Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Guppy35 on May 14, 2010, 12:45:03 AM
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Saw this posted on another forum.
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2010 ... 051310.txt
Published Wednesday, May 12, 2010 10:24 PM PDT
Features
‘A hero to everybody’
Famous WWII and Korean War pilot ‘didn’t take what he did as heroism,’ his daughter says. ‘It was just what he did for his country.’
By Joseph Serna
At the time, there wasn’t a bigger thrill for 12-year-old Denny Sherman than when U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Walker “Bud” Mahurin picked him up from school by surprise.
Mahurin had never met Sherman, but had been exchanging letters with the boy, who was 10 years younger, in the months up to that day. Sherman first heard from his dad about a young man learning to fly at the airport. He befriended Mahurin’s mother and kept tabs on her son through letters.
When Mahurin got his pilot wings and returned home for a short while, he made sure to meet his young friend in person.
“Right away, he was a hero to me the rest of my life. Later, he would be a hero to everybody,” Sherman said.
Mahurin, who was one of the military’s most successful ace pilots with more than 24 confirmed victories through two wars, died Tuesday at his home on Newport Island. He was 91.
“He didn’t take what he did as heroism. It was just what he did for his country,” said Mahurin’s daughter, Valerie Miller. “He’ll be remembered by the public for his bravery and selfless dedication to this country and its servicemen. To me, he was the funniest, kindest, greatest man I’ve ever known who took everything in stride.”
Mahurin’s military career is the stuff of legend. He flew in both the Pacific and over Europe in World War II, downing 19.25 planes. Pilots are awarded fractions of a victory — thus the reference to the quarter of a plane — when more than one plane is involved in shooting down the enemy.
After being shot down over Europe and surviving with the French Resistance, Mahurin was airlifted out and got a job with the Pentagon.
When the Korean War started, Mahurin requested to serve again. He wasn’t any less effective with the F-86 Sabre jet than he was with the propeller planes of yore. He took down four enemy planes before being shot down by ground fire.
He was captured by enemy soldiers and spent 16 months in a prisoner of war camp.
Mahurin amassed nearly 30 medals of valor in his military career and downed more than 24 planes.
He spent the later part of his life speaking to young servicemen and women and talking to children about his experiences.
“Boy, could he tell stories. He could remember anything,” Miller said. “But he was pretty modest. He took it all in stride. He was almost embarrassed about what he did. He’d say, ‘It wasn’t me who shot them down. It was my wingman.’”
Those who knew him immediately recalled Mahurin’s smile and upbeat, humble nature.
“He never wanted to talk about himself,” Sherman said. “He always wanted to talk about the future. He’d always ask what you were doing. He was really an up, up person. Very intelligent, can talk on any subject. He was my hero long before he was a hero to anybody. I’ll always remember Bud.”
Mahurin is survived by his wife of more than 40 years, Joan; daughters, Miller and Lynn Vaughn; sons, George and Michael; and six grandchildren
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:salute
RIP Sir, and thank you for all you've done.
Wurzel
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Wow. 30 medals of valor. It's sad that these heroes have to pass away. R.I.P. Mr. Muhurin :salute
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<S> Thank you for your service and fair skies and tail winds.
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Sad part about his service to his country is he pretty much got "politicked" out of the Air Force after returning from the Korean War as a repatriated POW by an Anti-Communist Senator who condemned Mahurin for making false confessions under torture.
Again, Col. Mahurin :salute
wrongway
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:salute
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I had the pleasure of meeting him and other surviving members of the 63rd Fighter Squadron. I was stationed at Luke AFB in 1994, at the 63rd FS. We had a big reunion (50 years) and we invited all surviving members form the 63rd in WW2. We hung parachutes and camo netting from the ceiling of the hangar, had a DJ there palying 40s music...we ate and drank most of the night. It wasdecided that every active duty person would sit next to one of the vets. I got lucky to sit at the table several seat down from Col Muhurin, next to one of the crew chiefs (I was a crew chief at the time on F-16s). Man the stories that we heard that night were both scary and hilarious. As much in awe that all of us young guys were with the vets, the feeling was reciprocated by the older folks down to us. It was a memorable week, with the dinner as the final event. We had tours and static displays for our guests, photo ops abounded but sadly over my many moves I have lost track of them (probably in a box somewhere).
A big <S> to the Col.
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Another great loss to our Country.
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My condolances to family, friends....and our country. We can't afford to lose men of his stature. They are replaced to slowly.
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From today's New York Times...
Bud Mahurin, Fighter Pilot in 2 Wars, Dies at 91
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Published: May 14, 2010
Having arrived in Britain in January 1943 with the Army Air Forces’ 56th Fighter Group, Mr. Mahurin, who was known as Bud, flew P-47 Thunderbolts that protected American bombers on their missions.
