Capt. Jerry Yellin, a former Army Air Corps fighter pilot, enlisted two months after the bombing of Hickam Air Field and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on his 18th birthday. After graduating from Luke Air Field as a fighter pilot in August of 1943, he spent the remainder of the war flying P-40, P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang combat missions in the Pacific with the 78th Fighter Squadron, known as the "Bushmasters," signified by the open-mouth emblem of a snak’s head worn on their patches.

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Keywords: 47th, air, archive, armed, base, defence, del, flying, force, forces, ftw, jerry, laughlin, military, reportage, rio, servicemen, texas, training, usa, wing, yellin