HARRISON (AP) Col. David Fitton has enjoyed life to the fullest for 88 years.
Fitton, a highly decorated Air Force pilot, has lived the majority of his life in Harrison, away from the military. He was born here on Aug. 28, 1920, and graduated from Harrison High School, then went to college at the Citadel for a year, followed by two years at the University of Arkansas before he was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
He graduated from West Point and received his Army commission in 1944. When the Air Force was created from the Army Air Force in 1947, Fitton became part of the new service.
From his time in the Air Force to his time with friends and family, Fitton says, he has enjoyed every bit of it.
"I can't remember the last time I had a bad day," Fitton said.
The military is an honorable job, but the colonel doesn't reflect on it as a job.
"I consider work doing something I don't like to do, but I don't know what that is," Fitton said.
For Fitton, life has been about sticking to the military and those friends and family.
"If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken up another vocation," Fitton said with a smile.
Considering his track record, the Air Force might be glad that he didn't. Fitton has been awarded more than 20 various Air Force medals, including the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal twice, the Air Force Commendation Medal three times, and the Outstanding Unit Award, among countless others.
Fitton's 30 years in the military have spawned many interesting stories about life in the Air Force and the pilots that he came to know as friends. Fitton began his career as a pilot flying the P-47 on fighter strikes from Japan to Iwo Jima during World War II alongside friends Bill Fullilove and George Maxon. The group painted logos of cartoon characters on their planes, and Fitton's was one of the three nephews of Donald Duck, Huey.
Fitton has many photos of times with those friends at the base in Japan, where a few of Fitton's stories came to be. Fitton and his friends, along with a few other men, were basically living in a tent while stationed in Japan. The men received whiskey every month from the service and saved it, later using it as barter to pay for lumber which the group used to build a small house.
"We built a house out of whiskey," Fitton said.
Of course there are memories of all of his involvement in the Air Force. In November of 1950, Fitton and the rest of the Fourth Fighter Group was selected to depart for Korea and flew 77 missions before returning to the U.S.
Fitton also remembers small North Korean planes that would fly through the base at night dropping just a couple of bombs. The bombs would cause minimal damage, but damage none the less. Fitton has a photograph of one of their planes that was demolished from one of the attacks.
"They would send a small plane, maybe a (Piper) Cub, and it would just drop maybe two bombs," Fitton said.
The routine drops became known as "Bed Check Charlie."
Fitton himself landed back in Japan awaiting airfield space in Korea. It was there that Fitton became an inventor of sorts, creating a military packing box that folded into a field desk, dubbed "The Fitton Field File."
Fitton began flying fighter missions with the Fourth Fighter Group in Teagu, Korea, after the group transferred from defense at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, with the Japan stop in between. Fitton recalls fighting the Russian MiG planes as an F-86 pilot, eventually in an upgraded model of that plane.
"That's when we really took them down," Fitton said.
Fitton recalls one incident fighting in Korea when he overran a MiG. Fitton dropped his brakes, slowing the plane to catch the MiG, at which point Fitton rolled over the top of it. Fitton looked below and for a split second, the two were staring each other directly in the eyes about 20 feet apart. Fitton broke away and by the time he rolled out, the MiG was out of sight.
It would be a while before Fitton and others realized some of the planes they fought in Korea were actually Russian. Forty years after Fitton graduated from West Point, Fitton and 300 other pilots visited Russia and saw some of the planes they fought against.
"At the time, we had no idea," Fitton said.
At that time, Fitton also wondered whether they were really accomplishing much except destroying the enemy MiGs, but when he looks back, he knows they accomplished their mission of air superiority over the North Koreans and the Chinese. For every F-86 shot down, there were ten destroyed MiGs.
Another of Fitton's unique stories comes from the Philippines. He recalled that he and his wife, Ruth, were flying when the fuel became low and they were forced to land on a beach away from the airstrip. With the plane stuck on the beach, Fitton got some help from some locals who hauled the plane off the beach with an ox. Fitton still has a photograph of the scene in an album of military photos.
In 1969, with the rank of colonel, Fitton went to Vietnam for a year as an adviser to the Vietnam Air Force for personnel and training.
The end of Fitton's lengthy military career landed him back in Harrison, where he has two bricks in the war memorial at the town square.
"I'm not sure how I got two," Fitton said.
