Baden major bags eight Jap planes
Beat accomplished in only 20 minutes
(SHS) – It took Maj. George C. Axtell Jr. of Baden nearly five years to get into action. But he made up for it when he did get there.
In his first 20 minutes of combat near Okinawa Monday night, he became an ace by shooting down five enemy planes, war front dispatches revealed.
In addition, the 24-year-old Marine fighter pilot damaged three other Jap planes which may have gone down.
A son of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Axtell of Baden, he graduated from Ambridge High School and attended the University of Alabama before entering service in 1940.
He was seriously injured in a plane collision in 1942, but fell in the sea and was rescued. He went overseas last summer, but only got into action this spring.