Vermont Garrison

Vermont Garrison (October 29, 1915 – February 14, 1994) was a career officer in the United States Air Force, and a flying ace credited with 17.33 victories in aerial combat.

He was one of only seven Americans to achieve ace status during World War II, then again against jet fighter opposition during the Korean War.

On September 26, after transition training in the P-47 Thunderbolt at RAF Atcham, he was assigned to the 4th Fighter Group, based at RAF Debden, as a member of the 336th Fighter Squadron.

He graduated from Pulaski County Public Schools in 1933, then went on to two years at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, and earned a teaching certificate after a term at Sue Bennett Junior College in nearby London.

He taught elementary school in one-room schools between 1936 and 1941.

On March 17, 1941, Garrison enlisted in the United States Army and became an aviation cadet in Class 41-C at Muskogee, Oklahoma, but Washed Out of advanced flight training at Brooks Field, Texas, in October.

Garrison promptly enlisted in the Royal Air Force at Dallas, Texas and completed flight training at El Centro, California.

After obtaining his RAF wings, Pilot Officer Garrison was shipped to England, where after further training he was promoted to Flying Officer and made a gunnery instructor, posted to RAF Hawarden to train pilots flying North American Mustangs.

On July 13, 1943, Garrison transferred from the RAF to the United States Army Air Forces, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant.

Garrison's first combat mission came on October 4, 1943.

Garrison recorded his first combat victory returning from a bomber withdrawal support mission to Bremen on December 16, 1943.

In exceptionally bad winter weather conditions, he shared credit for shooting down a Junkers Ju 88 fighter over the German-Dutch border with Don Gentile and Louis Norley.

A month later, on January 14, 1944, he downed two Focke-Wulf Fw 190s, although his claim report for the second kill credited half to Norley.

A review of his gun camera film, however, resulted in the award to Garrison of both victories.

By February 10 he had scored his fifth kill and made ace, followed by a sixth victory on February 25, during an escort mission supporting the Big Week bomber offensive.

The next day his squadron began conversion to the P-51B Mustang fighter.

On March 3, 1944, the 4th Fighter Group flew a bomber support mission to Berlin for the first time, resulting in several large aerial engagements.

Liberated on May 1, 1945, by Soviet troops, Garrison elected to rejoin his squadron rather than return to the United States.

He remained with the 336th FS until it was inactivated in September 1945, then transferred to the 406th Fighter Group on occupation duty in Germany.

In 1946 he transferred to the 56th Fighter Group at Selfridge Field, Michigan, where he again flew P-47s.

Garrison was part of a flight of nine P-51s of the 4th engaging more than 60 Luftwaffe fighters attacking bombers at 24,000 feet near Wittenberg.

Three of the flight, including Garrison, were shot down.

Despite losing his aircraft's supercharger and having three of its four guns jam, Garrison shot down an Fw 190 and received a "probable" for downing a Messerschmitt Bf 110.

Flying back to England at low level with two wingmen, one of whom had a damaged engine and could not maintain altitude, Garrison was shot down by antiaircraft fire near Boulogne-sur-Mer and bailed out.

Captured almost immediately, he was subjected to two weeks of interrogations, then shipped to Stalag Luft I, the German Prisoner-of-war camp near Barth, Germany.

Following his return from World War II, Garrison was married to Reatha Mae Cuthbert of London, Kentucky, until her death in July 1959.

Garrison remarried in August 1961 at Mountain Home, Idaho, to Marie E. Lee.

In 1966, Garrison participated in his third war, as vice commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, and flew a full tour of bombing and fighter missions over North Vietnam.

During all three of his combat tours, Garrison was consistently older than his peers, becoming an ace in World War II at the age of 28, in Korea at the age of 37, and flying Rolling Thunder missions at the age of 51.

For this and his renown as a gunnery expert, Garrison was known in the service as "The Gray Eagle".

U.S. Air Force historian and author Walter J. Boyne described Garrison as a "first-rate combat unit leader."

Col. Robin Olds, commanding the 8th TFW in Thailand, said of his vice commander: "Of the many hundreds I've served with, Garry was one of the greatest—as pilot, as gentleman, as officer, and as friend."

Garrison was born on a farm near the tiny hamlet of Mt. Victory, in Pulaski County, Kentucky, a part of Appalachia.

He was a younger half-brother to his father's first child and the oldest of five sons and three daughters (one of which died in infancy) born to Mayhue H. Garrison and his second wife, Shelta Harriet Sears Garrison.

While he grew up farming and timbering to help his family subsist, he also completed a basic education despite the Great Depression.

The couple resided in Idaho after his 1973 retirement and raised three daughters and a son.

Garrison died of a heart attack on February 14, 1994, in Mountain Home.

He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The 4th Fighter Group was assigned to support a task force of 3rd Bomb Division B-17s on its withdrawal after bombing Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

It proceeded to the rendezvous-point at Eupen, Belgium, but could find no bombers, remained in the vicinity for 16 minutes, and then withdrew.