I could not claim them because I was not supposed to be flying in combat.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
They forbade me from flying, despite all my protests and arguments. After being once in space, I was desperately keen to go back there. But it didn't happen.
But I felt it necessary to be part of the war effort and I enlisted in the Navy to be a flyer.
I have never once claimed that I have a Combat Action Badge. I have never claimed that I have a Purple Heart. What I have claimed is that I have served in a combat zone.
Obviously I was challenged by becoming a Naval aviator, by landing aboard aircraft carriers and so on.
I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.
I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.
And I fly planes all the time. And helicopters.
And shortly after that, when I try to get access to those soldiers, to ask them what in the world was going on, I was told that they did not work for me and I had no right to have access to any one of them.
I went into the Air Corps from 1943 through 1945.
When I was picked to fly the X-1, it was my duty to fly it, and I did.