Tom Cruise congratulated and thanked Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams for his bravery in 1952 when he faced seven enemy aircraft and was the sole survivor. Today, E. Royce Williams was awarded the Navy Cross, the highest Navy award for valor.
SAN DIEGO – A U.S. Navy aviator from Escondido who survived — and prevailed — in perhaps the longest aerial dogfight between a lone American fighter pilot and enemy combatants in history will receive the Navy’s highest award for valor today.
Del Toro and Issa are both expected to attend the awards ceremony Friday at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. According to accounts of the mission retold in books and other media, the men were ordered by their commander to retreat to the carrier and establish a protective screen. Three of the pilots succeeded, but Williams soon discovered he had been boxed in by the Soviet fighters.
He blasted four out of the sky and likely scored hits on two others, whose pilots never returned to their base in Vladivostok, according to the book “Red Devils Over the Yalu.”
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