COLONEL WALKER M. "BUD" MAHURIN - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 189518

BUD MAHURIN
Color photograph of war bond subscription plane "SPIRIT OF ATLANTIC CITY, N.J." with Bud Mahurin standing on the wing. Mahurin became the Eighth Air Force's first "double ace" while flying this fighter.
Photograph signed: "Bud Mahurin". Color, 10x8 overall, 10x4½ image (one surface). Colonel Walker "Bud" Mahurin (1918-2010) became the Eighth Air Force's first "double ace" of World War II when he shot down 3 German fighters on a raid over Bremen in November 1943 on route to 20 kills by a P-47 Thunderbolt in the European Theater. He flew that Bremen mission with the very plane pictured here, the "Spirit of Atlantic City, N.J.", a plane built with war bond subscriptions. Shot down during a raid on Tours in March 1944, Mahurin hid out in a haystack until he could be smuggled back to England by the French Resistance. Disqualified from further flights over Europe by his knowledge of the French underground, Mahurin transferred to the Pacific, downing a 21st enemy plane (Japanese) over the Philippines in a P-51 Mustang. Mahurin flew combat missions again in Korea, flying an F-86 Sabre jet this time and downing 3 MIG-15s. Shot down over North Korea on May 13, 1952, he was captured, imprisoned and tortured. When his captors finally extracted a "confession" from Mahurin, he framed it in such outlandish terms that any Westerner would recognize it as bogus. Col. Mahurin rose to vice commander of the 27th Air Division before retiring from the Air Force in 1956. Thereafter he worked for North American Aviation. Fine condition.