Robin Olds was a hard drinking, hard working man who led from the front in a way that inspired his men to become a great fighting force. He only became frustrated when he saw mistakes being made by those above him who should have known better and he went out of his way to make his feelings known. He defined what it meant to be a fighter pilot, not only in the air but on the ground with the stunningly beautiful Hollywood actress, Ella Raines, the first of his 4 wives.

The court-martial of General William “Billy” Mitchell 1925

West Point students

A P-38 Lightning

A digital representation of SCAT II

A Bf109

Olds and his P51 Mustang SCAT VI

A P80 Shooting Star

The Gloster Meteor

An F86 Sabre of the 71st, Hat in the Ring Sqn

The F4 Phantom

Robin Olds completes his 100th combat mission

Robin Olds in Vietnam after his 4th Mig kill

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to those images in the Public Domain, the Bundesarchive, the USAF, Digital Combat Simulator, Ruffneck88, USAF National Museum and RuthAS.