80 Facts About Robin Olds

Robin Olds was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 17 victories in World War II and the Vietnam War.

Robin Olds retired in 1973 as a brigadier general, after 30 years of service.

The son of US Army Air Forces Major General Robert Olds, educated at West Point, and the product of an upbringing in the early years of the US Army Air Corps, Olds epitomized the youthful World War II fighter pilot.

Robin Olds remained in the service as it became the United States Air Force, despite often being at odds with its leadership, and was one of its pioneer jet pilots.

Robin Olds was promoted to brigadier general after returning from Vietnam but did not hold another major command.

Robin Olds had a highly publicized career and life, including marriage to Hollywood actress Ella Raines.

Robin Olds's father was Captain Robert Oldys, an instructor pilot in France during World War I, former aide to Brigadier General Billy Mitchell from 1922 to 1925, and a leading advocate of strategic bombing in the Air Corps.

Robin Olds first flew at the age of eight, in an open cockpit biplane operated by his father.

At the age of 12, Robin Olds made attending the US Military Academy at West Point an objective to accomplish his goals of becoming an officer and a military aviator, as well as playing football.

Robin Olds's father was made commander of the pioneer Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress equipped 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field on March 1,1937, and promoted to lieutenant colonel on March 7.

Robin Olds attended Hampton High School where he was elected president of his class three successive years, and played varsity high school football on a team that won the state championship of Virginia in 1937.

Robin Olds was aggressive, even mean, as a player, and received offers to attend Virginia Military Institute and Dartmouth College on scholarships.

When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Robin Olds attempted to join the Royal Canadian Air Force but was thwarted by his father's refusal to approve his enlistment papers.

Robin Olds completed Millard Prep and applied for admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Robin Olds passed the West Point entrance examination and was accepted into the Class of 1944 on June 1,1940.

Robin Olds entered the academy a month later but after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Olds was sent to the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for flight training.

Robin Olds returned to West Point, hoping to graduate early and see action in the war.

Robin Olds played on the varsity college football team in both 1941 and 1942.

Robin Olds returned to the game and reportedly was cheered by the Navy Third and Fourth Classes, which were assigned as the Army cheering section when wartime travel restrictions prevented the Corps of Cadets from attending.

In 1985 Robin Olds was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Robin Olds developed ambivalent feelings about West Point, admiring its dedication to "Duty, Honor, Country", but disturbed by the tendency of many tactical officers to distort the purpose of its Honor Code.

In March 1943, Robin Olds was braced by an officer upon returning from leave in New York City, and compelled on penalty of an honor violation to admit he had consumed alcohol.

Robin Olds' class was given an abridged second class course of study until January 19,1943, when it began an abridged first class course.

Robin Olds completed primary training in the summer of 1942 at the Spartan School of Aviation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and basic and advanced training at Stewart Field, New York.

Second lieutenant Robin Olds completed fighter pilot training with the 329th Fighter Group, an operational training unit based at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California.

Robin Olds was promoted to first lieutenant on December 1,1943.

Robin Olds insisted his aircraft be waxed to reduce air resistance and helped his maintenance crew carry out their tasks.

Robin Olds turned his flight left and began a ten-minute pursuit in which they climbed to altitude above and behind the Germans.

Just as Robin Olds began firing, both engines of his P-38 quit from fuel exhaustion; in the excitement of the attack he had neglected to switch to his internal fuel tanks.

Robin Olds continued attacking in "dead-stick mode", hitting his target in the fuselage and shooting off part of its engine cowling.

Robin Olds chandelled steeply to the left and I shot some more.

Robin Olds passed right over me and I slipped over in an Immelmann.

Robin Olds made eight claims while flying the P-38 and was originally credited as the top-scoring P-38 pilot of the European Theater of Operations.

On his second transition flight, at the point of touchdown during landing, Robin Olds learned a lesson in "false confidence" when the powerful torque of the single-engined fighter forced him to ground loop after the Mustang veered off the runway.

Robin Olds completed his first combat tour on November 9,1944, accruing 270 hours of combat time and six kills.

Robin Olds was assigned duties as operations officer of the 434th Fighter squadron.

South of Bremen, Robin Olds noticed contrails popping up above a bank of cirrus clouds, of aircraft flying above and to the left of the bombers.

Robin Olds observed a Bf 109 of Sonderkommando Elbe attack the bombers and shoot down a B-24.

Robin Olds pursued the Bf 109 through the formation, and shot it down.

Robin Olds later reflected on the hazards of such missions:.

Apparently resented by many on the staff for his rapid rise in rank and plethora of combat decorations, Robin Olds transferred in February 1946 to the 412th Fighter Group at March Field, California, to fly the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, which began a career-long professional struggle with superiors he viewed as more promotion- than warrior-minded.

Later that same year Robin Olds took second place in the Thompson Trophy Race of the Cleveland National Air Races at Brook Park, Ohio, over the Labor Day weekend.

