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Zero kills in nine combat missions. Then, on August 13, 1945 — just 48 hours before the war ended — First Lieutenant Oscar Perdomo took off from a tiny island near Okinawa and flew 750 miles into a sky full of Japanese fighters.
The son of a Mexican immigrant who once rode with Pancho Villa found himself outnumbered, outgunned, and further from home than almost any American fighter pilot had ever been. His P-47N Thunderbolt, named "Lil Meaties Meat Chopper" after his infant son, carried eight machine guns and enough fuel for an eight-hour mission over open ocean. When the Japanese finally appeared — over fifty fighters scrambling to meet thirty-eight Thunderbolts — Perdomo dove straight into the fight.
He burned through every last round of ammunition. And then, with empty guns and an armed enemy turning to kill him, he made a decision that no training manual could explain.
What Oscar Perdomo did in those four minutes over Korea earned him a place in the record books that no pilot has touched since. What happened to him after the war is something nobody talks about.
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Zero kills in nine combat missions. Then, on August 13, 1945 — just 48 hours before the war ended — First Lieutenant Oscar Perdomo took off from a tiny island near Okinawa and flew 750 miles into a sky full of Japanese fighters.
The son of a Mexican immigrant who once rode with Pancho Villa found himself outnumbered, outgunned, and further from home than almost any American fighter pilot had ever been. His P-47N Thunderbolt, named "Lil Meaties Meat Chopper" after his infant son, carried eight machine guns and enough fuel for an eight-hour mission over open ocean. When the Japanese finally appeared — over fifty fighters scrambling to meet thirty-eight Thunderbolts — Perdomo dove straight into the fight.
He burned through every last round of ammunition. And then, with empty guns and an armed enemy turning to kill him, he made a decision that no training manual could explain.
What Oscar Perdomo did in those four minutes over Korea earned him a place in the record books that no pilot has touched since. What happened to him after the war is something nobody talks about.
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00:00At 11.23 on the morning of August 13, 1945,
00:041st Lieutenant Oscar Perdomo threw his P-47N Thunderbolt
00:08into a sharp left bank over Keijo, Korea,
00:11spotting five Japanese fighters breaking formation 8,000 feet below.
00:1726 years old, nine combat sorties, zero kills.
00:22The son of a Mexican immigrant who had once ridden with Pancho Villa
00:25was about to change all of that in the next four minutes.
00:30More than 50 Japanese aircraft had scrambled to intercept 38 American Thunderbolts
00:35over what would one day become Seoul.
00:37The Americans were outnumbered.
00:39They were 750 miles from base,
00:42and the war that everybody assumed would drag on for another year
00:46was 48 hours from ending.
00:48No one in either formation knew it yet.
00:51The atomic bombs had already been dropped.
00:54Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9.
00:59Emperor Hirohito was sitting with his war council at that very moment,
01:03deliberating surrender.
01:05But over Korea, Japanese pilots were still airborne.
01:09American pilots were still hunting.
01:12And Oscar Perdomo was diving on the three trailing enemy fighters
01:16with eight .50 caliber machine guns loaded and ready.
01:21His P-47N carried a name stenciled on the nose.
01:25Lil' Meaty's Meat Chopper.
01:28The artwork depicted a baby in a diaper,
01:31chomping a cigar, sporting a derby hat, gripping a rifle.
01:35It was a tribute to his infant son, Kenneth,
01:38waiting back home in Los Angeles.
01:41Perdomo had no way of knowing if he would ever see that boy again.
01:44The mission profile demanded eight hours of flying,
01:481,500 miles round trip,
01:50most of it over open water,
01:52where a single engine failure meant death.
01:55The P-47N had been engineered for exactly this type of mission.
02:00Republic Aviation had redesigned the Thunderbolt
02:03specifically for the Pacific Theater,
02:05fitting wet wings that held 93 gallons of fuel in each wing route.
02:09The aircraft could carry over 1,200 gallons
02:13when fully loaded with external tanks.
02:15It had the range to escort B-29 superfortresses
02:19all the way to Japan and back.
02:21It had the firepower to destroy anything it caught.
02:25Eight Browning machine guns,
02:283,000 rounds of ammunition,
02:30a 2,800-horsepower Pratt & Whitney radial engine
02:34capable of pushing the seven-ton fighter
02:36past 460 miles per hour.
02:40But range and firepower meant nothing
02:43if you could not locate the enemy.
02:45For six weeks, the 507th Fighter Group
02:48had flown sortie after sortie from their base on Ie Shima,
02:52a tiny island 4 miles northwest of Okinawa.
