World War II Training and mobilization On December 6, 1941, the day before the
attack on Pearl Harbor, Hagerstrom went to
Iowa City and enlisted in the
U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF)
Aviation Cadet program. He was sent to
Fort Des Moines, and was inducted into the USAAF on January 15. He and other new inductees were then sent to
Minter Field in
Bakersfield, California, for paperwork and more physical examinations, and were sent north to
Visalia for primary training on January 23. The class (which wore coveralls and other civilian attire owing to a lack of military uniforms) first trained in
PT-22 Recruits. Hagerstrom's previous flying experience allowed him to undertake an accelerated program before moving back to Minter Field for basic flight training in
BT-13 Valiants. His older brother Robert happened to be in basic flight training at the same time, and they were together for six weeks. After this phase, Hagerstrom and his classmates went to
Luke Field near
Phoenix, Arizona, where he underwent advanced flight training in the
AT-6 Texan. On July 26, 1942, he graduated and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant, receiving his
wings from Brigadier General
Ennis Whitehead. in World War II.|alt=A P-40 Warhawk, a propeller-driven one-seat plane, in flight and they were married on July 25, 1944. Shortly after, Virginia was transferred to
Brownsville, Texas, to train in fighter aircraft, while he was assigned to
Evansville, Indiana, to be a
test pilot for the P-47s being produced at the
Republic Aviation plant there. The couple were reunited when Virginia finished her training and moved to Evansville to serve as a
ferry pilot for the P-47s, delivering them to coastal air bases to be shipped overseas. James was promoted to the rank of
captain in January 1945, and he remained in Evansville until September 6 of that year, when he left the USAAF. Hagerstrom and his now-pregnant wife returned to Waterloo, and he re-applied to
Iowa State Teachers College to complete his studies, the president of the college personally re-enrolling him. In October, the first of the Hagerstroms' eight children was born. Hagerstrom graduated in June 1946 with a
bachelor's degree in economics and subsequently went to
Houston, Texas, to work in the
municipal bonds business. He grew bored of the bonds industry and wanted to keep flying, so he joined the
111th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (111th FBS) of the
Texas Air National Guard, which he and his fellow pilots viewed as the "bottom of the heap". He enjoyed his tenure with the
P-51 Mustang–equipped squadron and was successful, becoming operations officer for the 111th FBS within six months. He flew the P-38 Lightning and P-51 (redesignated as F-51) in the
National Air Races in September 1949; he took sixth place in the
Thompson Trophy race and won a $1,500 prize, flying his F-51 at an average speed of . Hagerstrom was promoted to
major and appointed commander of the 111th FBS in June 1950. In October, the 111th FBS was federalized and ordered into active duty to serve in the
Korean War. Hagerstrom's assignment was at the headquarters of the
Tactical Air Command (TAC) at
Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, where he persuaded the commander to allow him and some other officers to fly a combat tour in Korea. They were allowed to transfer from the Air National Guard into the active-duty
Air Force. Hagerstrom was sent to
Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, where he undertook gunnery training on the jet-powered
F-80 Shooting Star and
F-86 Sabre, taught by
William T. Whisner Jr. He became operations officer of the
4th Fighter-Interceptor Group.
Korean War Preparation and first two victories (1952) Hagerstrom, keen for any edge that would give him the chance to be an ace in two wars, prepared extensively for flying in Korea. He studied
gun sights and intelligence reports on the
MiG-15, and he made metric conversion tables to allow him to patrol altitudes where MiGs commonly flew. He got a pair of
moccasin boots lined with felt and a silk-lined flight suit for winter insulation, and he obtained special half-mirrored sunglasses that allowed him to see twice as
clearly as normal, at the risk of permanently ruining his eyes. The Air Force issued its pilots a standard survival kit for their aircraft, to which he added 30 days' worth of food (including of rice), a camp stove, maps, a
monocular, a radio,
sulfa, and a
sleeping bag he had vacuum-packed into a tin can. He also obtained a
.22 Hornet rifle issued to
Strategic Air Command, because he thought the standard
.45 caliber pistol would be ineffective against patrols with rifles. If he had to bail out over enemy territory, he planned to fight off any patrols searching for him, and then hike a day toward the
Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. According to Hagerstrom, this obsessive preparation helped him control his fear: "the difference between panic and fear is pretty tight, and you can spread that line a bit by having one last chance". nicknamed "MiG Poison" in the Korean War. The reproduction pictured here is on display at
Kadena Air Base in
Okinawa, Japan.|alt=An F-86, a single-seat jet aircraft, on the ground Upon arrival in Korea, Hagerstrom was assigned to the
334th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron of the Fifth Air Force's
18th Fighter-Bomber Wing (18th FBW). At this time, the
4th and
