Washington D.C. (November 30, 2024): He was a fighter pilot who served in three wars and came home without a scratch. In this photo by Staff Sergeant Emmeline James, retired Colonel Richard Heyman is honored with the British 2024 Swords of Honor by the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation. He received the award for his efforts and contributions during World War II at the recent “Spirit of the Battle of Britain” banquet marking the 80^th anniversary of D-Day. During his 32 years of active-duty service, Colonel Heyman is one of very few aviators who saw action in three wars and came home unscathed.

The Colonel grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces at the tender age of nineteen. He was immediately shipped out to the European theater and assigned to the Eighth Army Air Force based in England. His mission was to escort long-range bombers flying daylight-precision strategic bombing against targets deep into Germany. The Eight Air Forces eventually grew to a strength of more than 200,000 people capable of sending more than 2,000 four-engine bombers and 1,000 fighters on a single mission against enemy targets in Europe. By wars end, the Eighth lost over 26,000 members flying missions in the skies over Germany. Heyman flew approximately 125 missions in his Lockheed P-38 Lightning and, despite numerous close calls, returned home unharmed.

With the onset of the Korean War in 1950, Heyman was recalled to active duty where he found himself flying night bombing runs over North Korea in the A-26 Invader, a twin-engine light bomber. While flying the A-26, Heyman flew between 50 and 75 missions primarily attacking ground targets. He gained theater wide notoriety by downing a North Korean Polikarpov Po-2, a particularly pesky all-weather Soviet built biplane. The Po-2, nicknamed “Bed Check Charlie” by ground troops, carried around five bombs and would attempt to hit what they could, given their ordnance was unguided and dropped at night.

Although extremely slow by modern standards, the plane was an ideal trainer aircraft as well as a low-cost ground attack, aerial reconnaissance, psychological warfare vehicle. These planes would typically attack after midnight to harass U.S. forces, significantly interrupting the sleep of infantry on the ground. On this night, Colonel Heymen tore the canvas-covered biplane to pieces with his six, monstrous .50 caliber machine guns. The Po-2 didn't stand a chance.