Against the Odds: The Courage, Combat, and Sacrifice of WWII Ace Jack A. Bade

Against the Odds: The Courage, Combat, and Sacrifice of WWII Ace Jack A. Bade

I have been learning about some of the people who served during the Wars, and I wanted to tell you a little about Jack A. Bade. 

He was born on the 9th of October 1920 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was the only child of Charles and Gladys Bade. The family moved to Elk River, when he was still a baby, where he grew up. After he finished high school in 1938, he went to the University of Minnesota and studied engineering. For a little while he worked for Honeywell, but the growing world tensions of the early 1940s would change everything.

On the 5th of January 1942, he enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the United States Army Air Forces. By the 26th of July 1942, he had earned his pilot wings and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Later that same year, after taking advanced training, he was sent to the Solomon Islands as a P-40 Warhawk pilot with the 44th Fighter Squadron of the 18th Fighter Group.

On the 4th of February 1943, he achieved his first aerial victory. And just days later, on the 13th of February, he took part in an escort mission near the Shortland-Kahili area. During the engagement, he shot down an attacking fighter but was then jumped by multiple enemy aircraft. His plane was damaged, his guns jammed, and he suffered a serious head wound. But despite all of this, he managed to fly towards a group of enemy fighters threatening unescorted American dive bombers and repeatedly made aggressive passes to draw them away. His actions forced the attackers to break off, and for this he received the Distinguished Service Cross.

After he recovered, he returned to combat. In June 1943 he scored further victories, and on the 30th of June he destroyed a floatplane near Rendova Island, becoming a flying ace. During the war he flew eighty-five missions, claiming five confirmed victories and one probable. He then returned to the United States, served as an instructor, and worked on aircraft testing before leaving military service in 1946 as a major.

He married Geraldine Davis in 1945, and after the war became a civilian test pilot. In 1949 he survived a high-speed crash after bailing out, continuing his work despite the dangers. On the 2nd of May 1963, while test flying an F-105 at supersonic speed over the Catskill Mountains, his aircraft collided with another jet. He was sadly killed in the accident. He was only 42 years old.