The 100-year-old Clarence E. 'Bud' Anderson Jr. told stories of hanging with Chuck Yeager and flying the P-51 Mustang in San Antonio last week
for the American Fighter Aces Association’s 2022 reunion, Anderson is among the last of his contemporaries standing — and the only triple ace. Just one other, World War II Navy ace Lester Gray, has made it to the century mark. Time has reduced the ranks of the aces, whose heroes include the legendary Yeager, Air Force Col. Robin Olds and Eddie Rickenbacker, a World War I aviator who shot down 26 aircraft — 22 planes and four balloons.
Three radar intercept officers or weapons systems officers who earned status as aces in Vietnam also are alive. The association’s web pagerepresent about 5 percent of the 60,000 pilots who’ve flown for the United States and includes a roster of them. Yeager flew 127 missions over Vietnam as commander of the 405th Tactical Fighter Wing. Best known for breaking the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 on Oct. 14, 1947, he later was commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards, where the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts trained.
Anderson was born in Oakland to Alice and Clarence Emil Anderson and spent part of his childhood on a farm near Newcastle, Calif. He went to Placer Union High School, Sacramento Junior College and George Washington University, learning to fly in 1941 when he was 19 in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. The military loomed after Pearl Harbor, and he enteredthe Army Aviation Cadet Program and earned his wings in 1942.
Anderson was one of the best, not just a survivor, as a dogfight on May 27, 1944, illustrates. It’s as memorable now as it was that day 78 years ago. His daughter, Kitty Burlington, said she’s impressed by the detail in his stories. “We saw them in time to make a hard turn right and go at them head on, and they turned left and we turned left. And we’re starting a circling dogfight about 30,000 feet, I guess. A Mustang could out-turn them up there at altitude, and so after two turns we were gaining on them, and they saw that and rolled out and tried to out-run us back towards Germany,” he said adding that the P-51 was faster in the thin air as well as more nimble.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
From Elon Musk’s Twitter To Clarence Thomas’s Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court looks poised to end affirmative action -- and Justice Clarence Thomas, who may be a deciding vote on the policy, once issued a surprising quote on it
Read more »
Justice Clarence Thomas: I don't have a clue what diversity means | Kenny Xu | National ReportOn Tuesday's 'National Report,' Kenny Xu responds to SCOTUS arguments in a case that could overturn affirmative action in college admissions.Watch Newsmax on...
Read more »
Clarence Thomas Has One Great Point About Affirmative ActionHarvard's reliance on a key preference operates as a massive affirmative action program for white applicants.
Read more »
Trump attorneys thought Clarence Thomas was 'only chance' to block certification of 2020 election: ReportFormer President Donald Trump's attorneys thought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would be their 'only chance' at thwarting President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, according to emails from Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.
Read more »
Emails Show Trump Team Saw Clarence Thomas as Key to Overturning 2020 ElectionAccording to an email exchange from December 2020 at least two lawyers on Trump’s legal team believed that Thomas was their “only chance” to legally challenge the results of the election before the election certification date rolled around.
Read more »