There are outstanding history libraries and museums dedicated to World War II’s American Patriots — those who defeated at enormous human cost the rising fascist and imperialist Axis Powers in Germany and Japan. Those resources include the presidential libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the National World War II Museum and Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Fortunately, there are also video records of first-hand accounts by Veterans who were on the frontlines. But the most valuable accounts are those delivered in person, and those left to deliver them are departing.
Of the 16.4 million “Greatest Generation” Vets who served, living World War II Vets today number in the tens of thousands — that sounds like a lot, but to have served at 18 years old in the last days of the war in 1945, they are now 98 years of age or older. In a few years, they will all be gone.
This week, we lost one notable Veteran, Donald McPherson, a Naval fighter pilot and, according to the American Fighter Aces Association, our nation’s last surviving World War II “Ace.” He was 103.
Don was a native of Adams, Nebraska. He enlisted in the Navy at the age of 21 in 1943, after the V-5 Aviation Cadet Program, which was short on pilots, waived its requirement that applicants have two years of college. He pinned on his Wings of Gold as a Naval Aviator in August 1944 at NAS Corpus Christi in Texas. That month, he also married his sweetheart, Thelma Johnston.
Don completed advanced combat fighter training in Daytona Beach, Florida, with Flight 81, a combat supplement and replacement squadron, and then carrier qualifications at Naval Air Station Glenview on the USS Wolverine, where my father also completed his qualifications.
In December 1944, Don deployed to Pearl Harbor, where he was assigned to VF-100. Two months later, he reported to VF-83, a squadron equipped with the formidable Grumman F6F Hellcat. In March 1945, VF-83 was assigned to the carrier USS Essex during the battle for Okinawa. He recalled on his second night on the Essex watching the kamikaze bombers hit other ships: “This sure made us wonder what we had gotten ourselves in for.” On the 13th of that month, he flew his first combat mission.
His training and skills would be tested a week later during a pre-dawn attack on Nittigahara airfield in Kyushu. Pulling up in his F6F Hellcat, “Death ‘n Destruction,” after destroying a Mitsubishi G4M ‘Betty’ bomber on the ground, his Hellcat engine abruptly stopped. After manually activating a fuel pump, as he restarted his engine, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire, but limped back for a successful landing on the Essex.
He says, “Upon inspection of the damage to the airplane, we found that a 20mm cannon shell had penetrated the fuselage about a foot behind my back and severed one of the cables that controlled the tail surface.” Of that near miss, he concluded, “Maybe God is not done with me.”
On a 6 April mission to strike kamikaze pilots during the Battle of Okinawa before they could attack American ships, Don successfully shot down two Aichi D3A “Val” dive bombers, among 67 Japanese aircraft kills by VF-83 pilots that day. After noticing the enemy planes converging, he nosed down and took out the first one. He recounts: “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. Then I turned and did a lot of violent maneuvers to try to get out of there without getting shot down.”
On 5 May, Don scored three more kills on Yokosuka K5Y “Willow” floatplanes attempting kamikaze strikes. And with that, he earned the title of Ace. After the Pacific War’s conclusion three months later, he had earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses and four Air Medals.
Post-war, Don returned home to Nebraska, where he spent most of his life as a hard-working farmer (the only kind of farmer) and over 20 years as a rural letter carrier. In his spare time, he coached youth sports, was a Boy Scout leader, and enjoyed his hobbies of woodworking, welding, hunting, and fishing.
In 2015, along with other flying aces, Don received the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of “their heroic military service and defense of the country’s freedom.”
On May 25, 2022, Don turned 100. And in September 2024, then 102, he flew in a restored Curtiss SB2C Helldiver.
I invite you to listen to his story here.
Navy ENS Don McPherson died on 14 August at the age of 103. He and Thelma have two daughters and two sons, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
His daughter Beth Delabar said of her dad: “When it’s all done and Dad lists the things he wants to be remembered for … his first thing would be that he’s a man of faith,” adding, “It hasn’t been till these later years in his life that he’s had so many honors and medals.”
Winston Churchill observed, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all others.” Don embodied that quality all of his days.
Blue Skies and Tailwinds, ENS Donald McPherson.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of American Liberty, honoring their oath “to support and defend” our Constitution, and for the families awaiting their safe return. Pray also for our Veterans, First Responders, and their families.
Please consider a designated gift to support the National Medal of Honor Sustaining Fund through Patriot Foundation Trust, or make a check payable to “NMoH Sustaining Fund” and mail it to:
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PO Box 407
Chattanooga, TN 37401-0407
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