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By tradition, anyone with five official victory credits is an ace. In compiling this list of aces who flew with the US Air Force and predecessor organizations (the Air Service, Air Corps, and Army Air Forces), Air Force Magazine relied on USAF's official accounting of aerial victory credits, which is the responsibility of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
Air Force historians have kept the official records of aerial victories by USAF pilots and crew members since 1957. The Office of the Air Force Historian initially published four separate listings--for World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The four volumes have been corrected, updated, and combined into one comprehensive volume. AFHRA continues to correct records and updates its online listing (www.maxwell.af.mil/au/afhra).
The criteria that the Air Force established for awarding aerial victory credits varied from war to war, and therefore one cannot make direct comparisons of aces across all wars.
In many cases during World War I, several aviators worked together to down a single aircraft. The Air Service awarded one whole credit to each aviator who contributed to the victory. A single victory could--and often did--result in three or four victory credits.
In World War II and Korea, the criteria were changed. The service divided one credit among all aviators who contributed to destruction of an enemy plane. With the awarding of fractional credits, a single victory could result in no more than one credit.
The rules were changed again in the Vietnam War. When an F-4 downed an enemy aircraft, USAF would award two full aerial victory credits--one to the front-seater and one to the back-seater. As in World War I, a single victory resulted in multiple victory credits.
Thus, the standards for World War II and Korea were more restrictive than those for World War I and Vietnam. |
