Guy Pierre Bordelon Jr. (February 1, 1922 – December 19, 2002) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

flying 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 ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, shooting down five enemy aircraft. Bordelon was the only U.S. Navy aviator to become an ace in the war. A veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, then-Lieutenant Guy Bordelon was the leader of

VC-3 Avid DNxHD ("Digital Nonlinear Extensible High Definition") is a lossy high-definition video post-production codec developed by Avid for multi-generation compositing with reduced storage and bandwidth requirements. It is an implementation of SMPTE ...

Detachment D off the . In addition to being the Korean War's only navy ace, he was the only night ace and the only American ace to do so flying a piston engined aircraft, the

F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft which saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contracts ...

. Bordelon, nicknamed "Lucky Pierre", was credited with three

Lavochkin La-9 The Lavochkin La-9 (NATO reporting name Fritz) was a Soviet fighter aircraft produced shortly after World War II. It was one of the last piston engined fighters to be produced before the widespread adoption of the jet engine. Development La-9 r ...

s or La-11s, and two Yak-18s between 29 June and 16/17 July 1952. Bordelon became an instructor after Korea, and taught survival training to pilots during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

. He was also chosen for the prestigious Top Gun award. Guy Bordelon retired as a commander after 27 years in the U.S. Navy, returning to his home town of Ruston, Louisiana. He died in 2002 at the age of 80, and was buried in the family plot in Greenwood Cemetery, in Ruston.

References

Sources

* * 1922 births 2002 deaths American Korean War flying aces United States Navy personnel of the Korean War Military personnel from Louisiana People from Ruston, Louisiana Recipients of the Navy Cross (United States) Recipients of the Silver Star United States Navy officers United States Navy pilots of World War II {{US-navy-bio-stub

See also

References

Sources