02:55They had escorted bombers.
02:57They had strafed airfields.
02:59They had burned fuel and dropped ordnance
03:01on targets that seldom fired back.
03:03The Japanese were stockpiling their aircraft,
03:06preserving them for the invasion everyone anticipated.
03:10Pilots joked that the enemy had simply run out of planes.
03:14August 13th proved them wrong.
03:17Mission 507-35 had launched 53 thunderbolts at dawn.
03:2215 had turned back due to mechanical failures or navigation errors.
03:27The remaining 38 had droned northwest across the East China Sea,
03:34crossed the Korean coastline,
03:35and were nearing Keijo when radar operators reported contacts.
03:40Lots of contacts.
03:42The Japanese 22nd and 85th Sentai's had scrambled everything available.
03:49Nakajima KI-84 Frank Fighters,
03:53Nakajima KI-43 Oscars,
03:56even a pair of Yokosuka K5Y Willow Trainers that had somehow ended up in the wrong patch of sky.
04:05If you want to see how Perdomo's meat chopper earned its name that morning,
04:09go ahead and hit that like button.
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04:18Back to Perdomo.
04:19He had picked the trailing three fighters from the enemy formation.
04:23Standard tactics.
04:24Hit the rear aircraft first.
04:26The leaders would not realize they were under attack until their wingmen started burning.
04:32Perdomo shoved the throttle forward, felt the thunderbolts surge, and watched the gap close.
04:382,000 yards.
04:391,500.
04:411,000.
04:42At 800 yards, he centered his gun sight on the nearest enemy fighter and squeezed the trigger.
04:49The war was about to end.
04:53Oscar Perdomo was about to become the last pilot in history to down five aircraft in a single day.
05:02And he had exactly four minutes of ammunition left.
05:08The first burst struck the trailing KI-84 exactly where Perdomo had aimed.
05:14Engine cowling.
05:15Cockpit.
05:16The Japanese fighter shuddered, spewed black smoke,
05:20and began a spiral that would end in the Korean countryside 8,000 feet below.
05:25Perdomo did not watch it fall.
05:27He was already shifting his gun sight to the second aircraft.
05:31Nine combat sorties without a single kill.
05:35Six weeks of escort duty, strafing runs, and empty skies.
05:40Now the enemy had finally shown up,
05:43and Oscar Perdomo discovered something about himself.
05:46He was good at this.
05:49Very good.
05:51The KI-84 Frank was Japan's finest fighter in August 1945.
05:57Faster than the Zero,
05:59better armed,
06:01capable of climbing with American aircraft that had ruled the Pacific for two years.
06:06Japanese pilots called it the Gale.
06:09Allied intelligence had classified it as one of the few enemy fighters
06:13that could challenge American air superiority on even terms.
06:17The 22nd and 85th Sentais flying over Korea that morning
06:21had some of Japan's most seasoned pilots at the controls.
06:25None of that mattered when eight .50 caliber machine guns found their target.
06:31Perdomo's second victim tried to break right.
06:33Too slow.
06:35The P-47N weighed nearly 20,000 pounds fully loaded.
06:39It could not turn with a Japanese fighter.
06:42It could not climb as fast.
06:44But it could dive like nothing else in the sky.
06:47And when a Thunderbolt pilot caught an enemy from above and behind,
06:51the mathematics of aerial combat became straightforward.
06:55Speed plus firepower plus surprise equaled destruction.
07:00The second KI-84 absorbed hits across its entire fuselage.
07:06Perdomo saw pieces break away from the aircraft.
07:08A section of wing.
07:10Part of the tail assembly.
07:11Then flames erupted from the fuel tanks,
07:14and the fighter became a fireball tumbling earthward.
07:17Two kills in under 60 seconds.
07:20The third Japanese pilot had seen enough.
07:24He rolled inverted and dove for the deck,
07:26accelerating away from the American who had just killed his wingmen.
07:31Perdomo let him go.
07:33The Thunderbolt had the speed to pursue,
07:35but chasing a single fleeing enemy meant losing sight of the larger battle.
07:39Somewhere in the chaos above Korea,
07:4237 other American pilots were engaged with 50-plus Japanese aircraft.
07:48Perdomo needed to rejoin his squadron.
07:50He pulled the P-47N into a climbing turn,
07:54scanning the sky for the distinctive silhouettes of friendly Thunderbolts.
07:58The morning sun made identification difficult.
08:01Aircraft twisted and dove in every direction.
08:04Smoke trails traced the paths of damaged machines.
