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Posted on Mon, Mar. 23, 2009

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Combat flying ace had roots in state

The Wichita Eagle

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

He was a Kansan who simply loved to fly.

In World War II, Col. David C. Schilling flew 132 combat missions and was credited with shooting down 23 German planes.

To shoot down five enemy planes qualifies one as a flying ace.

Schilling was an ace four times over.

He had nearly every decoration awarded by the militaries of the United States, Great Britain, France and Belgium and was promoted to a full colonel by the time he was 25 years old.

Within a decade following the war, Schilling was easily recognized as one of the nation's top airmen.

He pioneered long-distance jet operations during the Cold War.

He flew a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the first operational jet fighter plane used by the United States Army Air Forces.

Schilling and the planes he commanded ushered in the nation's jet age.

Kansans wanting to honor him renamed the Smoky Hill Air Force Base, two miles southwest of Salina, after him. The base retained his name until it closed in 1967.

Although his flying career lasted less than two decades, it was legendary.

Before the United States entered World War II, Schilling had enlisted as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

The 22-year-old native of Leavenworth was awarded his pilot wings on May 12, 1940.

During World War II, Schilling served with the 56th Fighter Group in Europe, where he commanded the 62nd Fighter Squadron from January to October 1943.

He became the group's executive officer from August 1943 to August 1944. He served as commander from August 1944 until January 1945.

All the time, he was flying.

As a fighter pilot, his highest scoring day was Dec. 23, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, when he downed three Messerschmitt Bf-109s and two Focke-Wolfe Fw-190s in a dogfight with more than 100 German fighters.

After the war, Schilling again commanded the 56th FG, where he pioneered long-distance ferrying tactics to fly fighter aircraft to Europe from the United States. He also pioneered flying fighter planes from the United States to the Far East over the Pacific Ocean.

He won the Harmon International Trophy, one of the most revered accomplishments in aviation, twice.

In 1950, when he received the award for the first time, President Harry Truman said:

"I congratulate the Air Force, and I congratulate you on the success you have had in getting a jet across the Atlantic for the first time without a stop -- something very fine for the welfare of the country and the world, I think."

On Aug. 14, 1956, Schilling was killed when the car he was driving struck a bridge on a two-lane country road near Mildenhall, England. He was 37.

The Air Force flying ace received full military honors and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.