He downed his first two German planes in August 1943, and in November he shot down three planes in a single day during a raid on Bremen, Germany, giving him a total of 10 “kills” and making him the first “double ace” in the Eighth Air Force.
On March 27, 1944, Mr. Mahurin’s fighter was hit when he took part in shooting down a German plane during a raid on Tours, France.
He bailed out, hid in a haystack and was found by a farmer who placed him in the hands of the French Resistance, which arranged his return to England.
When he returned to the United States in June 1944, his combat days were seemingly over. Since he might be forced to provide information about the French underground if shot down again by the Germans and captured, he was not permitted to fly over Europe any longer. But he obtained a transfer to the Pacific theater and shot down a Japanese plane in the Philippines, piloting a P-51 Mustang.
By the war’s end, Mr. Mahurin had been credited with 20.75 kills, the fraction representing shared credit with other fighter pilots in some downings.
He was serving in the office of the Air Force secretary when the Korean War broke out. Arriving in South Korea in December 1951, he flew F-86 Sabre jets. He had been credited with shooting down three MIG-15s, and taking part in another downing, when he set out to strafe a rail yard in North Korea on May 13, 1952.
He decided that before heading back to base he would shoot up a truck he had spotted in the area.
“I should never have gone after that truck,” Mr. Mahurin told the Gannett News Service in 2006. “You never want to trade a $500,000 airplane for a $50,000 truck. I figured, well, I’d go shoot that up and then I’ll have a good story to tell the boys at the officers’ club when I get back to base. And of course I never got back.”
Mr. Mahurin was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He made a crash landing in a rice paddy, breaking his arm, and was captured. For the next 16 months — a period that extended beyond the armistice — he was subjected to brutal questioning and psychological torment as a prisoner of war. The Communists were trying to get downed American airmen to sign confessions that they were committing germ warfare in bombing runs.
Mr. Mahurin resisted his captors and tried to commit suicide, but he was among many American airmen who finally relented.
“Bud Mahurin at last agreed to write a ‘confession’ so full of inaccuracies and implausible information that any Western reader would know it was fiction,” John L. Frisbee wrote in Air Force magazine in 1997. “Unknown to him, the war had already ended.”
Doug Lantry, a historian at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, said Mr. Mahurin was the only pilot of the Army Air Forces and its successor, the Air Force, to have shot down enemy planes in the European and Pacific theaters in World War II as well as in Korea.
Walker Melville Mahurin, the son of an architect, was born on Dec. 5, 1918, in Benton Harbor, Mich., but grew up in Fort Wayne, Ind. He attended Purdue University before joining the military in 1941, and he returned for a bachelor’s degree after World War II.
After the Korean War, Colonel Mahurin was vice commander of the 27th Air Division. He retired from military service in 1956 and then worked for North American Aviation in Southern California.
In addition to Joan Mahurin, his second wife, he is survived by two sons, George, of Brea, Calif., and Michael, of Florida, and a daughter, Lynn Vaughn of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., all from his marriage to his first wife, Patricia, which ended in divorce; a stepdaughter, Valerie Miller of Newport Beach; and seven grandchildren.
For all the torment to which he was subjected as a prisoner of war, Mr. Mahurin looked back at his flying days as an adventure.
“That was the most fun I ever had,” he told Airman magazine in 2003, recalling his time as a Sabre jet pilot in Korea.
“You seldom think of aerial combat — getting shot at — as fun,” he said, “but it’s a lot of fun if you’re doing the shooting.”
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:salute Bud
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http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,289071.0.html
(sorry, it is sad to see him go)
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Very sad indeed :salute
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Sorry to hear. :salute
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GodSpeed :salute Bud
Oz
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As I'm also from Michigan and going to Purdue... :salute
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<S>
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Lost Another WWII & Korea Veteran ACE this month :salute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Mahurin :angel: :salute
Salute to ALL Veterans this Memorial Day!! :salute
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Graves_at_Arlington_on_Memorial_Day.JPG/477px-Graves_at_Arlington_on_Memorial_Day.JPG)
POLRBEAR
52ndKIWI
"Stanch Friends at ALL Hazards"
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With respect...you're a bit late, there were 2 other threads regarding Mr. Mahurin.
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,289071.0.html (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,289071.0.html)
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With Respect, this was a Memorial Day Salute :salute
Never to late to Salute a Veteran :salute or Repeat the Salute for their loss :salute
Folks never read all the threads :aok
POLRBEAR
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With Respect, this was a Memorial Day Salute :salute
LOL...then you're 6 days early. :salute
Wake me up when it's time.
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LOL...then you're 6 days early. :salute
Wake me up when it's time.
:rofl