08:08At least three parachutes floated below,
08:11though Perdomo could not tell whether they carried American or Japanese pilots.
08:15The fuel gauge reflected the mission clock ticking.
08:19Eight hours total flight time.
08:21Every minute of combat consumed fuel at three times the cruise rate.
08:27The external tanks had been jettisoned before the engagement.
08:31Now Perdomo was running on internal fuel only,
08:34and the return flight to Iashima would take nearly four hours.
08:39Mathematics again.
08:40Simple and unforgiving.
08:43He spotted movement at 800 feet.
08:46Two aircraft flying in close formation, heading northeast.
08:50Biplanes.
08:52Perdomo blinked, unsure what he was seeing.
08:55The silhouettes belonged to training aircraft, not combat fighters.
09:00Yokosuka K5Y Willows.
09:02Canvas-covered relics from another era.
09:05What they were doing in the middle of an air battle over Korea made no tactical sense.
09:11It did not matter.
09:12They carried Japanese markings.
09:14They were legitimate targets.
09:17Perdomo rolled the thunderbolt inverted and pulled toward the earth, building speed for the intercept.
09:23The biplanes spotted him coming.
09:26They separated, each pilot choosing a different escape route.
09:30Perdomo picked the closer aircraft and opened fire.
09:34A willow trainer had a maximum speed of 132 miles per hour.
09:40The P-47N was diving at over 400.
09:43The engagement lasted roughly three seconds.
09:47Perdomo watched the biplane catch fire, spiral right, and slam into the ground in a column of black smoke.
09:54His third kill of the morning.
09:56He searched for the second willow, but could not find it.
09:59The pilot had escaped into a cloud bank, or simply vanished against the terrain below.
10:06Perdomo pulled up, regaining altitude, and checked his ammunition counters.
10:10The numbers had dropped considerably.
10:13Three kills had consumed nearly half his rounds.
10:16The meat chopper still had teeth, but they were getting shorter.
10:21He climbed above the clouds, searching for friendly aircraft.
10:25What he found instead were four Japanese fighters waiting in ambush.
10:30Four Nakajima Ki-84 Franks held the altitude advantage.
10:35They had spotted the American thunderbolt climbing through the clouds.
10:38They had positioned themselves perfectly.
10:41Sun at their backs.
10:43Speed building.
10:44The textbook bounce that had killed hundreds of Allied pilots across the Pacific.
10:50Perdomo noticed them at the last possible moment.
10:53Four shapes plunging out of the glare, growing larger with terrifying speed.
10:59He had perhaps two seconds to react.
11:02Two seconds to make a decision that would determine whether his son Kenneth ever saw his father again.
11:09He did not try to run.
11:11Running from a diving fighter meant absorbing hits in the engine or the cockpit.
11:16The P-47N could withstand tremendous punishment, but not from four aircraft firing simultaneously.
11:23Instead, Perdomo did something that defied every instinct a pilot possessed.
11:29He turned into the attack.
11:32The maneuver caught the Japanese formation off guard.
11:34They had expected the American to dive or break away.
11:39Instead, the thunderbolt was climbing toward them, nose high, speed bleeding off.
11:44For a brief moment, all four Ki-84 pilots had to adjust their aim.
11:50That moment was enough.
11:53Perdomo rolled the P-47N onto its back and pulled hard, reversing direction while the Japanese fighters overshot.
11:59Their diving speed carried them past and below, exactly as he had intended.
12:06Now the geometry had changed.
12:08The hunters had become targets.
12:11He selected the trailing aircraft and opened fire.
12:14The Ki-84 pilot never saw the tracers coming.
12:1850 caliber rounds ripped through the engine cowling, and the Japanese fighter exploded in a ball of orange flame.
12:26Four kills.
12:27Oscar Perdomo had just become an ace.
12:32Not over months of combat.
12:34Not through dozens of missions.
12:36In a single engagement lasting less than five minutes.
12:40The remaining three Ki-84s scattered.
12:43One dove for the deck.
12:46One climbed toward the clouds.
12:48The third attempted to circle back for another pass.
12:52Perdomo ignored them all.
12:55His ammunition counters showed critically low numbers.
12:59Perhaps 30 seconds of trigger time remained.
13:01He needed to locate his squadron and begin the long flight home.
13:06The sky over Keijo had descended into chaos.
13:09Smoke columns climbed from at least a dozen crash sites.
13:13Aircrafts circled at every altitude.
13:15Some fighting.
13:16Others simply trying to survive.