51st Fighter-Interceptor Wings were the only units equipped with F-86 Sabres, but Hagerstrom was able to convince his commander to let him and several other officers fly these aircraft, despite not being in the designated wings. Hagerstrom registered the 18th FBW's first victory of the war on November 21, 1952, about south of the
Yalu River. The MiG pilot Hagerstrom was shooting at ejected just before his plane exploded. Hagerstrom was separated from his wingman and no one witnessed the action, so
Kimpo Air Base group commander
Royal N. Baker refused to confirm it unless he had good film from his
gun camera. This proved unnecessary when Baker confirmed the victory after spotting a piece of the exploded MiG embedded in Hagerstrom's F-86. The engagement earned him a second Distinguished Flying Cross, this time with a
"V" device, for "courage, tenacity, superior tactical skill and marksmanship". On December 24, Hagerstrom led a group of jets that attacked three MiGs in formation just south of the Yalu near the
Sup'ung Dam. Twenty more MiGs arrived from
Manchuria, and Hagerstrom managed to damage three enemy aircraft while being chased as far south as the
Chongchon River. The next day, Hagerstrom was to have the day off for Christmas, but he still wanted more action: "I tried to get some of the men to trade with me—I'm not on the schedule today—but with weather like this, they know there are MiGs up there near the Yalu. No one was willing to trade his mission for my day off." He was able to talk his superiors into giving him a mission, and he ended up getting the only confirmed "kill" of the day when the MiG he was chasing spun out of control at an altitude of , so high that Hagerstrom did not fire for fear of stalling. The pilot ejected, most likely dying of exposure to the temperatures.
Ace status (1953) In January 1953, Hagerstrom was transferred to
Osan Air Base to help the rest of the pilots of the 18th FBW transition from F-51s to F-86s, beginning on January 28. Despite cold weather and a limited number of instructor pilots, the wing's 125 pilots were trained in the F-86 in under a month. On February 3, Hagerstrom was named commander of the
67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, and on February 25 he was part of the 18th FBW's first patrol in Sabre jets. He was chasing two MiGs when he noticed a third attacking another F-86; he engaged and shot it down flying very low over
Mukden, China. Low on fuel, he had just enough to land and park the aircraft back at Osan, and he later received the Distinguished Flying Cross for the third time. On March 13, Hagerstrom and his wingman Elmer N. Dunlap came across two MiGs, the first of which Hagerstrom, by his own account, "shot the daylights out of". He fired at the second until he ran out of ammunition, and the remaining MiG was leaking fuel and its engine had stopped. Hagerstrom told Dunlap to "finish off" the crippled plane, and the MiG's pilot bailed over the enemy's
Antung Airfield. That mission gave Hagerstrom a total of 4.5 victories, just short of the five kills needed for ace status. Knowing that he was likely to be transferred out soon, he became even more determined to get another victory, giving a speech to his men on March 27: Gentlemen, I've been living on coffee. I haven't been sleeping. I've got to do this thing. I'm gonna do it, and if you don't want to go with me, that's fine, I'll understand. We are going to go up there and give it one good college try south of the Yalu, and if we don't scare anything up, I'm going after them today. {{quote box That day, Hagerstrom snuck up behind six MiGs, fired on one, and by "sheer ass luck ... knocked his wing tip off". He kept up the chase, shooting short bursts, until the pilot, Chinese ace
Wang Hai, ejected above his own base. On the way home, Hagerstrom destroyed another MiG, bringing the total to 6.5. He became the war's 28th ace and the first and only from the 18th FBW. After the engagement, he was awarded the
Silver Star for "his outstanding ability and gallantry in the face of enemy opposition". Hagerstrom scored another victory on April 13, when he fired a long burst at a single MiG flying at . The plane burst into flames and went down near the Chongchon River. In early May, he learned that he was to return to the U.S. On his last day in Korea, May 16, he was waiting for a
Military Air Transport Service plane to become available for his flight out to
Tachikawa Airfield in Japan when he got a call from a friend who said he needed four planes in the air. He said, "I got tired of the inaction, so I posted the name 'Sam Kratz' on the flight board and went out as a regular combat officer and not as a squadron commander as on other missions." Hagerstrom took off, still wearing his blue dress uniform instead of a
flight suit, and the flight soon came across the formation of 24 MiGs. He pretended to have communication difficulties to prevent the mission from being recalled because they were heavily outnumbered. When the MiGs turned and headed toward the safety of Chinese airspace, Hagerstrom attacked one of the planes and followed it into a dive, firing short bursts. After his target crashed, he pulled out and the flight and headed back to base, reporting the large number of MiGs. During the
debriefing, his commanding officer interrupted and assured Hagerstrom that he would be on the next
C-54 Skymaster flight out, before he could take another risky flight. He was awarded his eleventh
Air Medal in the form of a second silver
oak leaf cluster for courage during the flight. The mission gave him 8.5 victories for the war in 101 missions.
