Arthur Van Haren Jr. (April 9, 1920 – August 11, 1992) was a World War II

fighter pilot A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, air-to-ground combat and sometimes electronic warfare while in the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and ...

and considered the top

fighter ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

of World War II from Arizona. He may be one of very few highly decorated Hispanic fighter-pilot aces in the history of

aerial warfare Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare. Aerial warfare includes bombers attacking enemy installations or a concentration of enemy troops or strategic targets; fighter aircraft battling for control o ...

. Van Haren was born in

Superior, AZ Superior (Western Apache: Yooʼ Łigai) is a town in Pinal County, Arizona. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town is 2,407. Superior was founded as a mining town for the Silver King and the later Magma mines; silver was mined ...

. His mother was Rose Valenzuela and his father, Arthur Van Haren Sr., a popular boxing judge and

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who was inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. Arthur Jr. shared his father's passion for sports becoming a star quarterback at Phoenix Union High School and playing for Coach Pop McKale at the University of Arizona.

World War II

While attending the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Van Haren Jr. joined the Navy at the beginning of World War II, and was part of the famous U.S. Navy Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2) ''Rippers''. VF-2 was featured in the October 23, 1944

Life Magazine ''Life'' was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, ''Life'' was a wide-ranging weekly general-interest ma ...

edition as the "ace makers" squadron. Van Haren Jr. completed his naval aviation training in 1942. However, he was considered to be such a good pilot that the Navy made him a flight instructor, and he spent over a year teaching other Naval aviators how to fly. That year as a flight instructor proved to be invaluable to Van Haren Jr. He was able to sharpen his flying and air gunnery skills and, at the same time, the U.S. Navy was in the process of moving from the

F4F Wildcat The Grumman F4F Wildcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that entered service in 1940 with the United States Navy, and the British Royal Navy where it was initially known as the Martlet. First used by the British in the North Atlan ...

to a more superior aircraft—the Grumman F6F Hellcat—as a way to better compete against and outclass the

Japanese Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was ...

. Based on the USS Hornet (CV-12), a United States Navy

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of the Essex class, Lt. Van Haren Jr. flew the F6F Hellcat. He downed nine confirmed enemy planes during grueling combat in the

Pacific Theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

skies, and had three additional unconfirmed kills. Three of his nine kills occurred in the Marianas Turkey Shoot. Some of his more notable squadron team members included Roy Voris, Daniel A. Carmichael Jr., and his commander, William A. Dean. Van Haren Jr. was awarded several medals and commendations including two Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) medals, the Air Medal, and the

Presidential Unit Citation (United States) The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enem ...

. He is widely regarded as Arizona's top Navy fighter-pilot ace of World War II. A journal kept by Van Haren Jr. sheds light on the routinely dangerous lives of being a fighter-pilot in the Pacific Theater during that time. One entry reads:

Life after the war

Following his service in the Navy, Van Haren Jr. received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1948. As part of his legal career in Phoenix, Van Haren served as a deputy Maricopa County attorney, legal counsel to the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission, and as a City of Phoenix municipal judge. However, the majority of his days as a lawyer were spent as a

defense attorney A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...

in private practice. In 2007, Van Haren Jr. was featured in a book entitled "A Legal History of Maricopa County," which, among other things, documented the numerous practicing attorneys from Maricopa County who had proudly served in World War II. Van Haren died in 1992 at the age of 72 in Dewey, Arizona. His wife of more than 50 years, Elizabeth Van Haren, died in May 2009.Arthur Van Haren Jr., AcePilots.com, http://www.acepilots.com/usn_vanharen.html

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Haren, Arthur Jr. Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Arizona Wildcats football players American people of Mexican descent Mexican-American history United States Navy officers 1920 births 1992 deaths United States Navy pilots of World War II Recipients of the Air Medal American World War II flying aces People from Pinal County, Arizona Military personnel from Arizona Aviators from Arizona Sportspeople from Pinal County, Arizona Hispanic and Latino American aviators

World War II

Life after the war

See also

References