13:19Perdomo spotted a pair of P-47Ns at 3,000 feet.
13:22Their distinctive paddle blade propellers glinting in the sun.
13:26Friendlies.
13:27He banked toward them.
13:29Then he saw what they were dealing with.
13:31A single Ki-84 had latched onto the tail of one Thunderbolt and refused to let go.
13:37The American pilot was jinking hard, trying to shake his pursuer.
13:41But the Japanese fighter matched every move.
13:44The second P-47N was trying to help.
13:47But the angles were wrong.
13:48Every time the wingman lined up a shot, his squadron mate flew into the line of fire.
13:54Perdomo pushed the throttle to full power and dove toward the engagement.
13:58The meat chopper had perhaps 20 seconds of ammunition remaining.
14:02Maybe less.
14:03It would have to be enough.
14:05He came in from above and behind, the same attack profile that had worked four times already.
14:12The Ki-84 pilot was focused entirely on his target, watching the American Thunderbolt fill his gun sight, waiting for
14:19the perfect moment to fire.
14:21He never checked his six o'clock.
14:23He never saw Perdomo diving toward him at 400 miles per hour.
14:30Perdomo pressed the trigger and held it down.
14:32Tracers streaked across the sky, converging on the Japanese fighter.
14:37Hits sparkled along the fuselage.
14:40The Ki-84 shuddered.
14:42Smoke began streaming from the engine.
14:45Then the guns went silent.
14:47Not a gradual slowdown.
14:49Not a few final rounds.
14:52Complete silence.
14:54All eight Browning machine guns had run dry simultaneously.
14:593,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition, enough firepower to level a small building, had been spent in less than
15:08six minutes of combat.
15:10The Ki-84 was damaged, but still airborne.
15:14Smoke trailed from its engine, but the aircraft remained under control.
15:19The Japanese pilot, suddenly aware he was under attack from a new direction, broke off his pursuit of the American
15:25Thunderbolt and turned toward Perdomo.
15:28Oscar Perdomo was now 750 miles from home, alone in hostile airspace, with a wounded enemy fighter turning to kill
15:36him, and exactly zero rounds of ammunition remaining.
15:39Most pilots would have run.
15:41The mathematics demanded it.
15:42An unarmed fighter against a damaged but still dangerous enemy represented a calculation with only one rational answer.
15:50Dive for the deck.
15:51Use the Thunderbolt's superior speed.
15:54Put as much distance as possible between yourself and the threat.
15:57Return to base.
15:59Live to fight another day.
16:01Oscar Perdomo did not run.
16:04The Ki-84 completed its turn and aimed its nose at the American Thunderbolt.
16:09The Japanese pilot could see the distinctive checkered cowling of the 507th Fighter Group.
16:14He could not know that the aircraft before him had expended every round of ammunition.
16:19From his perspective, this was simply another American who needed killing.
16:24Perdomo watched the enemy fighter stabilize and begin its attack run.
16:29Smoke still streamed from the damaged engine, but the aircraft was flying.
16:34The Japanese pilot had guns.
16:36Perdomo did not.
16:37The next 60 seconds would be decided entirely by skill, nerve, and the willingness to die.
16:44He turned toward the Ki-84.
16:47The maneuver made no tactical sense.
16:50An unarmed aircraft charging an armed enemy violated every principle of aerial combat.
16:56But Perdomo understood something that the mathematics could not account for.
17:00The Japanese pilot did not know the Thunderbolt's guns were empty.
17:04All he could see was an American fighter coming straight at him, nose to nose, at a combined closing speed
17:11of nearly 800 miles per hour.
17:18The Ki-84 pilot flinched first.
17:22The Ki-84 pilot flinched first.
17:22With his engine trailing smoke and an apparently armed enemy boring in, he broke right, abandoning his attack run.
17:30Perdomo followed, turning inside the Japanese fighter, maintaining the illusion of an offensive posture.
17:37Every second he kept the enemy on the defensive was a second his squadron mates could use to reach the
17:42fight.
17:43He keyed his radio and called for help.
17:46Somewhere in the chaos over Korea, another P-47N pilot heard the transmission.
17:53An American was in trouble.
17:55Engaged with an enemy, needed assistance.
17:59The response was immediate.
18:02Perdomo continued his deadly dance with the Ki-84.
18:05Turn, counter-turn, dive, climb.
18:10The Thunderbolt's empty guns pointed at the Japanese fighter, again and again, each time forcing the enemy pilot to react
18:18defensively.
18:19The deception could not last forever.
18:22Eventually, the Japanese pilot would notice that no tracers were coming.
