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Contact Info
Home Town Hapeville, Georgia
Last Address St. George Island, Florida
Date of Passing Mar 15, 2002
Location of Interment College Park Cemetery - College Park, Georgia
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Title 10, Section 8742, United States Code, takes pleasure in presenting the Air Force Cross to Captain Jackson L. Hudson (AFSN: 0-78723), United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an opposing armed force as an A-1 Skyraider pilot of the 602d Special Operations Squadron, Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand, in action in Southeast Asia on 6 October 1969. On that date, Captain Hudson led and was responsible for the success of one of the largest search and rescue efforts ever attempted in Southeast Asia. With complete disregard for his own safety and despite extremely intense ground fire, Captain Hudson made repeated low-level passes delivering ordnance within ten meters of the survivors' position. He led and coordinated the final attack which eventually incapacitated an estimated four hundred to six hundred hostile forces and saved the lives of fifty-four human beings. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of overwhelming hostile forces, Captain Hudson reflected the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
Indeed, were it not for the noise, the relentless hurricane-force wind sometimes mixed with bullets of rain in the face, the occasional bug in the mouth, the near impossibility of communication, the danger of hypothermia, the unshielded exposure to the sun's deadly gamma rays, the non-existent baggage space, the low-pressure airflow over the cockpits that can suck out charts and papers, the dismal forward visibility, and its otherwise shameless impracticality, an open-cockpit biplane might just be the most ideal aircraft ever conceived - surely the most magnificent of all of man's wondrous machines. Author Unknown
The PT-13 was typical of the biplane primary trainer used during the late 1930s and WW II. Whereas it was powered by a Lycoming engine, the same airplane with a Continental engine was designated the PT-17, and with a Jacobs engine, the PT-18. A later version which featured a cockpit canopy was designated the PT-27.
Of 10,346 Kaydets ordered for the U.S. and its Allies, 2,141 were PT-13s for the AAF. Following WW II, the Kaydet was phased out in favor of more modern trainers.
SPECIFICATIONS Span: 32 ft. 2 in. Length: 24 ft. 10 in. Height: 9 ft. 2 in. Weight: 2,717 lbs. loaded Armament: None Engine: Lycoming R-680 of 220 hp.. Cost: $11,000
PERFORMANCE Maximum speed: 125 mph. Cruising speed: 104 mph. Range: 450 miles Service Ceiling: 14,000 ft.
