AS THE CROW FLIES

FIGHTER PILOT Colonel Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson, 96, is a triple ace, credited with 16.25 enemy kills in the skies over Europe. In P-51B and P-51D Mustangs he named “Old Crow,” Anderson flew two tours and 116 combat missions with the 363rd Fighter Squadron, part of the Eighth Air Force’s 357th Fighter Group, based at Leiston, England. One of only a handful of pilots to fly in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, he is the coauthor (with Joseph P. Hamelin) of the 1990 book To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace. He lives in Auburn, California—not far from the farm in Newcastle where he was raised—and continues to be a popular public speaker.

How did your war begin?

I went through flight school in September of 1942 and immediately went to the San Francisco Bay Area to the replacement pilot training group at Hamilton Field. We had duty at the Oakland Municipal Airport; we took over the old flight terminal and lived right there on the base at the airport. We had a bunch of P-39 Airacobras and got