World War II Fighter Pilot

On June 5, 2009, Conversations with Heroes at the Watering Hole will feature a conversation with World War II Army Air Corps fighter pilot Captain Jerry Yellin. Captain Jerry Yellin, USA “enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Feb. 15, 1942, his 18th birthday and graduated from Luke Field in August, 1943 as a fighter pilot. He was in combat in the Pacific Theater and Iwo Jima with the 78th Fighter Squadron and participated in the first land based fighter mission over Japan on April 7, 1945 and the last mission of the war on August 14, 1945. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with an Oak Leaf cluster and the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf clusters. He was discharged a Captain in December 1945.” Captain Jerry Yellin is the author of Of War & Weddings: A Legacy of Two Fathers and The Blackened Canteen.