A Mississippi Fighter Pilot in WWII

About the Book

An autobiographical account that follows the experiences of a small town Mississippi boy in the US Army Air Force during WWII. The narrative, often anecdotal, includes: qualifying for flying school in the US Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor; training to become a pilot and to fly fighter aircraft; combat flying with one of the first three fighter groups escorting bombers in Europe during 1943 and 1944; returning to the United States to train Tuskegee fighter pilots to fly combat aircraft and tactics; the end of the war and its aftermath.

About the Author

Born 16 April 1923 in Jackson, MS, the first son of Ernest E. and Mildred Green Russell. His family lived in many towns in Mississippi and Louisiana, but mainly Hattiesburg and Bay St. Louis, MS. After WWII he attended Mississippi State University where he received the BS and MS degrees in Geology and the Univ. of Tennessee where he received the Ph. D. degree in Geology. At the Univ. of Tennessee he was recalled during the Korean conflict, but did not go overseas. Returned as a research assistant and later was part-time instructor on the staff of the Dept. of Geology at Univ. of Tennessee; in 1955 became a Professor of Geology at Mississippi State univ. where he is presently a Professor Emeritus. He has numerous publications in geology. He was also a geologic consultant. He married the late Allison Evans and they had three boys: Ernest E., Jr., William Evans, and Allison Hardy.