18:26Eventually, he would understand that his opponent was bluffing with an empty hand.
18:31The help arrived before that moment came.
18:34A second P-47N dropped out of the clouds at full power.
18:38The pilot had seen the engagement, read the geometry, and positioned himself for a clean shot.
18:45The Ki-84, focused entirely on the Thunderbolt that had been hounding it for the past 90 seconds, never saw
18:52the new threat descending from above.
18:55Eight .50 caliber machine guns opened fire simultaneously.
19:00The Japanese fighter came apart under the concentrated barrage.
19:05Wings separated from fuselage.
19:08The engine tore free and tumbled earthward.
19:12What remained of the aircraft scattered across the Korean sky in a cloud of burning wreckage.
19:18Five Kills
19:20Oscar Perdomo had just achieved something that fewer than 100 American pilots accomplished during the entire war.
19:28He had become an ace in a single day.
19:32The last pilot in United States history to earn that distinction.
19:37The designation would not become official until intelligence officers reviewed his gun camera footage back on Ieshima.
19:44The film would confirm that his first four kills were actually Ki-84 Franks, not the Ki-43 Oscars that
19:54initial reports had suggested.
19:56It would document the biplane trainer, the absurd willow that had strayed into the wrong battle.
20:01And it would show the final engagement, the damaged Ki-84 that Perdomo had attacked, pursued, and harassed until his
20:11squadron mate could deliver the killing blow.
20:14All five victories belonged to him.
20:16The gun camera did not lie.
20:19But Oscar Perdomo's war was not over yet.
20:22He was still 750 miles from home.
20:26His fuel gauges showed numbers that demanded immediate attention.
20:30And the sky over Korea still contained Japanese aircraft who very much wanted to kill him.
20:35The morning was only half finished.
20:37The flight home would kill more pilots than enemy fighters ever could.
20:43750 miles of open ocean stretched between Korea and Ieshima.
20:48No landmarks.
20:50No emergency airfields.
20:52No rescue vessels stationed along the route.
20:55A pilot who ran out of fuel or suffered engine failure over the East China Sea had exactly two options.
21:02Ditch in the water and hope for rescue that would probably never come.
21:07Or ride the aircraft down and die on impact.
21:12Perdomo checked his fuel gauges and ran the calculations every Pacific pilot learned to do in his sleep.
21:19Remaining fuel.
21:20Distance to base.
21:22Fuel consumption at cruise power.
21:25The numbers worked, but barely.
21:28Any deviation from the direct route would turn a marginal situation into a fatal one.
21:33The 507th Fighter Group began regrouping over the Korean coastline.
21:40Thunderbolts appeared from every direction, some trailing smoke, others showing visible battle damage.
21:47Squadron leaders conducted radio checks, counting aircraft, identifying who had made it and who had not.
21:53The morning's engagement had scattered the formation across 50 miles of Korean airspace.
22:00Twenty Japanese aircraft had been destroyed by American guns.
22:04The 507th had lost none.
22:07It was the kind of kill ratio that commanders dreamed about.
22:10The kind of victory that earned unit citations and medal recommendations.
22:16But the mission was only half complete.
22:19Every pilot still had to fly home.
22:23Perdomo joined a loose formation of P-47Ns heading southeast toward the coast.
22:28The Thunderbolts cruised at 12,000 feet, high enough to glide toward land if an engine failed,
22:35low enough to conserve fuel.
22:38Chatter on the radio remained minimal.
22:40Pilots monitored their instruments, watched their fuel gauges,
22:44and counted the minutes until Iei Shima appeared on the horizon.
22:48The East China Sea passed beneath them in an endless stretch of gray-blue water.
22:54August heat generated thermals that bounced the heavy fighters unpredictably.
23:00Perdomo trimmed the aircraft for maximum efficiency,
23:02adjusting throttle and mixture to wring every possible mile from his remaining fuel.
23:07The autopilot helped, holding course while he rested his hands and processed what had just happened.
23:13Five kills in one morning.
23:15The number seemed impossible.
23:17Nine missions of empty skies, and then everything had changed in six minutes of concentrated violence.
23:23He could still see the tracers reaching out from his guns,
23:26still see the Japanese fighters catching fire,
23:29still feel the Thunderbolts shudder as 3,000 rounds of ammunition poured through eight machine gun barrels.
23:35The gun camera would confirm everything.
23:38Film did not lie.
23:40Intelligence officers would review the footage frame by frame,
23:43matching each burst of fire to each enemy aircraft destroyed.
