Pilot/Medal of Honor Winner, "Flies West"

One of our own, one of the best, has passed on.

Air Force General (ret.) Joe Foss, 87, got a start in aviation by paying for his own flying lessons (in part) by waiting tables. At 27, he was considered "too old" to fly combat; but the second lieutenant finagled 150 hours in Wildcats, and was soon given Pacific Theater duty, where he ran up 26 kills, equaling Capt Eddie Rickenbacker's WWI total.

In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt awarded him the Medal of Honor, though a story earlier this year detailed how he almost had the medal stolen from him by "security screeners" at Sky Harbor International, in Phoenix (AZ), as he tried to board a flight to DC on January 11.

He also earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and went on to serve as a colonel in the Air Force in the Korean War.

Foss, a Republican, became the Governor of South Dakota in 1955, elected after serving in the state Legislature for five years. A truly accomplished man, Foss's amazing life also included stints as the first commissioner of the American Football League, the host of The American Sportsman television show, and served as president of the National Rifle Association from 1988 through 1990.

Foss fell into a coma last fall after suffering an aneurysm. He passed away without regaining consciousness in an AZ hospital. Our prayers are with his family in this difficult time and our respect for this uncommonly accomplished aviator is inestimable.

He was an amazing man, a flyer... one of us.