475th's Aces
Captain Frederick F. Champlin
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| Born in Oneida, New York on 30 October 1918, Frederic Fay
Champlin enlisted in the U.S. Army on 28 September 1940. Assigned to the 209th Coast
Artillery at Camp Stewart, Georgia, after the attack on Pearl Harbor he transferred
to the Aviation Cadet program. Graduating at William's Field, Arizona on 12 April
1943, three months later he was sent to the Southwest Pacific where he joined the
431st Fighter Group in Brisbane, Australia. Lieutenant Champlin scored his first victory on 28 September, downing a Zeke near Wewak, and on 2 November was credited with a double, Two Zekes, near Rabaul. He finished his first combat tour with the destruction of a Val on 26 December 1943 over Cape Gloucester. Champlin, now a captain, became an ace on 12 November 1944 when he shot down a Lily bomber and one of two escorting Oscars over Leyte Gulf. He completed his scoring with two Zekes and an Oscar the following month. He returned to the United States in 1945 and was released from the service in November 1945. In August 1950 Champlin was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. After retraining in jet aircraft he was assigned to the 7th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 49th Fighter-Bomber Group, flying F-80s and later F-84s out of K-29 in Korea, adding 100 more combat missions to his previous 175 flown in World War II. During the Vietnam War, Champlin commanded the 620th Tactical Control Squadron, the largest radar control unit for all Allied aircraft in Vietnam. He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in September 1974. A victim of crippling arthritis for many years, he died in Marietta, Georgia on 7 March 1995. |
