![]() ![]() Williams was still in flight training when World War II ended, but he stayed in the Navy and while finishing up a college degree in Minnesota, the Korean conflict began. They got their wish after enlisting for war duty in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941. (Charlie Neuman/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)įrom their early childhood in South Dakota, Williams said he and his brother dreamed of growing up to fly airplanes. servicemen for extraordinary valor in the Korean War, Williams didn’t make the list. As a result, when the nation awarded 146 Medals of Honor to U.S. Navy and National Security Agency scrubbed the dogfight from its records and Williams was sworn to secrecy for more than 50 years. Rather than acknowledge an air battle that might have had the effect of drawing the Soviets into the Korean War, the U.S. But no trace of Williams’ daring flight on Nov. Williams’ aerial heroics have been a legend for decades among pilots coming up through the Navy’s Top Gun school, and the incident was recorded in Soviet Union military history. For 35 minutes, he engaged solo in an aerial dogfight with seven Soviet MiG-15 pilots, downing at least four jets before escaping to land his heavily damaged F9F-5 Panther jet on a U.S. Navy fighter pilot Royce Williams pulled off what many experts say is one of the greatest feats in aviation history. Seventy years ago this fall in the skies over North Korea, U.S. ![]()
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