An old warrior in World War II of Nebraska has died that he was the last “AS” pilot in America because he had shot down five enemy aircraft at the age of 103.
Donald McFireson as a naval fighter on board the USS Esix aircraft carrier at the Pacific theater, where he participated in the Japanese forces in recent years of the war. Get The gold medal in Congress And three distinct flight intersections to serve it
However, his daughter Beth Delapar said that his loved ones have always felt that McFireson preferred a legacy that reflects his dedication to faith, family and society instead of his exploits in wartime.
“When everything is done and the father lists the things he wants to remember … his first thing is that he is a man of faith,” she said to a newspaper Beatrice Daily SunIt is the Southeast Nebraska newspaper, which was first reported that McFireson died on August 14.
She said, “It was not even these subsequent years in his life, as he had a lot of decorations and medals.”
McPherson was listed as the last AS in the United States of the conflict by both the American Fighter Association and the Fegen Fighters Wwii Museum. He was generosity In the museum’s victory in sea It happened last weekend in Minnesota. In order to be considered ACE, the pilot must shoot down five or more aircraft.
McFireson was recruited into the navy in 1942 when he was 18 years old. The trainees were not allowed to marry, so he and his wife Thilma tied the knot immediately after he completed the 18 -month aviation program in 1944.
He narrated one task as he shot down two Japanese planes after they noticed them low near the water in a close path. In a video clip, the Vagin Museum played in his honor, McFireson described how he pushed his plane nose down and shot the first plane, and sent this pilot to the ocean.
“But then I did a suite to find out what happened to the second. Using a full suffocating, helcat responded well, pressed the trigger and exploded,” said McFireson. “Then I turned and I made a lot of violent maneuver to try to get out of there without dropping.”
When he returned to the aircraft carrier, another sailor referred to a shot hole along the shower behind the place where he was sitting. His daughter, Donna Mold, said that her father told her that experiences like this during the war gave him a feeling that “maybe God did not have done with me.”
So after returning to his home to the family farm in Adams, Nebraska, he devoted himself to responding by helping to start the baseball and soft ball championships for children in the city and work as a scout leader and in leadership roles in the United Nations Church of Methodes, American Alabids and old warriors in foreign wars.
The community later called Ballfield McPherson Field in honor of Donald and his wife, which often maintained the result and managed the concession position during games.
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