Adams, Nebraska (AP) – A World War II veteran from Nebraska believed he was America’s last “Ace” pilot, as he died at the age of 103 after shooting down five enemy planes.
Donald Macpherson served as a naval fighter pilot on the aircraft airline USS Essex at the Pacific Theatre, serving in the Japanese military in the final year of the war. He won Parliamentary Gold Medal And three prominent flight intersections for his service
However, his daughter, Beth Delabar, said his loved ones always feel that Macpherson prefers a legacy that reflects his faith, family and community, rather than his wartime feat.
“When it’s all done and Dad lists things he wants to remember… his first first thing is that he’s a man of faith,” she said. Beatrice Daily Sunthe Southeast Nebraska Newspaper, where MacPherson first reported that he died on August 14th.
“Until the later years of his life, he never won so many honors and medals,” she said.
MacPherson was listed as the last living US ace of the conflict by both the American Fighter Ace Association and the Fagen Fighter World War II Museum. He was Honor Last weekend, he won the museum’s Sea event in Minnesota. To be considered an ace, the pilot must fire down at least five enemy planes.
MacPherson joined the Navy in 1942 at the age of 18. As trainees were not allowed to marry, he and his wife Thelma tied the knot shortly after completing the 18-month flight program in 1944.
He recounted one mission that shot down two Japanese planes after they noticed them low near the water on the convergence course. In the video, MacPherson, who played in his honor, pushed down the nose of the plane and fired it on the first aircraft, sending the pilot into the sea.
“But then I did a wingover to see what happened to the second one. With full throttle, my hellcat responded well, squeezed the trigger and exploded,” McPherson said. “Then I turned around and did a lot of violent maneuvering to try and get out of there without being shot down.”
When he returned to the aircraft’s airline, another sailor pointed out a hole in the plane’s bullets about a foot behind where he was sitting. His daughter, Donna Mulder, said her father said that such experiences during the war gave him the feeling that “probably God was not with me.”
So, after returning to the family farm in Adams, Nebraska, he began a baseball and softball league for the children of town, and devoted himself to giving back by playing a leadership role in Adams United Methodist Church, the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars as a scout master.
The community later named it Ballfield MacPherson Field in honor of Donald and his wife Thelma.
