THE FLYING ACE
© Dennis Morehouse
One of the more glamorous military occupations, that gets lots of attention, is the fighter pilot; and particularly the ace. The ace is a 'successful' fighter pilot, in that he's done more than just survive; he's overcome his enemy; not once, but at least five times. He's looked up to as being invincible in the air and running up a string of victories. Although a pilot becomes an ace (in most countries) by achieving five victories in the air, it's also assumed that all aces build large scores and only get shot down on their last flight. Getting shot down equals death in most people's eyes. And only a rare few are good enough to become an ace in the first place. After all, how many people do you know who can beat the first five opponents who come against them, in anything?
The perception is often false, even as parts of it are true. Even the true parts aren't completely true. The one thing that is fairly constant is that five kills makes you an ace. (Of course, some countries count 'partial' kills, 'shared' kills, ground kills gotten during strafing runs, hoped for kills, dreamed about kills, and all those enemy shot down in bar room discussions.) Fighter pilots aren't the only aces, either. They just have the best opportunity for mixing it up. Bomber crews during WW I were credited as aces. I don't know of any helicopter aces, but the crew of an Air America Huey did shoot down a Communist biplane in South East Asia in about 1971, using the crew chief's AK-47.
In reality, there have been a number of systems for determining whether someone has become an ace. According to Al Bowers and David Lednicer, who've compiled a list of aces from all conflicts, http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/aces... five victories is the 'accepted' standard, ever since Roland Garros claimed to have had five victories at the time of his capture. Germany used ten, at least during WW I. (Garros not only started the tradition of using five victories as the mark of an 'ace', but also started the tradition of claiming more victories than had been confirmed. He actually only had three at the time of his capture.)
