Clarence E.“Bud” Anderson
Clarence Emil “Bud” Anderson was born in Oakland, California, and grew up on a farm. He was commissioned in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a pilot in the fall of 1942, and went on to fly two combat tours with the 363rd Fighter Squadron of the famed 357th Fighter Group in England. Bud, flying his faithful P-51D Mustang, Old Crow, flew more than 100 missions and scored 16 and 1/4 air combat victories. He started the war as a second lieutenant and returned to the States in 1945 with the rank of major. After the war, Bud was a test pilot first at Wright Field, and then at Edwards Air Force Base, where he served as chief of flight test operations. After a stint at the Pentagon, he commanded an F-105 fighter wing in Vietnam before retiring as a colonel in 1972 with more than two dozen decorations to his name. Throughout his storied career, Bud has logged more than 7,000 hours of flying time and flown more than 100 different types of aircraft. Bud is a volunteer with EAA Warbirds of America where he appears annually in the Warbirds in Review program during EAA® AirVenture® Oshkosh™. His presentations are always among the most popular of all Warbirds in Review sessions.