US’s last surviving second world war flying ‘ace’ dies aged 103

The second world war pilot who was believed to be the US’s last surviving “ace” – a title he earned by shooting down five enemy combatants – has died.

Donald McPherson was 103 when he died on 14 August, according to his online obituary.

McPherson fought Japanese forces during the second world war’s final years, serving in the Pacific theater as a US navy fighter pilot aboard the USS Essex. He earned the Congressional Gold Medal, three distinguished flying crosses and recognition as an “ace” fighter for his service.

Pilots had to shoot down at least five enemies in aerial combat to be recognized as aces.

According to both the American Fighter Aces Association and the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum, McPherson was listed as the US’s last living ace from the second world war era.

McPherson’s daughter, Beth Delabar, acknowledged the attention paid on her father’s military accomplishments – but said he preferred to be known as a pious man who was dedicated to his family as well as community.

“When it’s all done and Dad lists the things he wants to be remembered for … his first thing would be that he’s a man of faith,” Delabar told the Beatrice Daily Sun, the newspaper in McPherson’s home state of Nebraska that first reported his death. “It hasn’t been till these later years in his life that he’s had so many honors and medals.”

McPherson was 18 when joined the US navy in 1942, after Japan’s December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He completed an 18-month training program before marrying his wife, Thelma, in 1944.

He then belonged to fighter squadron VF-83, combating the Japanese in the F6F Hellcat planes that he flew.

Once, he recounted in a Fagen Fighters WWII Museum video celebrating him, McPherson described how he shot down two Japanese planes in one mission.

He said he noticed the planes converging, and he dispatched one into the ocean by lowering his fighter’s nose down and firing.

“Then I did a wingover to see what happened to the second one,” McPherson remarked on the video. “By using full throttle, my Hellcat responded well, and I squeezed the trigger and it exploded. Then I turned and did a lot of violent maneuver to try to get out of there without getting shot down.”

He explained that a fellow sailor back at the aircraft carrier pointed out a bullet hole about a foot behind where McPherson had been sitting in the plane. As the Associated Press noted, McPherson’s daughter, Donna Mulder, interpreted that kind of experience during his military career as evidence that “maybe God is not done with me”.

McPherson settled down at his family’s farm in Adams, Nebraska, after the war. He started youth baseball and softball leagues in Adams while accepting leadership positions for local institutions, including a scout troop, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars chapters and a United Methodist Church congregation.

Adams eventually named a ballfield after McPherson and Thelma, who preceded her husband in death and was a scorekeeper and concession stand worker during games there.

McPherson’s funeral was on 19 August. Three days earlier, the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum commemorated what the organization called McPherson’s “amazing life” at its Victory at Sea event in Minnesota.

The Associated Press contributed reporting