Captain (Ret.) Jerry Yellin is an Army Air Corps veteran who served between 1941 and 1945. Yellin enlisted two months after Pearl Harbor on his 18th Birthday.
After graduating from Luke Air Field as a fighter pilot in August of 1943, he spent the remainder of the war flying P-40, P-47 and P-51 combat missions in the Pacific with the 78th Fighter Squadron. Yellin was part of the first land based fighter mission over Japan on April 7, 1945 and was the lead on the last mission of the war on August 14, 1945. Although his flying career was short, he witnessed more turmoil than any human being should ever have to witness.
Today, Yellin cares for the new generation of veterans who are battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), by sharing his story of PTSD after witnessing 16 World War II fighter pilots, all his friends, die in battle.