Joe Foss F4F-4 1942 US Marines 1/48 Scale Airplane by Carousel 1

Joe Foss F4F-4 1942 US Marines 1/48 scale Airplane by Carousel 1. Each airplane comes with a history of the pilot. Joe Foss was one of the heroes of Guadalcanal, where America halted Japan's Pacific offensive. After graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1940, Foss enlisted in Marine Aviation. The Marines landed on Guadalcanal (Code name: "Cactus") on 7 August 1942, but for months the Japanese Navy dominated the seas around Guadalcanal and shelled the Marines nightly. Foss and Marine Fighting Squadron 121 arrived in October. Handfuls of Marine F4F-4's and Army P-39 / P-400's — known as the "Cactus Air Force"-- were outnumbered every day by dozens of Japanese attackers flying from Rabaul on New Britain. The F4F-4's on Cactus typically carried a single drop tank under the right wing. Japanese troops attacked the Marine perimeter around Henderson Field, but the Japanese underestimated the fighting spirit of the Marines. Four days after landing on Guadalcanal, Foss experienced his first air combat on 13 October, when he shot down a Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" before three other Zeroes shot up his F4F and forced him to land with a dead engine. Foss gained his fifth victory on 18 October. He did not claim a personal aircraft, but flew several F4F-4's, including '50,' '53,' and '84.' Foss was shot down on 7 November and forced to ditch, but after a night in the ocean he was rescued, and three days later he was back in the air. On 19 November, with 23 victories in six weeks, he was evacuated to Australia with malaria. Partially recovered, Foss returned to Guadalcanal on 1 January 1943 and gained three more victories in January. His final score of 26 was widely publicized, not only because he was the top-scoring American ace at the time, but also because Foss was the first to equal WW1 hero Eddie Rickenbacker's score. President Roosevelt awarded Foss the Medal of Honor on 18 May 1943. In February 1944 Foss returned to combat as commander of VMF-115, flying F4U's on ground attack missions, without adding more aerial victories. After the war, he joined the Air National Guard and served in Korea. He was elected governor of South Dakota in the 1950's. Foss was the first president of the American Football League and played a key role in creating the Super Bowl. He hosted "American Sportsman" on ABC-TV and remained active in civic life into his eighties. Joe Foss died on 1 January 2003 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.