I just learned that Robert DeHaven took his final flight this past week. He was a 14 victory ace with the 49th Fighter Group, obtaining 10 of those victories in P-40s. He later served as president of the American Fighter Aces Association.
In Eric Bergerud's book "Fire in the Sky: The Air War in the South Pacific," Robert DeHaven had this to say about the P-40: "If you flew wisely, the P-40 was a very capable aircraft. In many conditions it could outturn the P-38...The real problem with it was lack of range...So when I moved to P-38s, an excellent aircraft, I did so not because I believed that the P-40 was an inferior fighter but that I knew the P-38 would allow us to reach the enemy. I was a fighter pilot and that was what I was supposed to do."
This is the 48th scale Eduard kit I built a few years ago in the markings of his last P-40, before transitioning to the P-38. He chose the #13 for his assigned aircraft, believing it to be his lucky number, and usually had some form of an orchid as the nose art:
Godspeed, Mr. DeHaven,
Mark
