P-47 Lt. Col. Glenn Todd Eagleston, top 9th AF ace, 354FG 353 FS, France Dec. ’44. Eagleston was credited with 18 victories. He was known as ‘the fighter pilot’s fighter pilot’. Eagleston achieved all of his WWII air victories while flying the P-51 Mustang with the 354 FG. This group was known as the “Pioneer Group” because it was the first to fly the new Mustangs in combat. Eagleston’s first air victory was achieved on January 5, 1944 during a bomber withdrawal escort from Kiel, Germany. At 23,000 feet, 1st Lt. Eagleston engaged an FW 140, taking a 45 degree deflection shot. The German dove, went into a spin and crashed into the ground. On that mission the group claimed 18 enemy aircraft destroyed. In October of 1944 his group was equipped with P-47s and moved operations to France. On the occasion that Eagleton's oil line was shot up, he parachuted down over a division of English Homeguard on maneuvers in an open field. They hadn't noticed Eagleston floating down above them. When he got about twenty feet above them he yelled, "HEY!", he thought their startled reaction was funny until he saw they all spontaneously trained their rifles on him. . . then he began yelling, "AMERICAN, AMERICAN, AMERICAN", at the top of his lungs, at the same time trying to get his body ready for the landing shock. Eagleston earned another two air victories flying Saber jets in Korea.
“A fighter without a gun . . . is like an airplane without a wing.”