During World War II, less than 5 percent of all fighter pilots succeeded in shooting down five or more enemy planes. Yet, that tiny percentage accounted for almost half the aircraft destroyed in air-to-air combat.
Those few men were known as aces. They were celebrated in the media, worshipped by civilians and, in some cases, by their fellow pilots. They earned generational fame in the sky’s killing game.
In the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations, a highly unusual competition began. At first, it was a race to beat World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker’s record of twenty-six enemy planes. It soon morphed into something greater: a fevered competition to become America’s greatest fighter pilot, our ace of aces. For almost three years, this race riveted the nation, made heroes out of ordinary Americans, and changed forever the lives of those who loved them.
This is the story of that race and the fighter pilots who dared to compete for that immortal title.