Attitude toward combat Like many other aces, Hagerstrom had an aggressive attitude toward his missions. In his book
Officers in Flight Suits, historian
John Darrell Sherwood calls this a "flight suit attitude", which he defines as "a sense of self-confidence and pride that verged on arrogance" where "status was based upon flying ability, not degrees, rank, or 'officer' skills". He believes this is why Hagerstrom frequently butted heads with military bureaucrats and never became a general himself. Determined to be at full mental capacity during missions, he never drank, unlike most other pilots, some of whom flew while
hungover or left Korea as
alcoholics. He was critical of pilots who wanted to just complete their requisite 100 missions and avoid conflict and danger; he was twice abandoned by his wingman during a fight. Hagerstrom enjoyed the
adrenaline rush of combat and would put himself at more risk in an effort to shoot down more planes. He would fly into Chinese airspace despite it being forbidden by
United Nations Command, and on one mission he buzzed Antung Airfield by flying near the
speed of sound at an altitude of in an attempt to draw the MiGs into the air because U.S. pilots were not allowed to attack planes on the ground in China. The F-86 bases were near
Seoul, South Korea, which was from where they would patrol in MiG Alley. Getting there used so much fuel that they were supposed to spend only twenty minutes flying around the Yalu in search of MiGs, but Hagerstrom did his own calculations and determined he could make it back to base with of fuel—half of the recommended minimum. He had to set an alarm to remind himself when to head back, but he often went beyond that, once running out of gas just after landing. Unlike all the other American aces, who were in
fighter-interceptor units, Hagerstrom was in a
fighter-bomber squadron but found aerial combat by dropping his bombs as quickly as possible and flying to where he was likely to encounter MiGs. Regarding shooting down planes, Hagerstrom focused on the machine rather than the human in the aircraft, saying "I never shot directly at the pilot, nor did I shoot anyone dangling from a parachute." He had a similar response whenever a fellow American or allied pilot was killed: he thought about the technical aspects of the death and how it could be prevented in the future, rather than grieving the loss of a friend. During World War II, he said, "There is no emotion like is shown in the movies. They just say, 'Tough luck.
After Korea Hagerstrom remained in the USAF after he returned to the U.S. After a reunion with his family, he was assigned to the Operations Section of the
Ninth Air Force at
Pope Air Force Base in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. He flew an F-86 in the September 1953
Bendix Trophy air race, which went from California to Ohio, finishing thirty seconds behind the winner. He was promoted to
lieutenant colonel in June 1954. He became a TAC officer at
Foster Air Force Base in
Victoria, Texas, and commanded the
450th Fighter-Day Squadron of the
322d Fighter-Day Group. During his tenure at Foster, he was named inspector general and base commander, and in May 1955, he was given command of the
450th Fighter-Day Group, which flew the
F-100 Super Sabre. In 1956, Hagerstrom was transferred to the headquarters of the
Far East Air Forces (FEAF) in Japan as chief of the fighter branch. During that tour of duty, he went to Taiwan to teach members of the
Republic of China Air Force about combat against MiGs. He briefly returned to Texas as an advisor for the Air National Guard and in April 1957 was honored with the dedication of a new hangar at
Ellington Field in Houston in his name. He then was sent to Hawaii to join the staff of the FEAF—which had been renamed the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)—at its new headquarters at
Hickam Air Force Base. He was promoted to
colonel in March 1959, and earned a
master's degree in economics from
Jackson College. His job with the PACAF was to assess the air forces of the U.S. and their allies; after evaluating the new
AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile, he advocated for retaining guns on fighter jets instead of replacing them with missiles on some aircraft, an opinion at odds with military leadership. In 1960, he left Hawaii for a position with the
Office of Inspector General at
Norton Air Force Base in
San Bernardino, California. While at Norton, he studied at
Loyola Law School in Los Angeles three nights a week before attending the
Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF), which required him to relocate to
Washington, D.C. Once settled, he also enrolled at
Georgetown Law. He graduated from the ICAF in June 1964, having written a thesis on the role of air power in a
limited war. The next day, he received his
Bachelor of Laws degree from Georgetown. His next assignment was as vice wing commander of the
8th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying
F-4 Phantom IIs at
George Air Force Base in
Victorville, California.
Vietnam War