Brigadier General (ret.) Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier and went on to become one of the most legendary figures in aeronautical history. Born in 1923 in Myra, West Virginia, Yeager joined the US Army Air Corps at...
Lieutenant Colonel Ken Walsh is the top scoring living F4U Corsair ace with 21 air victories and 140 combat missions. “Join the Marines and Learn to Fly” was the poster that prompted Walsh to enlist in the Corps as a private on 15 December 1933. He served...
Over 47 years ago, Roy M. “Butch” Voris formed, trained and led our nation’s longest flying aerial demonstration team, the Blue Angels. A native of Santa Cruz, California, Voris received his “wings of gold” at NAS Corpus Christi in...
Nineteen year old Second Lieutenant Konstantin Michailovich Treshchov was one of the first Soviet pilots to gain an aerial victory against the Luftwaffe. Born in Tula, Russia, Treshchov developed an early interest in aviation and built model aircraft as a boy. At 15,...
Ulrich Steinhilper was born near the end of World War I in the midst of an air raid on Stuttgart. He spent his early childhood in a small village and then moved to a town where his father was a teacher. In 1936 he successfully tested for Luftwaffe flight training and...
Joshua Shani flew lead in one of history’s most dramatic and successful aerial commando operations. Upon graduation from the Israeli Air Force (IAF) Academy, he received his wings in 1965 and began a career in airlift and special operations, first flying the...
Heinrich Schmetz was a pioneer in the testing Hand employment of precision guided munitions in World War II. After beginning his lifetime in aviation piloting gliders at age 14, Schmetz entered the Luftwaffe in 1935 and after navigator training was sent to...
Manfred A. Rietsch flew more than 700 jetfighter combat missions during his 24-year career in the United States Marine Corps. Born in East Germany, Rietsch immigrated to the United States in December 1956. He graduated from the University of Minnesota and, in March...
Vitali Ivanovich Popkov, a native of Moscow, is one of Russia’s most honored war veterans. In 194 1, upon completion of high school, Popkov volunteered for duty in the Soviet Army. After graduation from the Chuguev military aviation school in May 1941, he...
John R. “Bob” Pardo, a “MiG-Killer” credited with one victory and three assists, performed one of the most spectacular feats of piloting during the war in Southeast Asia. Pardo grew up in Heame, Texas, and after a year of college, entered the...
Known as the “Dean of the Dustoff Pilots”, Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel, at age 48, earned the United States’ highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, by rescuing 29 soldiers during the Vietnam War. Born and raised in Etna, Pennsylvania, Novosel became...
Robert K. Morgan commanded one of the Army Air Force’s most famous heavy bombers during World War 11. Although many crews later completed 25 combat sorties, Morgan and the other nine men of the “Memphis Belle” were the first to reach that goal as a...
James H. Kasler is the only person ever to be decorated with three Air Force Crosses. Born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1926, he completed high school in Indianapolis. He then enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in May 1944. He flew combat missions...
John P. “Jock” Henebry helped pioneer low level anti-ship tactics used to destroy an entire Japanese convoy in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. Henebry was born in Plainfield, Illinois on 14 February 1918. He earned his private pilot license during his...
A “Kiwi” by birth, Ray Hanna was destined to earn wings and fly. At the age of six he and his parents often went out to a grass airfield near Auckland, New Zealand, just to watch the airplanes. Inspired by these trips, Hanna earned his pilot’s...
Richard Frost was a key member of the team that made the greatest advances in aviation since the Wright brothers opened the age of powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. The young boy born in 1916 in Ohio, just a few miles east of the cradle of aviation, would...
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...
Lieutenant General Laurence C. Craigie was the first American military pilot to fly a jet aircraft, the Bell XP-59A. Craigie was born in 1902 and grew up in Concord, New Hampshire. After high school, he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. When...
Jerry D. Collinsworth is one of the few Americans to become an ace flying the Supermarine Spitfire. Born in Dublin, Texas, Collinsworth spent most of his early life in the panhandle oiltown of Borger. After high school, he set a goal to become a military pilot. After...
Marta R. Bohn-Meyer was the first female crewmember to fly Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird. Born in Amityville, New York, she soloed a Cherokee 140 on her 16th birthday, received her private pilot’s license on her 17th birthday, and earned her commercial...
