Robert Lee Scott, Jr.

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For other persons named Robert Scott, see Robert Scott (disambiguation).

Robert Lee Scott, Jr.
April 12, 1908 - February 27, 2006
Robert Lee Scott Jr., fighter ace and best selling author
Place of birth	Macon, Georgia
Place of death	Macon, Georgia
Allegiance	U.S. Air Force
Years of service	1932-1957
Rank	Brigadier General
Unit	Flying Tigers
Commands	23rd Fighter Group 36th Fighter Bomber Wing Luke Air Force Base
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Silver Star (2) Distinguished Flying Crosses (3)
Other work	author

Robert Lee Scott Jr. (April 12, 1908 – February 27, 2006) was an officer in the United States Air Force. Scott is best known for his autobiography God is My Co-Pilot about his exploits in World War II with the Flying Tigers and the United States Army Air Forces in China and Burma. The book was eventually made into a film of the same name.

Scott was born in Macon, Georgia. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1932, completed pilot training at Kelly Field, Texas, in October 1933 and was assigned to Mitchel Field, New York Like other air officers, Scott flew the air mail in 1934, commanded a pursuit squadron in Panama and helped instruct other pilots at bases in Texas and California. Scott is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.^[1]^[2]

After World War II began, he joined Task Force Aquila in February 1942 to fly a group of B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to the China Burma India Theater. Anxious to join the mission, which was to bomb Japan from China, he professed to be an experienced B-17 pilot. He actually learned to fly it enroute to Africa. Upon arrival in India, he found the mission had been scrubbed so he became stuck in India when he really wanted to be on the frontline in a cockpit flying combat. Within a month he was executive and operations officer of the Assam-Burma-China Ferry Command, forerunner of the famous Air Transport Command flying Hump from India to China to supply the Flying Tigers. Still anxious to get into combat, he obtained the use of a P-40 actually assigned to the Flying Tigers from Claire Chennault, and began flying missions with the Flying Tigers, flying as a single ship escort for the transports, and flying ground attack missions. During this period, he frequently repainted the propeller spinner in different colors to create the illusion of a much larger fighter force in the area than a single aircraft becoming, in effect, a one-man air force.

In July 1942, at the request of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek Scott was named commander of the newly formed 23rd Fighter Group, formed by General Claire Chennault when the Flying Tigers were inducted into the USAAF. Popular accounts stated that Scott inherited command of the Flying Tigers which actually disbanded that same month. The 23rd later become part of the 14th Air Force.

Colonel Scott flew 388 combat missions in 925 hours from July 1942 to October 1943, shooting down 13 Japanese aircraft to become one of America's earliest fighter aces of the war.

For his combat record against the enemy, Scott received two Silver Stars, three Distinguished Flying Crosses and three Air Medals, and was ordered back to the U.S. in October 1943 as deputy for operations in the School of Applied Tactics at Orlando, Florida.

He returned to China in 1944 to fly fighter aircraft equipped with experimental rockets directed against Japanese supply locomotives in eastern China. He then went to Okinawa to direct the same type of strikes against enemy shipping as the war ended.

Scott then returned to the U.S. for staff duty in Washington, D.C. and other stations until the period of 1947-1949 when he commanded the Jet Fighter School at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona. In 1951, he went to West Germany as commanding officer of the 36th Fighter Bomber Wing at Fürstenfeldbruck.

Scott graduated from the National War College in 1954 and was assigned to Plans at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and then to the position of director of information under the Secretary of the Air Force. In October 1956 he went to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, as base commanding officer.

Scott retired from the United States Air Force as a Brigadier General on September 30, 1957, and remained in Arizona until the 1980s. He then lived in Macon, Georgia, until his death in 2006. General Scott wrote about a dozen books including God Is My Copilot and Boring a Hole in the Sky.

Scott continued to be active well into his retirement. In 1984, he flew an F-16 Falcon jet fighter, and in 1995 an F-15 Eagle. On his eighty-ninth birthday, in 1997, he flew in a B-1B Lancer bomber. During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, Scott carried the Olympic Flame along a section of Georgia Highway 247 named in his honor.