnston is one of America’s foremost test pilots. His love of aviation began in 1925, at age 11. In a pasture near his hometown of Emporia, Kansas, he took his first flight in a Hisso-Standard...
Major General (ret) David “Davy” M. Jones was a Doolittle Raider, former World War II prisoner of war, and a pioneer of American aviation whose heroic and distinguished service spanned four decades. Jones was born in 1913 in Marshfield, Oregon, and...
Randy Jones has contributed mightily to Army aviation during a stellar 30-year career. He has served with honor and valor in combat to include Vietnam, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia where his heroism earned him the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the...
Thorsteinn Jonsson is Iceland’s only ace! Born in Reykjavik in 1921, his father was Icelandic and his mother was English. He grew up in Iceland but as a young child traveled to England often for visits. Jonnson was an adventurous and high-spirited lad and at age...
Pearl Brummett JuddPearl Brummett Judd was one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. She was born in the Texas Panhandle at the Brummett 2B Ranch on 21 July l922, the only child of Irby and Alta Brummett. When she was about seven, her...
General (ret) John P. Jumper was born on February 4, 1945, in Paris, Texas. As the son of an Air Force fighter pilot, he moved around constantly before completing his senior year of high school at Hampton, Virginia. Jumper earned his commission as a distinguished...
The magnitude of World War II often overshadows the fighting that occurred between Finland and the Soviet Union during the Winter War of 1939-40 and the Continuation War of 1941-44. During these conflicts, Finnish pilots destroyed 1,808 Russian aircraft in aerial...
