Career as a Pilot

18 year old pilot

     When Bush was in his senior year, Bush was accepted into Yale University.  However that very year the news of Pearl Harbor bombing reached him and Bush rushed to sign up 

with the U.S. Navy the day he turned 18, much against his father’s wishes.  After taking flight training he earned his wings and became the youngest U.S navy pilot in WWII.  He was assigned to the torpedo squadron in the Pacific and ran a total of 58 combat missions.  In 1944, September 2^nd, Bush’s aircraft was shot by the Japanese.  Only he and one other crewman escaped the burning plane safety.  Unfortunately the remaining 2 crewmen did not make it.  One’s parachute never opened and the other went down with

the plane.  Bush was stranded on the coasts of Chichi Jima for hours until a U.S. submarine rescued him.  George H.W. Bush was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in WWII.