Taylor left Washington University (without a degree) to join the Navy, and served as a fighter pilot during World War II.
He had an unremarkable academic career, graduated in 1968 and joined the Texas Air National Guard, where he was trained as a fighter pilot.
He married his high school sweetheart, Peggy Jean Proctor, and spent nearly two decades in the Air Force, including much-decorated service as a fighter pilot in Vietnam.
They confirm that as a fighter pilot he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, silver and bronze stars, a purple heart and other medals.
When war broke out in 1939, Freeborn temporarily gave up his fledgling career to train as a fighter pilot, only to almost lose his life to Asian flu and haemophilia.
His new book Bury Us Upside Down covers the frustrations, the folly, the family tragedies and the human cost of the Vietnam War, during which he flew 247 combat missions as a fighter pilot.
Jones, 64, has been CEO of Rockwell Collins since June 2001, and has worked for the company for almost 34 years, having joined the company in 1979 after serving as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
FORBES: Rockwell Collins Posts Flat Profits, Announces Retirement Of CEO
In a statement, his family praised him as a "reluctant American hero" who had "served his nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut".
The model was commissioned by the United States Air Force as a memorial to Bill Dunn, a US fighter pilot.
Gration, a former fighter pilot, served as assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs.
Lamborghini isn't exaggerating when it likens the interior to a jet fighter's cockpit -- the pilot gets a heads-up display as a matter of course, and has to climb over the car body just to crawl inside.
The former Navy fighter pilot, who'd been shot down over North Vietnam and held as a POW, had been able to battle back every time until Tuesday night.
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