Ace's End

With the Korean war came a new breed of American heroes: the jet aces. There were 38 U.S. aces (pilots who had downed five or more enemy planes) in Korea, and the figures showed that they were very special men: among them they accounted for more than a third of the 823 enemy jets downed in combat.

Top ace of aces was Captain Joseph C. McConnell Jr. of Apple Valley, Calif., who posted the unequaled high score for Korea: 16 Russian MIGs. McConnell believed in aggressiveness and good eyesight. "Everything," he once said, "I owe to my eyes." Also: "I can walk into a squad room, watch the men playing ping-pong, and pick out the best fighter pilots.

The most aggressive guy at pingpong will be an aggressive fighter. An aggressive fighter is a good fighter."

Once,McConnell was downed by MIGs; he bailed out safely at 40,000 feet into the Yellow Sea and was rescued. After he was back in the U.S., he appeared on a TV show with a Polish refugee who had been a MIG pilot in Eastern Europe. When the show was over, McConnell pumped him for five hours about flying MIGs. Then McConnell wrote a 15-page letter to the men who were still fighting MIGs in Korea. After that the MIG kill rate went up. "If I had cleared through the Pentagon in the beginning with that report," McConnell said, "the war would have been over before the boys got it.''

Last week Joe McConnell, 32, father of three, was test-flying a new swept-wing Sabre, the F-86H, out of Edwards Air Force Base in California. Suddenly the controls froze; McConnell radioed the base that he would try to save the plane. When it was too late, he pushed his ejection button. He was found dead, near the ejected seat and the unopened parachute.

Last week near Rapid City, S. Dak., a ten-engine B-36 bomber crashed in flames, killing 24 Air Force men, injuring three. Next day at El Paso, another B-36 was wrecked. Casualties: one dead and 15 injured.

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