Master Sergeant Louis T. ("Soup") Silva, aged 47, who won the Distinguished Service Cross for shooting down at least three Japanese Zeros over Java (TIME, April 20), had long been considered No. 1 anomaly in an Air Force whose combat crews' average age is under 25. After fabulous Gunner Silva's death in the accidental crash of a Flying Fortress in Australia last July, oldsters apparently lost their toe hold in the Air Forces. But last week in London a lean, grizzled, Fortress tailgunner aged 44 turned up: Staff Sergeant Merril W. Gilger, World...
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