Cool! I bumped into Bob Hoover back in 2006 in Washington DC. Literally. I was making way for a large crowd of folks coming through the lobby of one of the airport FBOs as he was rounding a corner. I turned around to apologize and there's a grin under a straw hat looking back. Had an opportunity to talk to him for 5 minutes or so before he was shuffled off into an awaiting 20 series Lear. Very nice guy and everything I have for an honest aviation hero. A true airman 
Hoover seems like a guy that you could talk to for hours. Here is a clip from Wiki that I would love to ask him questions about.
"Bob Hoover learned to fly at Nashville's Berry Field while working at a local grocery store to pay for the flight training.[1] He enlisted in the Tennessee National Guard and was sent for pilot training with the Army.[2] He was sent to Casablanca where his first major assignment of the war was test flying the assembled aircraft ready for service.[3] He was later assigned to the Spitfire-equipped 52nd Fighter Group in Sicily.[4] In 1944, on his 59th mission, his malfunctioning Mark V Spitfire was shot down by a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 off the coast of Southern France and he was taken prisoner.[5] He spent 16 months at the German prison camp Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany.[6]
He managed to escape from the prison camp, stole an Fw 190, and flew to safety in the Netherlands.[7] After the war, he was assigned to flight-test duty at Wright Field."
He stole a frikkin' FW-190!! A couple minutes with him is just not enough.
It would be great to meet Bud Anderson, btw, I am envious of both of you.
