Word: aced
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Chungking asked a question: now that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had strengthened his Government (TIME, Nov. 27), what about Foreign Minister T. V. Soong, the Gissimo's able, Harvard-trained brother-in-law? Once called "Asia's greatest statesman," T. V. Soong was an ace trouble shooter and efficiency expert in government. And what about the powerful Cheng Hsueh Hsi (Political Science Group), the organization of Chinese businessmen who favor swifter modernization of their country's political and economic structure...
When he went down, 30-year-old Hubert Zemke was the leading U.S. ace operating in Europe, with 19½ air kills.* They included almost every type of German aircraft, even a jet-propelled plane. He bagged at least one of his total with each major type of U.S. fighter plane used in the ETO-Thunderbolt, Mustang, Lightning...
...best as a group leader. Like all good commanders, he tirelessly roamed his base, knew and supervised it from the messhalls to the flying line, never tired at the job of training good crews and airmen. Heading into battle, his invariable command was "Follow me." Among his many ace proteges (at one time there were 30 in his group) were Lieut. Colonel Francis S. Gabreski (28 enemy planes), Major Robert Johnson (27), and Major Walker Mahurin (21), all of whom became more famed than the man who showed them...
Under these ace-race handicaps, 34-year-old David McCampbell, an elderly airman as fighter pilots go, failed to bag a single Jap until he reached Saipan last June. Then he had still another handicap: he was promoted to group commander. i.e., battle boss of all the planes of one carrier, and had to direct dive bombers and torpedo planes as well as his fighters. But the Pacific war was moving west and the carriers were closing on the enemy. McCampbell's fighter squadron, which had not yet downed a single Jap, was getting set to start scoring...
...June 1, Annapolisman McCampbell jubilantly radioed his group's first tally. On June 19, McCampbell, who directs his group from a Hellcat, helped them set a new Pacific record for one day's combat (68½) by bagging seven himself. His biggest spurt in the ace-race came in the second battle of the Philippines when he set a Pacific (and perhaps World War II's) solo record for one day's combat. That day he shot down nine planes in 95 minutes (TIME...