Talk:Jerry Yellin
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Last Dogfight claim
editCaptain Yellin was an inspiring representative of his friends and the entire wartime Army Air Forces. But "the last fighter pilot" was an assumption based on incomplete information. He did not participate in the last combat of WW II. Yellin's mission was August 14, the next to last day of hostilities (though a US recon flight was intercepted on the 18th.)
Dr. Frank Olynyk's encyclopedic compilation, US Aerial Victory Credits of WW II, Pacific Theater" was privately published in 1985 and is more complete and more detailed than the 1980s USAF survey. Olynyk shows 18 victories credited to 15 pilots on August 14, 1945. None on the 15th, the last day of hostilities.
For reference: Capt. Yellin's aerial claims were a Zero shared and a probable on May 29, and a Jack damaged on July 8.
Also, we might consider NPOV in describing him as "an exceptional pilot." It would be more objective to say he became an experienced pilot."
U.S. and British naval aviators fought the last dogfights of the war on August 15. Check Samuel Eliot Morison's History of US Naval Operations in WW II, Vol. XIV, and other volumes covering the VJ-Day period.
BTillman, 13 March 2019. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8800:2B80:255F:61C3:A26D:B9B3:D908 (talk) 21:08, 13 March 2019 (UTC)