Remembering Mustang Ace Bud Anderson

Brig. Gen. Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson passed away on May 17, 2024. During his thirty-year career as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Air Force that spanned World War II and the Cold War, Anderson was a fighter pilot, a combat and operational commander, a test pilot, and the leader of flight test programs. Along the way, he flew over 130 different aircraft and logged over 7,500 flying hours. In retirement, Anderson became a voice for the World War II generation, especially through the publication of his autobiography, To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace with Joseph P. Hamelin, and through his frequent airshow, museum, and media appearances.

Born in Oakland, California, on January 13, 1922, Anderson grew up on a farm near Newcastle, California, and attended high school in Auburn. He was a member of the air-minded generation of young Americans enthralled with flight. He earned his private pilot’s license in 1941 through the Civilian Pilot Training Program, became a U.S. Army Aviation Cadet in January 1942, and received his wings and commission in the U.S. Army Air Forces the following September.

Anderson served during World War II with the 363rd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force in England. He and his fellow “Yoxford Boys,” in their P-51 Mustangs with yellow-and-red checkered noses, escorted B-17 and B-24 strategic bombers and engaged with the Luftwaffe in the battle for air superiority over Europe. Anderson flew 116 individual combat missions in four different Mustangs, all but one of them named Old Crow, and became a triple ace with 16 ¼ aerial victories over the course of two combat tours between November 1943 and January 1945.

Anderson flew this P-51D Old Crow during his second tour with the 357th Fighter Group. He preferred the six .50-caliber machine guns and bubble canopy of the D model. He was known as “Andy” in his squadron.

After World War II, Anderson continued to serve with distinction in the U.S. Air Force. He was an accomplished test pilot and director of operations at Wright-Patterson and Edwards Air Force Bases. He commanded an F-86 Sabre fighter-bomber squadron in post-Armistice Korea and an F-105 Thunderchief wing in Okinawa. He commanded the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing and flew 25 combat missions against the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. He retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1972 and managed McDonnell Aircraft’s Flight Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base until 1984.

In full retirement, Anderson retired with his wife, Eleanor, to Auburn, California. He immediately became a member of the World War II aviation history community. He released To Fly and Fight in 1990 to tell the story of his war in the air and became a constant fixture at warbird events and airshows, where he often joined his former squadron mate, Chuck Yeager. Due to the work of Roush Aviation, spectators could see Old Crow take the skies to over America’s leading airshows, including EAA AirVenture.

Personally, I discovered Bud Anderson’s story when I was in middle school. Since I was fascinated with flight, my parents gave me The Great Book Of World War II Airplanes, which featured the amazing art of illustrator Rikyu Watanabe. As I reached the chapter on my favorite fighter, the P-51 Mustang, I opened the gatefold to see Old Crow, an olive drab P-51B with a Malcolm sliding hood, D-Day invasion stripes, and whitewalls added to the tires. To be as cool as Bud, when I built my first P-51 model, which now sits in my office at the Museum, I made sure it had whitewalls, too.

Anderson was a long-time friend of the Museum where he had appeared many times. It was during his May 2018 visit to deliver the Charles A. Lindbergh Memorial Lecture, aptly titled “To Fly and Fight,” that I met him for the first time by the Museum’s P-51D Mustang in the now-closed World War II Aviation gallery. As the then-curator for the upcoming Jay. I Kislak World War II in the Air exhibition, I was excited to meet a real Mustang ace and had an important question for him, “Did he happen to have any artifacts he used during World War II that we might display in the new exhibition?” The answer was yes (!). Colonel Anderson still had his flight helmet, goggles, and jacket he wore while flying with the 363rd Fighter Squadron during World War II. In combat, Anderson wore a Royal Air Force Type C Helmet and Mk. VIII Goggles because they were more comfortable than his Army Air Forces-issued gear. His regular issue A-2 jacket had no colorful squadron or group insignia so it would not provide information to the Germans if he was shot down and captured. Colonel Anderson, his two children, Jim and Kitty, and the entire Anderson family generously loaned these objects to the Museum to share with the public.

Excited, our collections and exhibition staff prepared them for interim display in the World War II Aviation exhibit station at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center during the spring of 2019 because it was the family’s and Museum’s wish to display them as soon as possible. The objects were ready just in time for a visit from Colonel Anderson, which became one of my most memorable experiences at the Museum. As we approached the case (Bud’s gear was in good company, the opposite end featured Jimmy Doolittle’s Eighth Air Force command uniform), a line of Museum staff waited to meet Colonel Anderson. In a place where there is so much history and so many people to meet on any given day, our staff made a point to drop what they were doing to meet him. This was during opening hours and once our visitors saw the large group, some made their way over to see what was happening and asked me what was going on. I simply said that we just put on display these amazing artifacts from Eighth Air Force triple ace Bud Anderson and he was here to see them. The crowd became bigger and the line longer as our visitors met briefly with Colonel Anderson. One very reflective family thanked him for saving the world.

The American Mustang pilots that protected bombers and pursued their enemies in the air over Europe during World War II earned a place for themselves and their airplane in the annals of military and aviation history. Bud Anderson was one of those pilots. For that service and for his entire career, he received two Legion of Merits, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, sixteen Air Medals, the French Legion of Honor and the French Croix de Guerre. In December 2022, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown presided over the ceremony bestowing upon him an honorary promotion to Brigadier General.

Jeremy Kinney is the Associate Director for Research, Collections, and Curatorial Affairs and also curates the U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft collection at the Museum.