23:47The process took days, sometimes weeks.
23:50Until then, Perdomo's claims remained exactly that.
23:54Claims.
23:57Every pilot made them.
23:59Not every pilot could back them up.
24:01Two hours into the return flight, the formation crossed the invisible line where ocean became friendly territory.
24:08Okinawa appeared as a smudge on the southern horizon.
24:12Iyashima lay just beyond, a flat speck of coral and sand that had become home to three fighter groups
24:18and thousands of support personnel.
24:20The island had seen its share of death.
24:23Ernie Pyle, the most famous war correspondent in America, had been killed there four months earlier,
24:29struck by a Japanese machine gun bullet during the invasion.
24:32His grave markers stood near the beach where marines had stormed ashore.
24:36Now the island served as an unsinkable aircraft carrier, launching missions against the Japanese homeland day after day.
24:46Perdomo's fuel gauges showed nearly empty tanks as Iyashima filled his windscreen.
24:51Other pilots in the formation reported similar numbers.
24:55The mission had pushed the P-47N's range to its absolute limit.
25:00Another 50 miles would have meant ditched aircraft and dead pilots drifting in the East China Sea.
25:06The Thunderbolts entered the landing pattern one by one.
25:10Wheels down, flaps extended, final approach over the beach where Ernie Pyle had fallen.
25:17Perdomo touched down on the coral runway and felt the aircraft settle onto its landing gear.
25:22Eight hours and 18 minutes after takeoff, mission 507-35 was complete.
25:28He taxied to the hard stand where his crew chief waited.
25:32The man's eyes went immediately to the gun ports, checking for the carbon residue that indicated combat.
25:38He saw plenty.
25:40Then he looked at Perdomo's face and knew something extraordinary had happened.
25:44The debriefing room filled with pilots, still in their flight suits, still smelling of sweat and aviation fuel and cordite.
25:52Intelligence officers circulated among them, collecting initial reports, asking questions, cross-referencing claims.
26:00Twenty Japanese aircraft destroyed.
26:02The number seemed almost too large to accept.
26:06But 38 pilots had witnessed the battle, and their accounts matched.
26:11Perdomo sat in a metal folding chair and recounted his mourning.
26:15Five enemy aircraft.
26:17Four fighters and one trainer.
26:20The intelligence officer wrote everything down, his pencil moving steadily across the form.
26:25Initial claims would be submitted immediately.
26:28Confirmation would wait for the gun camera footage.
26:32The 507th Fighter Group had entered combat on July 1, 1945.
26:37Six weeks of operations.
26:40Dozens of missions.
26:41And until August 8, they had encountered almost no aerial opposition.
26:45The Japanese had been conserving their aircraft, hoarding their resources, preparing for an invasion that military planners on both sides
26:54expected to cost millions of lives.
26:57August 13th changed the equation entirely.
27:02The 507th had stumbled into the largest concentration of Japanese fighters they would ever encounter.
27:08The result was the most lopsided aerial victory of the Pacific War's final month.
27:15Twenty enemy aircraft destroyed against zero American losses.
27:20The mathematics of that exchange rate would earn the entire group a presidential unit citation.
27:26But the war was ending.
27:28Nobody on Ieshima knew it yet, but the emperor had reached his decision.
27:33Japan would surrender.
27:35The invasion would never happen.
27:37The millions of casualties that planners had grimly anticipated would never materialize.
27:44August 13th, 1945, was one of the last days of aerial combat in World War II.
27:51Oscar Perdomo had become an ace on nearly the final day it was possible to become one.
27:57The gun camera footage reached the intelligence section that evening.
28:01Technicians threaded the film into projectors and watched the morning's combat unfold, frame by frame.
28:08Perdomo's camera had captured everything.
28:11The first KI-84 absorbing hits, catching fire, spiraling down.
28:17The second fighter coming apart under concentrated fire.
28:20The willow trainer burning against the Korean landscape.
28:24The fourth kill.
28:31Perdomo's guns had run dry before the final KI-84 was destroyed.
28:37His gun camera showed the damaged aircraft, showed the pursuit, showed the desperate maneuvering of
28:43an unarmed Thunderbolt chasing an armed enemy.
28:46But the killing burst had come from another pilot's guns.
28:51Intelligence officers debated the credit.
28:54Perdomo had attacked the aircraft.
28:56He had damaged it.
28:57He had pursued it until help arrived.
28:59The other pilot had delivered the fatal blow.
29:02But only because Perdomo had created the opportunity.
29:06Standard procedure awarded credit based on who inflicted the lethal damage.
