Shelby.

This is coolbert:

Until just recently was not aware of this. Thanks to the tip from the recent movie "Ford V. Ferrari".

Yet further the story of another prominent American who stood tall during WW2.

Carroll Shelby.

Famous "American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur".

"Carroll Hall Shelby . . . was an American automotive designer, racing driver, and entrepreneur. Shelby is best known for his involvement with the AC Cobra and Mustang for Ford Motor Company, which he modified during the late 1960s and early 2000s. He established Shelby American in 1962 to manufacture and market performance vehicles . . . As a race car driver, his highlight was as a co-driver of the winning 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans entry."

Carroll Shelby hardly a man to shirk his duty for his country in a time of war. Hardly. His record exemplary.

"After enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps, Shelby began pilot training in November 1941. He graduated with the rank of staff sergeant pilot in September 1942 at Ellington Field. In December 1942 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant after undergoing air students' training, later serving as a flight instructor and test pilot in the Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan and Curtiss AT-9 Jeep. He went on to fly the Douglas B-18 Bolo, the North American B-25 Mitchell, the Douglas A-26 Invader and finally the Boeing B-29 Superfortress at Denver, Colorado, before being discharged following V-J Day"

From my perspective Carroll Shelby in the same league and category as Smokey Yunick. The war time combat aviator who subsequent to the war achieved a marked degree of success and repute as an "American automotive designer . . . entrepreneur". See here about the war time record of Smokey.

THAT DANGER OF WARPLANE INSTRUCTOR HARDLY TOO LET IT BE MINIMIZED.

coolbert.