This World War II ace shot down 19 enemy planes in just 6 missions
Team Mighty
Posted On March 20, 2022 11:53:44
B-52D dropping 500-lb bombs. (Public domain).
When the first B-52 Stratofortress bomber to crash went down in 1956, it took with it one of the United States’ greatest pilots and a stunning fighter ace from World War II. Patrick Fleming was the fighter pilot Japanese fighter pilots have nightmares about and the kind of test pilot Air Force people read about in for their promotion tests.
Fleming was one of the handful of aviators who would serve his country in wartime, change branches, and become one of the guys with “The Right Stuff.” He went from being a wartime naval aviator to an Air Force test pilot during the Cold War.
When the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Patrick Fleming was aboard the USS Cincinnati in the British West Indies, monitoring the French Navy (who had just capitulated to Nazi Germany) and searching for Nazi blackade runners. After that tour, he went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-heroes/this-world-war-ii-ace-shot-down-19-enemy-planes-in-just-6-missions/
