Bruce Porter - ACE! - Signed By 5 Famous WWII Aces

Description: ACE! Authored by World War II veteran Bruce Porter and signed by Porter, Rex Barber, Jim Swett, Ben Drew and Ken Jernstedt. Ace! is Bruce Porter's life as a Marine combat fighter pilot—from his earliest days as a naval aviation cadet before World War II, to his adventures guarding America’s forwardmost defense line in the South Pacific, to his aerial combat over the Solomons. Follow Bruce Porter through his exacting night-fighter training and fly with him on his rare double-kill night mission over Okinawa in 1945. James Swett's became an ACE in a DAY in the action that earned him the Medal of Honor. He was himself, shot down by the last plane he attacked. Navy rescue boats were busy picking up numerous downed pilots that day, mingled among many downed Japanese pilots, and approached all cautiously. After locating Swett in the water, before coming closer a sailor yelled, "Are you and American?" Swett responded, "You're goddamn right I am!" The sailor then advised his boat master that is was okay to approach as the man in the water was obviously "one of them loud-mouthed Marines." James Swett finished the war as a Marine Corps TRIPLE ACE credited with shooting down FIFTEEN enemy aircraft in aerial combat, and assisting in destruction of one additional enemy airplane. Flying a P-38 Lightning on April 18, 1943, Rex Barber shot down the Mitsubishi Betty bomber carrying Japanese naval strategist Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet and architect of the raid on Pearl Harbor. Barber later flew with the 14th Air Force under General Claire Chennault. Led by Major John W. Mitchell, the 432-mile low-level intercept mission was the longest successful fighter intercept mission flown during World War II. The United States discovered Yamamoto’s plan to inspect the naval base at Bougainville in the Soloman Islands by breaking the Japanese radio code. With an endorsement by President Roosevelt, Secretary of the Navy Frank Know issued the order to intercept Yamamoto’s party and destroy it at all costs. The United States kept the mission a secret until after the War so that the Japanese would not know that the U.S. had broken their top naval code. Shot down and injured over enemy territory near the Yangtze River while commanding the 449th Fighter Squadron, Barber evaded capture and returned to Allied territory in two months with the aid of China. He spent eight months in a California hospital recuperating. In January 1945, Barber returned to duty with 412th Fighter Group, 29th Fighter Squadron, testing the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. He flew jet fighters in the Korean War and retired as a Colonel after a full Air Force career. By the end of WWII, Barber had five confirmed aerial victories and three probables. Urban Drew became a P-51 ACE in World War II, credited with six victories. For the mission in which he became the first pilot to shoot down TWO German jet aircraft, he was originally submitted for the Distinguished Service Cross, which was denied due to insufficient evidence of his victories; the gun camera had jammed and his wingman, Second Lieutenant Robert McCandliss was shot down and held as a Prisoner of War. Thirty-nine years later, the total story of this mission was confirmed by both the German Luftwaffe archives and the American Air Force archives, and on May 12, 1983, Major Drew became one of two World War II airmen to belatedly receive the Air Force Cross. Ken Jernstedt was recruited for the AVG with Chuck Older and Tom Haywood. After resigning his officer’s commission with US Marine Corps, he signed a one-year contract in 1941 with Central Aircraft Manufacturing Co., a covert cover for the AVG. He joined a group of other volunteers in San Francisco and set sail for Hong Kong on Aug. 26, 1941. From there they sailed to Singapore and then boarded an English flagged ship to Rangoon, Burma. The trio soon joined up with the AVG at their base at Keydaw Airfield, near Toungoo, Burma. Ken was assigned to the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, “Hells Angels.” Later, Ken moved to Mingaladon Airfield and Magwe in Burm. Then he moved to Loiwing, Mengshi, and Kunming in China. He flew P-40B’s and P-40E’s in combat in Burma and China and participated in the first air battles over Rangoon on December 23 and 25, 1941. He would become the AVG’s fifth-ranking ace with 10.5 kills.

Price: 250 CAD

Location: Chatham-Kent, Ontario

End Time: 2025-01-01T21:04:43.000Z

Shipping Cost: 14.22 CAD