Bud Anderson was born on January 13, 1922, in Oakland, California. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on January 19, 1942, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings at Luke Field, Arizona, on September 29, 1942. His first assignment was flying P-39 Airacobra fighters with the 329th Fighter Squadron of the 328th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field and then at the Oakland Municipal Airport, California, from September 1942 to March 1943. Lt Anderson was then assigned to the 363rd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group at Tonopah, Nevada, in March 1943, moving to various bases in California from May to October 1943, then at Casper, Wyoming, from October to November 1943, and finally deploying to England in November 1943. He completed two tours in the European Theater, during which time he was credited with the destruction of 16.25 enemy aircraft in aerial combat plus 2 probables and 2 damaged, and 1 enemy aircraft on the ground while strafing an enemy airfield. Capt Anderson returned to the U.S. in January 1945, serving at Perrin Field, Texas, until October 1945, when he was assigned as a recruiter in Ohio. He served as a recruiter until May 1948, when he transferred to the Flight Test Division with Headquarters Air Material Command at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Anderson served as a test pilot at Wright-Patterson and at Edwards AFB, California, from May 1948 to February 1953, and then at Headquarters U.S. Air Force in the Pentagon from February 1953 to September 1954. He attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, from September 1954 to August 1955, and then served as Director of Operations for the 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Osan AB, South Korean, from August 1955 to February 1956. Col Anderson was commander of the 69th Fighter-Bomber Squadron of the 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing from February to August 1956, and then served as Executive Officer with the 6511th Parachute Test Group at NAAS El Centro, California, from August 1956 to November 1957. His next assignment was as Assistant Chief and then Chief of the Flight Test Operations Division at Edwards AFB from November 1957 to August 1962, followed by Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, from August 1962 to July 1963. He was Deputy Director of Flight Test and then Assistant Deputy for System Test at Edwards AFB from July 1963 to August 1965, followed by service as Deputy Director and then Director for Operations with the 18th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) at Kadena AB, Okinawa, from August 1965 to June 1967. Col Anderson was commander of the 18th TFW from June to December 1967, and then served another tour with Headquarters USAF in the Pentagon until December 1969. He next served as commander of the 355th TFW at Takhli Royal Thai AFB, Thailand, from June to December 1970, followed by service as Chief of the Aircraft Division with Material Command at McClellan AFB, California, until his retirement from the Air Force on February 29, 1972.
http://www.veterantributes.org/TributeDetail.php?recordID=610
His 1st (of 5) Distinguished Flying Cross Citation reads:
For extraordinary achievement and heroism in aerial combat and the destruction of three enemy airplanes over enemy occupied Continental Europe. The skillful and zealous manner in which Captain Anderson has sought out the enemy and destroyed him, his devotion to duty and courage under all conditions serve as an inspiration to his fellow flyers. His actions on all these occasions reflect the highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.
World War II
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1946
Description Overview of World War II
World War II killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war, and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever greater. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war.
World War II was truly a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated as soldiers or as war workers, while others were persecuted as victims of occupation and mass murder.
World War II cost the United States a million causalities and nearly 400,000 deaths. In both domestic and foreign affairs, its consequences were far-reaching. It ended the Depression, brought millions of married women into the workforce, initiated sweeping changes in the lives of the nation's minority groups, and dramatically expanded government's presence in American life.
The War at Home & Abroad
On September 1, 1939, World War II started when Germany invaded Poland. By November 1942, the Axis powers controlled territory from Norway to North Africa and from France to the Soviet Union. After defeating the Axis in North Africa in May 1941, the United States and its Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943 and forced Italy to surrender in September. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Allies landed in Northern France. In December, a German counteroffensive (the Battle of the Bulge) failed. Germany surrendered in May 1945.
The United States entered the war following a surprise attack by Japan on the U.S. Pacific fleet in Hawaii. The United States and its Allies halted Japanese expansion at the Battle of Midway in June 1942 and in other campaigns in the South Pacific. From 1943 to August 1945, the Allies hopped from island to island across the Central Pacific and also battled the Japanese in China, Burma, and India. Japan agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945 after the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Consequences:
1. The war ended Depression unemployment and dramatically expanded government's presence in American life. It led the federal government to create a War Production Board to oversee conversion to a wartime economy and the Office of Price Administration to set prices on many items and to supervise a rationing system.
2. During the war, African Americans, women, and Mexican Americans founded new opportunities in industry. But Japanese Americans living on the Pacific coast were relocated from their homes and placed in internment camps.
The Dawn of the Atomic Age
In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, warning him that the Nazis might be able to build an atomic bomb. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi, an Italian refugee, produced the first self-sustained, controlled nuclear chain reaction in Chicago.
To ensure that the United States developed a bomb before Nazi Germany did, the federal government started the secret $2 billion Manhattan Project. On July 16, 1945, in the New Mexico desert near Alamogordo, the Manhattan Project's scientists exploded the first atomic bomb.
It was during the Potsdam negotiations that President Harry Truman learned that American scientists had tested the first atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress, released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. Between 80,000 and 140,000 people were killed or fatally wounded. Three days later, a second bomb fell on Nagasaki. About 35,000 people were killed. The following day Japan sued for peace.
President Truman's defenders argued that the bombs ended the war quickly, avoiding the necessity of a costly invasion and the probable loss of tens of thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Japanese lives. His critics argued that the war might have ended even without the atomic bombings. They maintained that the Japanese economy would have been strangled by a continued naval blockade, and that Japan could have been forced to surrender by conventional firebombing or by a demonstration of the atomic bomb's power.
The unleashing of nuclear power during World War II generated hope of a cheap and abundant source of energy, but it also produced anxiety among large numbers of people in the United States and around the world.