475th's Aces
Captain Vincent T. Elliot
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| Born in Pomona, California on 11 September 1916, Vincent
Thomas Elliot joined the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet in 1942. Graduating
with Class 43-D at Williams Field, Arizona on 12 April 1943, he was assigned to the
329th Fighter Group at Glendale, California for P-38 training. On 10 July he was
transferred to the 475th Fighter Group, then being formed at Ipswich, Australia. Flying with the 431st Fighter Squadron out of Dobodura, New Guinea, Lieutenant Elliott scored his first aerial victory on 13 September 1943, downing a Zeke near Wewak. He destroyed a Val over Oro Bay on 15 October and two days later was credited with a Zeke shot down near Buna Bay. He became an ace on 23 October when he downed a Zeke and a Hamp in an attack on Rabaul. He completed his scoring on 26 December with another double, a Zeke and an Oscar shot down over Cape Gloucester, New Britain while covering the first Allied invasion of that area. After logging 118 combat missions, Elliot returned to the States. He separated from the service following the war and died in Burbank, California on 19 April 1986 |
