The last ‘ace’: World War II fighter pilot Donald McPherson, who shot down 5 enemy planes, dies at 103

Donald McPherson served as a Navy fighter pilot aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the Pacific theater, where he engaged Japanese forces during the final years of the war

He earned the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his service However, his daughter Beth Delabar said his loved ones always felt McPherson preferred a legacy reflecting his dedication to faith, family and community instead of his wartime feats. “When it’s all done and Dad lists the things he wants to be remembered for … his first first thing would be that he’s a man of faith,” she told the Beatrice Daily Sun, a southeast Nebraska newspaper that first reported McPherson died on Aug. 14. “It hasn’t been till these later years in his life that he’s had so many honors and medals,” she said

McPherson was listed as the conflict’s last living U.S. ace by both the American Fighter Aces Association and the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum

He was honored at the museum’s Victory at Sea event last weekend in Minnesota

To be considered an ace, a pilot has to shoot down five or more enemy planes

He flew F6F Hellcat fighters against the Japanese as part of fighter squadron VF–83

He recounted one mission where he shot down two Japanese planes after he noticed them low near the water on a converging course

In a the Fagen museum played in his honor, McPherson described how he shoved his plane’s nose down and fired on the first aircraft, sending that pilot into the ocean. “But then I did a wingover to see what happened to the second one

By using full throttle, my Hellcat responded well, and I squeezed the trigger and it exploded,” McPherson said. “Then I turned and did a lot of violent maneuvering to try to get out of there without getting shot down.” When he returned to the aircraft carrier, another sailor pointed out a bullet hole in the plane a foot behind where he was sitting

His daughter, Donna Mulder, said her father told her that experiences that during the war gave him the sense that “Maybe God is not done with me.” So after he returned to the family farm in Adams, Nebraska, he dedicated himself to giving back by helping start baseball and softball leagues for the kids in town and serving as a Scoutmaster and in leadership roles in the Adams United Methodist Church, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars

The community later named the ballfield McPherson Field in honor of Donald and his wife, Thelma, who often kept score and ran the concession stand during games

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