To honor the men and women who flew and trained at Luke Field, Arizona, during World War II.

Aces

During WWII, Luke Field graduates were credited with 2,412.13 aerial victories. In the vernacular of fighter pilots, aerial victories are referred to as kills. During WWII, each combat theater had their own rules on what was required to earn credit for an aerial victory. During WWII, there were many more claims of kills than the enemy data actually showed. The decade’s long study was the U. S. Air Force’s attempt to standardize what constituted a confirmed aerial victory. The amount of credit one received depended upon how many airmen took an active part in killing that enemy aircraft. For instance, if eight airmen were part of one kill, each airman received 0.13 aerial credits.

An Ace was an airman who had five or more credited aerial victories. Since Luke Field was the largest pilot school during WWII and most of the graduates went into fighters, it would be logical to assume Luke Field would have a large number of graduates who became Aces. During WWII, the Army Air Corps credited 698 Airmen as Aces. Of those, 127 were graduates of Luke Field, or 18.2%. America’s all time best ace was Richard “Dick” I. Bong who graduated from Luke in Class 42-A and is credited with 40 kills. The main source was the USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Agency, Air University, & Office of Air Force History, 1978, undated 1987.

Multiple Service numbers (#) indicate the first one is probably the cadet’s Army Enlistment number; if the number starts with T- it is their Flight Office Service number; if the number starts with O- it is their Officer Service number (some source use an A instead of an O-).

Some cadets took more than one class to complete their training. Their graduation class is listed first. There were many reasons why a cadet might not finish with his initial class. The most likely cause was due to illness or injury.

The Confirmed Kills (Conf Kills) is the number of confirmed aerial victories for each airman was awarded by the U.S. Air Force.

While the table above only accounted for the aerial victories that occurred during WWII, there were 4 Luke graduates who increased their totals during the Korean War. Lowell Kermit Brueland was a double Ace with 12.5 kills at the end of WWII and added 2 more kills to his total in Korea. James Philo Hagerstrom was an Ace with 6 kills at the end of WWII and added another 8.5 kills in Korea to become a double Ace. Conrad Emanuel Matson finished WWII with 1 kill and then added 4 more in Korea to become an Ace. George Inkermann Ruddell finished WWII with 2.5 kills and then added 8 more in Korea to become a double Ace.

SOURCES: Luke Field Class Books; USAF Credits for the Destruction of Enemy Aircraft, World War II, Albert F. Simpson Historical Research Agency, Air University, & Office of Air Force History, 1978, undated 1987.National Archives WWII Army Enlistment records https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-description.jsp?s=3360&cat=WR26&bc=,sl;