Lonnie Ortega Aviation Art

Print Size: 11" x 14" ----- autographed by "Bud" Mahurin and the artist. Comes with a COA.

****ONLY (9) PRINTS LEFT****

Colonel Walker "Bud" Mahurin

 56th F.G./USAAF ~ ETO ~ (20.75 victories)

51st F.I.W./USAF ~ Korea ~ (3.50 victories)

(24.25 victories)

"When you talk to a pilot, especially a guy like me who has a lot of years on him, his stories get better by the moment. The next thing you know, his airplane was a dud, but due to sheer combat capability he was able to shoot down twenty enemy aircraft.

As the commander of a fighter group, you don’t call your pilots in, to brief them on a new operation and say "Okay, you go out there and go get ‘em, I’ve got some staff work to do." You like to say, "Well, this is kind of experimental. I’ll lead the mission." ----- " Bud" Mahurin, in a 1997 interview for SECRETS OF WAR

Bud Mahurin was always photographed with a big smile on his face, especially in his early WWII photographs. He couldn't have known that he was one of few American fliers who would be shot down in two different wars. As an outstanding young flier with the famed 56th Fighter Group in World War Two, he flew over Nazi-occupied Europe, downing 19.75 German airplanes, and later, in the Pacific, he downed 1 Japanese aircraft. His career as a fighter pilot almost ended before it started, in August 1943, when he destroyed his P-47 while horsing around with a B-24. He flew too close, and the bomber 's propeller chewed up his Thunderbolt's tail. Mahurin managed to bail out, and he got off with no more than a $100 fine and a tongue-lashing from CO Hub Zemke. A few days later, he shot down his first German plane, an Fw-190. Flying a war bond subscription plane "SPIRIT OF ATLANTIC CITY" he scored again on September 9, and on October 4, he shot down three Bf-110s to make ace.

He became the Eighth Air Force's first double ace (10 victories) on November 26, in a raid over Bremen. As the Bf-110s came after the B-17s and B-24s, Mahurin and the rest of the 56th waded in. He get right behind his first victim, shooting off the plane's wing and probably touching off its aerial rockets in the process. As the B-17 gunners blasted away at anything that came too close, including American P-47s, Mahurin avoided their 'friendly' fire and found a second Bf-110, which he sent flaming to the ground. His third target tried the Germans' favorite, but least effective, evasive tactic - diving away. Virtually no other plane in the sky could out-dive the 'Seven Ton Milk Jug', and Mahurin caught and destroyed his third target down at 14,000 feet. In March, 1944, he shared credit for destruction of a Do-217 bomber over Tours, but was shot down himself. He evaded capture, and made his way back to England in May. To protect the Resistance fighters, ETO rules forbade evadees from flying combat in Europe. So Mahurin went to the Pacific, as CO of the 3rd Air Commando Group, and scored the last of his WWII kills there, flying P-51 Mustangs.

He stayed in the military after WWII, and was working in the Pentagon for the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force when the Korean War broke out. He quickly "got up to speed in jets," and went to Korea. He began working for Gabby Gabreski in the 51st FIW. In 1952 he was captured and tortured by the Chinese Communists.

Colonel Walker "Bud" Mahurin passed away May 11, 2010 at his home in Newport Beach, California, one of the last surviving WWII aces. He was 91. In his career, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, and many more.