Donald McPherson, a Nebraska native and Navy fighter pilot, died at 103 on Aug. 14. He served aboard USS Essex in the Pacific during World War II as an F6F Hellcat pilot with fighter squadron VF-83. He is credited with five aerial victories and was listed as the conflict's last living U.S. ace by veteran organizations. He received the Congressional Gold Medal and three Distinguished Flying Crosses and was honored at the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum's Victory at Sea event. He enlisted in 1942, married Thelma after flight training in 1944, and emphasized faith, family and community over 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.
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.
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