LOS ANGELES — Walker “Bud” Mahurin, the Army Air Forces’ first double ace in Europe during World War II who went on to serve in the Pacific and later became a POW after being shot down during the Korean War, has died. He was 91.
Mahurin, a retired Air Force colonel, died Tuesday at his home in Newport Beach, his stepdaughter said.
“The name is familiar to almost everybody in the Air Force,” said Doug Lantry, a historian at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
“Bud Mahurin was the only Air Force pilot to shoot down enemy aircraft in the European theater of operations and the Pacific and in Korea,” said Lantry. “He was known as a very courageous, skilled and tenacious fighter pilot.”
A native of Michigan, Mahurin enlisted in the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet in September 1941.
Assigned to the 8th Air Forces’ 56th Fighter Group based in England and flying a P-47 Thunderbolt, he scored his first aerial victories in August 1943 by shooting down two German fighters while escorting B-17 bombers.
That October, he became an ace (signifying that he had downed five enemy aircraft).
“I was brought up in an age when flying was the only thing,” Mahurin said in an interview for the Air Force magazine Airman. “We knew the value of being an ace, but you just didn’t try to go out and become an ace. Mostly because, in my case, I was scared to death to begin with. I thought if I just get to meet an ace while on active duty, I’d be happy.”
In November 1943, Mahurin became the first American pilot in the European Theater of Operations to have shot down 10 enemy planes. He also became the 56th Fighter Group’s first Silver Star recipient.
Mahurin, who eventually was shot down by ground fire and spent hours in a life raft before being rescued, ended the war with 20.75 aerial victories. (The fraction indicates he shared the victories with other pilots.)
He went on to score 3.5 aerial victories in Korea, flying an F-86 Sabre jet with the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing. After being shot down by ground fire, he spent 16 months as a prisoner of war.
Mahurin will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
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