Robin Olds was assigned to command the 71st Fighter Squadron, which was detached from the 1st FG to the Air Defense Command and based at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport in Pennsylvania.

At first on the command staff of the 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Landstuhl Air Base, West Germany, Robin Olds then commanded its Sabre-equipped 86th Fighter-Interceptor Group from October 8,1955, to August 10,1956.

Robin Olds then was made chief of the Weapons Proficiency Center at Wheelus Air Base, Libya, in charge of all fighter weapons training for the United States Air Forces Europe until July 1958.

Robin Olds had administrative and staff duty assignments at the Pentagon between 1958 and 1962 as the Deputy Chief, Air Defense Division, Headquarters USAF.

James and Robin Olds worked closely together for a year as a command team and developed both a professional and social relationship which was later renewed in combat.

Robin Olds asserted that his superior at Third Air Force attempted to have him court-martialed, but the commander of USAFE, General Gabriel P Disosway, instead authorized his removal from command of the 81st TFW, cancellation of a recommended Legion of Merit award, and transfer to the headquarters of the Ninth Air Force at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.

In September 1966, Robin Olds was tapped to command an McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom wing in Southeast Asia.

Robin Olds rewarded Kirk by granting him a transfer to his command in Thailand in March 1967.

On September 30,1966, Robin Olds took command of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base.

Robin Olds took to the air war over North Vietnam in an F-4C Phantom he nicknamed "Scat XXVII", in keeping with his previous combat aircraft that all carried the "Scat" name.

Robin Olds himself shot down one of the seven, for which he and the other aircrew were awarded Silver Stars.

Robin Olds was awarded a fourth Silver Star for leading a three-aircraft low-level bombing strike on March 30,1967, and the Air Force Cross for an attack on the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi on August 11, one of five awarded to Air Force pilots for that mission.

Robin Olds flew his final combat mission over North Vietnam on September 23,1967.

Robin Olds was known for the extravagantly waxed handlebar moustache he sported in Vietnam.

Robin Olds often lamented the lack of an internal gun in the F-4C he flew during his tour in Vietnam, but would not allow his fighters to be equipped with the gun pods then available.

Robin Olds reasoned that the drag of the pod would both degrade the performance characteristics of the F-4 while not gaining it any advantage against the more maneuverable MiG-17s and MiG-21s, result in unnecessary losses strafing worthless targets, and reduce the number of bombs carried by the Phantoms, the delivery of which was the 8th's primary mission.

Robin Olds served as commandant of cadets for three years and sought to restore morale in the wake of a major cheating scandal.

Robin Olds was promoted to brigadier general on June 1,1968, with seniority dating from May 28.

Robin Olds oversaw the creation of policies, standards, and procedures for Air Force accident prevention programs, and dealt with work safety education, workplace accident investigation and analysis, and safety inspections.

Robin Olds toured USAF bases in Thailand and brought back a blunt assessment.

Robin Olds warned that losses would be severe in any resumption of aerial combat.

Robin Olds recalled that Ryan expressed surprise at this assessment and reflected his disagreement.

Robin Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused and he retired on June 1,1973.

On that date, Colonel Robin Olds led his strike force of eight F-4C aircraft against a key railroad and highway bridge in North Vietnam.

In 1968, Robin Olds received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Robin Olds was briefly a stepbrother of author Gore Vidal after Robin Olds' father married for the fourth time in June 1942, to Nina Gore Auchincloss.

Robin Olds's father died of pneumonia on April 28,1943, after hospitalization for constrictive pericarditis and Libman-Sacks endocarditis, at the age of 46, just prior to Olds' graduation from West Point.

In 1946, while based at March Field, Robin Olds met Hollywood actress Ella Raines on a blind date in Palm Springs.

Robin Olds married Abigail Morgan Sellers Barnett in January 1978, and they divorced after fifteen years of marriage.

Robin Olds was active in public speaking, making 21 events as late in his life as 2005 and 13 in 2006.

John Darrell Sherwood, in his book Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, posits that Robin Olds' heavy drinking hurt his post-Vietnam career.

On July 12,2001, Robin Olds was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest near his home in Steamboat Springs.

Robin Olds, briefly hospitalized during the incident for facial cuts, pleaded guilty in return for charges of weaving and felony vehicular eluding being dropped.

Days later, on July 21,2001, Olds was enshrined at Dayton, Ohio, in the National Aviation Hall of Fame Class of 2001, along with test pilot Joe H Engle, Marine Corps ace Marion E Carl, and Albert Lee Ueltschi.

Robin Olds became the only person enshrined in both the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

In March 2007 Robin Olds was hospitalized in Colorado for complications of Stage 4 prostate cancer.

Robin Olds was honored with a flyover and services at the United States Air Force Academy, where his ashes are housed, on June 30,2007.

Robin Olds is remembered as the Class Exemplar of the Academy Class of 2011, which had begun Basic Cadet Training, the first step towards becoming Air Force officers, two days before Robin Olds' funeral.