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--> --> Slain World War II pilot to be given high honor The Associated Press ROSEBURG - Maj. Gen. Marion Carl, the World War II flying ace who was killed by a 19-year-old drifter in 1998, will be inducted Saturday into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. During his 35 years of military service, Carl was in combat in Midway, Guadalcanal, post-war Korea and Vietnam. He shot down 18 enemy aircraft, flew U-2 reconnaissance missions over China and established altitude and speed records. "It's probably one of the highest honors a person in that field can attain," said Edna Carl, his widow. "It's like the baseball, football and hockey halls of fame, all of them. He's part of a chosen few." Carl was born in Hubbard and graduated from Oregon State University in 1938. He was 82 when he was shot protecting his wife from Jesse Fanus, 19, who had broken into the Carls' home in Glide. Fanus is on Death Row at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Carl was one of the nation's most highly decorated World War II heroes. He shot down two Japanese planes during the Battle of Midway and downed 11 enemy aircraft in the battle for Guadalcanal, making him the first Marine ace. He finished the war with 18.5 kills. As a test pilot, he set a world speed record of 651 miles per hour in a D558-1 Douglas Skystreak jet in 1947 at what is now Edwards Air Force Base in California. Carl's record was shattered two months later when Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at 700 mph in a Bell X-1 rocketplane. "He would take a plane up and push it to the limit, to see what it could do," Edna Carl said. Carl went on to set an altitude record of 83,235 feet in a Douglas Skyrocket in 1953. His last military assignment was as inspector general of the Marine Corps. During his career, he was awarded two Navy Crosses, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Legion of Merits, 14 air medals and the Octave Chanute Award for notable contributions to aeronautical sciences. In 1986, he was the first living Marine to be enshrined in the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor. A year later he became the first living Marine to be enshrined in the Navy Carrier Aviation Test Pilots Hall of Honor. Despite those honors, Carl wasn't one to boast. "Getting my husband to talk about what he did was like getting taffy off a pulling machine when it was stuck," Edna Carl said. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing