Lonnie Ortega Aviation Art

CAPT. JOSEPH J. FOSS • CMH

USMC/VMF-121 (26.00)

Joe Foss was a South Dakota farm boy whose years of marksmanship as a hunter paid off tremendously in the South Pacific. The aviation bug smote Joe while at Sioux Falls College and when graduation was over at the U. of South Dakota he headed for the Marine Corps. He arrived on Guadalcanal with VMF-121 in October of 1942. Though his two combat tours lasted only sixty-three days Foss made the very most of them and became the first American pilot to tie the magic twenty-six victory score of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker of WWI fame. Several times he had to crash land and once he had to ditch at sea, but a Japanese bullet never touched him. By the middle of October he was getting one victory a day and by the end of the month he was averaging three a day. Foss had his biggest days on the 23rd of October when he got four Zeroes and on the 25th when he added three afternoon kills to the two of the morning to come up with a total of five. On the morning of the 25th Foss got his Zero when the Japanese pilot pulled up right in front of him. Realizing his mistake, the pilot judiciously bailed out. The second Zero headed right into Foss and the Wildcat pilot obliged him by almost shooting the engine out of the mount. That afternoon he got two similar victories and caught the third Zero in the middle of his victory roll subsequent to the downing of an F4F. Foss and VMF-121 left the combat zone on January 25, 1943. The squadron had destroyed 132 of the enemy in the air for a loss of fourteen pilots. Joe Foss went back to the U.S. to stay. His combat days were over. The post-war years brought Joe Foss even more prominence than his Medal of Honor. He was elected Governor of his home state of South Dakota, became a Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve and served as President of the American Football League.