When compared to the fighter aces of the Second World War, Richthofen’s total is far less impressive. That total made the Red Baron the leading fighter ace of the war, with more kills than any other pilot of any nation. Until the Vietnam War, he was assigned to various bomber and fighter groups in the United States and Europe.Arguably the most famous fighter pilot in history, Germany’s Manfred von Richthofen shot down 80 enemy airplanes during World War I. He convinced a flight surgeon that it was healed, but he was able to fly his first mission only after removing a cast. He was recalled to fly in Korea, but had a broken wrist from falling off a horse. After the war, he joined the Oklahoma Air National Guard and learned to fly the F-51 Mustang. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet in 1943 and flew fighters in Panama, but did not see combat. He did odd jobs in his youth, competed in rodeos and graduated from high school. 16, 1925, in Mammoth Spring, Ark., where his father was a sharecropper. His memoir of his time as a prisoner, “The Passing of the Night: My Seven Years as a Prisoner of the North Vietnamese,” was published in 1974. His many other medals include the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross. When he was released in 1973, General Risner received another Air Force Cross for his gallantry as a P.O.W. “Resist until you are tortured,” he said, “but do not take torture to the point where you lose the permanent use of your limbs.” His advice to the men he commanded combined the heroic and the practical. He once experienced an anxiety attack, but knew he would be beaten if he screamed. General Risner spent more than three years in solitary confinement, in total darkness. “They thought I was much more important than I ever was,” General Risner told Air Force magazine. In the article, he called himself “the luckiest man in the world.” Time magazine put a portrait of him on the cover of its April 23, 1965, issue as an exemplar of the modern American warrior. He was hit by enemy fire on four out of five consecutive missions. In Vietnam, General Risner was awarded the Air Force Cross for bravery. He did it in 6 hours and 37 minutes, a fifth of Lindbergh’s time, setting a new trans-Atlantic record. Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight on the same route. Louis II to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Charles A. In 1957, when he was a major, he was chosen to fly an F-100F Super Sabre jet named the Spirit of St. In Korea, he shot down eight MIG-15 fighters. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who also was held at the Hanoi Hilton after his own fighter-bomber was shot down, said in a statement that General Risner was “an inveterate communicator, an inspiration to the men he commanded and a genuine American hero.”ĭefense Secretary Chuck Hagel, also a Vietnam veteran, praised General Risner’s “constant resistance” to “relentless torture.”īefore his incarceration, General Risner had established himself as one of America’s top pilots. In 2001, a nine-foot-tall statue of General Risner was installed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to commemorate that declaration. “I felt like I was nine feet tall and could go bear hunting with a switch,” he said. He was later asked how he felt at that moment. As guards led him away to yet another spell in solitary confinement, more than 40 P.O.W.’s sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” to show support. One of his major acts of defiance was helping to organize a church service in 1971, even though he knew he would be punished. For the first five years - after which higher-ranking officers came to the prison - he helped organize inmates to make complaints about the conditions and to boost morale. Then a lieutenant colonel, he turned out to be the highest-ranking officer at Hoa Lo Prison, which American prisoners of war called the Hanoi Hilton. General Risner, who was promoted to the rank of brigadier general at his retirement in 1976, was shot down in September 1965 during a mission to destroy a missile site. He died after a series of strokes, the Air Force said. Robinson Risner, one of the nation’s most decorated pilots in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, who spent seven and a half years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison after being shot down, died on Tuesday at his home in Bridgewater, Va.
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