Pilot featured in ‘The War’ dies

[unhappycamper]

Quentin Aanenson, a World War II fighter pilot whose documentary on his experiences helped inspire the Ken Burns film "The War," died Dec. 28 at age 87.


Pilot featured in ‘The War’ dies
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 30, 2008 17:15:13 EST

BETHESDA, Md. — Quentin C. Aanenson, a fighter pilot whose wartime experiences helped millions of television viewers understand World War II, has died.

A subject of Ken Burns’ documentary “The War” and the producer of his own film a decade earlier, Aanenson died Sunday of cancer at his home in Bethesda, his son, Jerry said. He was 87.

“He lived a magnificent life,” Jerry Aanenson said. “He said if he had a chance to be 15 again, he wouldn’t take it.”

The native of Luverne, Minn., flew 75 combat missions in Europe as a captain in P-47 Thunderbolt fighters. His first was a bombing run on German positions in France on D-Day, before Allied troops landed there, according to a biography posted on the PBS Web site.

He had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942 and would fly mostly with the 391st Fighter Squadron of the 366th Fighter Group, according to his Web site.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_aanenson_obit_122908/%2e