29:12By that measure, the fifth kill belonged to someone else.
29:16They gave it to Perdomo anyway.
29:18The reasoning was straightforward.
29:20Without his initial attack, the KI-84 would have destroyed the American Thunderbolt it had been chasing.
29:26Without his pursuit, the damaged Japanese fighter would have escaped.
29:31Without his willingness to chase an armed enemy with empty guns, the engagement would never have taken place.
29:38The fifth kill was a team effort, but Oscar Perdomo had made it possible.
29:44Five confirmed victories in a single day.
29:47Ace in a day.
29:49The designation placed him in exclusive company.
29:53Fewer than 50 American pilots had achieved the same feat during the entire war.
29:58Chuck Yeager had done it over Europe.
30:00Pappy Boyington had done it in the Pacific.
30:04Now, Oscar Perdomo's name would join theirs in the record books.
30:09The next morning, August 14th, the 507th prepared for another mission.
30:15Pilots inspected their aircraft.
30:17Crew chiefs loaded ammunition.
30:19Intelligence officers briefed the target.
30:22The war continued because nobody had told them it was over.
30:27Then the radio crackled with news that changed everything.
30:32Emperor Hirohito had announced Japan's surrender.
30:36The war was over.
30:38Oscar Perdomo would never fly another combat mission.
30:41His five kills on August 13th would stand forever as the final Ace in a Day achievement
30:47in United States military history.
30:50The guns fell silent.
30:52The meat chopper had earned its name just in time.
30:56The Distinguished Service Cross arrived with a citation that read like poetry composed by bureaucrats.
31:03Extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.
31:08The second highest award for valor the United States Army could bestow, surpassed only by the Medal of Honor.
31:16Oscar Perdomo, the son of Mexican immigrants, the kid from East Los Angeles who had worked at the
31:22Pacific Milk Crate Company before the war, now stood among the most decorated pilots in American military history.
31:30The air medal with oak leaf cluster followed.
31:33Then the presidential unit citation for the entire 507th fighter group.
31:39The paperwork piled up in folders and filing cabinets.
31:43Official recognition of six minutes of violence over Korea that had changed one man's life forever.
31:50Two days after the surrender announcement, Perdomo witnessed something that few American pilots ever saw.
31:57Japanese aircraft approaching Ieshima, not to attack, not to fight, to surrender.
32:06Mitsubishi G4M Betty bombers painted entirely white, their red rising sun insignias replaced with green crosses.
32:16They carried the first Japanese representatives to coordinate their nation's capitulation.
32:23The same airfield that had launched Perdomo toward his five kills now received the enemy delegation.
32:30He watched the white painted bombers land, watched Japanese officers step out in formal uniforms,
32:38watched the beginning of the end of the war he had fought.
32:41The juxtaposition felt almost impossible to absorb.
32:47Forty-eight hours earlier, he had been killing men who flew aircraft just like these.
32:52Now, those aircraft carried diplomats instead of bombs.
32:57The 507th remained on Ieshima through the fall of 1945.
33:03Occupation duties replaced combat missions.
33:06Pilots flew patrols over a defeated Japan, watching for resistance that never came.
33:12In January 1946, the group transferred to Okinawa.
33:17Four months later, it was deactivated entirely.
33:22Oscar Perdomo's war had ended.
33:24But his flying career continued.
33:27He remained in the Army Air Forces after demobilization,
33:30one of the few wartime pilots retained for peacetime service.
33:34In 1947, the Air Force became an independent branch of the military,
33:39and Perdomo transferred to the new service.
33:42He flew different aircraft now, jets instead of propeller-driven fighters.
33:47The technology had advanced beyond recognition.
33:49But the core skills remained the same.
33:52Stick and rudder.
33:53Eyes outside the cockpit.
33:55The instincts that had kept him alive over Korea.
33:59He left active duty in January 1950, returning to civilian life in Los Angeles.
34:04His son Kenneth was five years old now,
34:07no longer the diapered baby depicted on the nose of Lil Meaty's meat chopper.
34:12Perdomo joined the Air Force Reserve, maintaining his flying credentials,
34:16while building a life outside the military.
34:19The transition seemed complete.
34:21Then, North Korea invaded South Korea, June 1950.
34:27Five years after Perdomo had downed five aircraft over the Korean peninsula,
34:32war returned to the same territory.
34:35The United States mobilized rapidly, recalling reservists, activating units, preparing for a
34:41conflict that would last three years and claim nearly 40,000 American lives.
