48 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022
Philippines while he attempted to get a
slot in the Aviation Cadet Program. The
fall of the Philippines would preclude
transfer to that nation. During 1941, he
married Pearl Brown, whose nickname
was Butch. They would eventually have
three children.
Sadly, his wish to become a pilot
was not to be. Although he entered the
Aviation Cadets in 1943, he was selected
for navigator training instead. On 18
September 1944, he was commissioned
as a second lieutenant with navigator’s
wings and assigned to the 448th Bomb
Group at RAF Seething (USAAF Station
146) in England beginning in January- He would complete an impressive
60 combat missions on lumbering B-24
Liberators.
McConnell decided to stay in the
post-war military and he kept petitioning
for pilot training. Even though he was
getting to be a bit too old for that role,
he was accepted as an Aviation Cadet in - He completed his pilot training
at Williams AFB in Arizona and that
is where he received his wings on 25
February 1948. From that point, he served
with various fighter squadrons in the USA
and gained experience on a variety of
aircraft including the F-80 and F-84.
When communist forces poured
into South Korea on 25 June 1950,
McConnell immediately requested a
combat assignment but that also seemed
to be outside of his grasp. McConnell
was used to frustration and bureaucracy
and he kept petitioning for a combat
slot. It wasn’t until September 1952 that
he was assigned to the 39th Fighter-
Interceptor Squadron, 51st Fighter-
Interceptor Wing, in Korea where he
would fly the aircraft that he enjoyed the
most — the North American F-86E/F-
86F Sabre. It was during this time
period that McConnell’s fellow pilots
discovered that Joe
had exceptional
eyesight but
he did not
aviator Doug Matthews is making
sure that McConnell and his exploits
are becoming better known to a new
generation of Americans.JOSEPH McCONNELL
Born in New Hampshire during
January 1922, Joseph Christopher
McConnell Jr. grew up like many
smalltown American children with his
life revolving around school and sports.
As a teenager, he had a keen interest in
world events and watched as Germany
invaded Poland on 1 September 1939
with the war soon spreading through the
rest of Europe and on to England. He
was enthralled listening to radio accounts
of the Battle of Britain as the RAF fought
the Luftwaffe to stave off an invasion of
the island nation. On 15 October 1940,
he joined the US Army after turning 18.
He wanted to become a pilot but was
put in the Army Medical Corps and was
being prepared for transfer to thein many ways) out of the sky but all that
changed when Russian pilots began
secretly flying the MiGs. Many of the
Russians were combat-hardened aviators
from WWII but then so were many of
the Americans. At the end of hostilities,
Sabre pilots claimed 792 MiGs for the
loss of 78 F-86s. During the Korean War,
41 American pilots became aces and all
but one flew Sabres. That brings us to
the focal point of our story — Joseph
McConnell, a Sabre pilot that destroyed
16 MiGs to become America’s top jet
ace. Yet today McConnell is a “forgotten
hero” but veteran
Classic photograph
of Capt. Joseph
McConnell, America’s
top-ranking jet ace
with his Sabre.Flight jacket patch for the 51st Fighter-
Interceptor Group.Captain Joseph McConnell’s F-86E-10-NA
51-2753 Beautious Butch.