ADAMS, Nebraska — A World War II veteran from Nebraska believed to be America’s last surviving “ace” pilot because he shot down five enemy planes has died at age 103.
Donald McPherson served as a Navy fighter pilot aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex in the Pacific theater, where he engaged Japanese forces during the final years of the war. He earned the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his service
However, his daughter Beth Delabar said his loved ones always felt McPherson preferred a legacy reflecting his dedication to faith, family and community instead of his wartime feats.
“When it’s all done and Dad lists the things he wants to be remembered for … his first first thing would be that he’s a man of faith,” she told the Beatrice Daily Sun, a southeast Nebraska newspaper that first reported McPherson died on Aug. 14.
“It hasn’t been till these later years in his life that he’s had so many honors and medals,” she said.
McPherson was listed as the conflict’s last living U.S. ace by both the American Fighter Aces Association and the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum. He was honored at the museum’s Victory at Sea event last weekend in Minnesota. To be considered an ace, a pilot has to shoot down five or more enemy planes.
McPherson enlisted in the Navy in 1942 when he was 18. Trainees weren’t allowed to marry, so he and his wife Thelma tied the knot right after he completed the 18-month flight program in 1944. He flew F6F Hellcat fighters against the Japanese as part of fighter squadron VF–83.
He recounted one mission where he shot down two Japanese planes after he noticed them low near the water on a converging course. In a video the Fagen museum played in his honor, McPherson described how he shoved his plane’s nose down and fired on the first aircraft, sending that pilot into the ocean.
“But then I did a wingover to see what happened to the second one. By using full throttle, my Hellcat responded well, and I squeezed the trigger and it exploded,” McPherson said. “Then I turned and did a lot of violent maneuvering to try to get out of there without getting shot down.”
When he returned to the aircraft carrier, another sailor pointed out a bullet hole in the plane about a foot behind where he was sitting. His daughter, Donna Mulder, said her father told her that experiences like that during the war gave him the sense that “Maybe God is not done with me.”
So after he returned home to the family farm in Adams, Nebraska, he dedicated himself to giving back by helping start baseball and softball leagues for the kids in town and serving as a Scoutmaster and in leadership roles in the Adams United Methodist Church, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The community later named the ballfield McPherson Field in honor of Donald and his wife, Thelma, who often kept score and ran the concession stand during games.