34:48Captain Oscar Perdomo reported for active duty on June 30, 1950.
34:53The Air Force needed experienced pilots.
34:56The man who had become the last ace in a day over Korea was going back.
35:02He flew F-84 Thunder jets and F-86 Sabres during his second war.
35:08The aircraft carried no nose art, no pictures of babies with cigars and derby hats.
35:14Kenneth was a teenager now, too old for that kind of tribute.
35:19Perdomo flew training missions, qualified new pilots,
35:23helped build the force that would fight communist MiGs over the Yalu River.
35:28In February 1955, his skills saved lives one more time.
35:34Flying a T-33 trainer with a student in the back seat, Perdomo's aircraft developed a severe fuel leak.
35:41Gasoline fumes filled the cockpit, burning his eyes, making it nearly impossible to read his instruments.
35:47Most pilots would have ejected, abandoning the aircraft to save themselves.
35:52Perdomo stayed with the plane, executed a dead-stick landing without engine power,
35:57and brought both himself and his students safely to the ground.
36:01He retired from the Air Force in January 1958 with the rank of major.
36:0720 years of service, two wars, five kills in a single day.
36:12A career that most pilots could only dream about.
36:15The man who would charge Japanese fighters with empty guns finally stopped flying.
36:21Oscar Perdomo settled into civilian life in Los Angeles.
36:25He had survived two wars. He had achieved something that would never be repeated.
36:30He had a wife, a home, and children who knew their father as something more than a name on a
36:37medal citation.
36:39The years passed quietly.
36:42The memories of Korea faded into stories shared at veterans' gatherings.
36:47Details that grew sharper or softer, depending on the audience.
36:52Then, Vietnam took his son.
36:56Specialist 4th Class Chris Mitchell Perdomo served as a door gunner on a UH-1 Iroquois helicopter.
37:03The same boy whose infant face had adorned the nose of Lil Meaty's meat chopper,
37:08the baby with a cigar and derby hat, had grown into a young man who flew into combat just as
37:15his father had done 25 years before.
37:17On May 5, 1970, his helicopter crashed and exploded five miles southwest of Phu Vinh in South Vietnam.
37:28Chris Mitchell Perdomo was one of three crew members killed.
37:32The loss destroyed Oscar Perdomo.
37:36He had survived Japanese fighters.
37:38He had survived empty guns and eight-hour missions over open ocean.
37:42He had survived fuel leaks and dead stake landings and two wars that killed millions.
37:47But he could not survive the death of his son.
37:52The man who had charged armed enemies with an empty aircraft began drinking.
37:57The alcohol consumed him the way flames had consumed those Japanese fighters over Korea.
38:03Major Oscar Francis Perdomo died on March 2, 1976, in Los Angeles.
38:10He was 56 years old.
38:13His family honored his wishes and scattered his ashes over the Pacific Ocean,
38:17the same waters he had crossed so many times during the war.
38:21The last ace in a day returned to the sky one final time.
38:26His achievement remains unique in American military history.
38:30Pilots in the jet age have claimed five kills in a single day,
38:33but none have been confirmed with the certainty that gun camera footage provided in 1945.
38:40Oscar Perdomo stands alone as the last undisputed ace in a day the United States has ever produced.
38:47The record has endured nearly 80 years.
38:50It will likely endure forever.
38:53The commemorative Air Force maintains a flying P-47N Thunderbolt painted to replicate Lil Meaty's meat chopper.
39:01The nose art shows the same baby, the same cigar, the same derby hat.
39:08The aircraft appears at air shows across the country, introducing new generations to the story of a
39:14pilot who downed five enemy aircraft in six minutes and then charged a sixth with empty guns.
39:21His name appears on the memorial wall at the United States Air Force Memorial in Washington.
39:27His personal papers rest in the archives of the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
39:32His Distinguished Service Cross citation remains part of the official record,
39:37documenting extraordinary heroism that bureaucratic language cannot fully convey.
39:43August 13, 1945.
39:4648 hours before the end of the deadliest war in human history.
39:5238 American Thunderbolts against 50 Japanese fighters over Korea.
39:58One pilot from East Los Angeles, the son of a man who had ridden with Pancho Villa,
40:03flying an aircraft named after his infant son.
40:06Five kills.
40:08Zero ammunition remaining.
40:11750 miles from home.
40:14The meat chopper earned its name that morning.
40:17Oscar Perdomo earned his place in history.
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40:39Stories about pilots who charged enemies with empty guns.
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40:47Real people.
40:49Real heroism.
40:50Real sacrifice.
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