Brigadier General Clarence Emil “Bud” Anderson Jr. He was 102.
Gen. Anderson was the last surviving triple ace of World War II. He is credited with shooting down 16 German planes.
He was a squadron mate of Chuck Yeager.
In his 30 years of military service, General Anderson flew more than 130 types of aircraft, logging some 7,500 hours in the air.
Piloting P-51 Mustang propeller fighters in World War II — he named them Old Crow, for his favorite brand of whiskey — he logged 116 missions totaling some 480 hours of combat without aborting a single foray.
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He went on to a distinguished post-war career as a test pilot.
“On the ground, he was the nicest person you’d ever know,” General Yeager said of General Anderson in reflecting on their wartime years.
But as he put it in his 1985 autobiography, “Yeager,” written with Lee Jonas: “In the sky those damned Germans must’ve thought they were up against Frankenstein or the Wolfman. Andy would hammer them into the ground, dive with them into the damned grave, if necessary, to destroy them.”