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Description
Compared to other aces, not much is known about Guy “Lucky Pierre” Bordelon. He was born and raised in the Cajun country of Louisiana and attended Louisiana State University before dropping out in mid-1942 to join the US Navy. He decided to become an aviator, but struggled in the program and barely passed; his grades were low enough that, while he got his wings, he would serve as a “plowback instructor,” training cadets while getting some remedial training as well. Bordelon later stated he didn’t regret this extra time, as it made him a better pilot. He was finally posted to the Pacific in late 1944, as a FM-2 Wildcat pilot aboard the escort carrier USS Corregidor, but saw no action before World War II ended.
Bordelon at that point made the decision to make the Navy a career, and remained in naval aviation, going to VF-11 aboard USS Valley Forge in F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs before being transferred first to shore duty and then to staff duties aboard USS Helena, aboard which he saw Korea for the first time. With the US Navy needing qualified propeller fighter pilots, Bordelon took a transfer to VC-5 in April 1952, a composite squadron equipped with F4U-5N nightfighters. Given command of Detachment Three aboard USS Princeton, Bordelon’s unit was sent out on ground attack missions at night, especially against North Korean train traffic. This was highly dangerous, trying to rocket trains or skip-bomb tunnels in the dense mountains of North Korea, and casualties were heavy. On several occasions, Bordelon barely escaped death himself; he later recounted seeing ricochets going over his wings and realizing he was seconds away from hitting a mountain.
After 41 night interdiction missions, Bordelon was surprised to learn that his detachment was going ashore, to the Marine base at Pyongtaek near Seoul. North Korean Po-2s, Yak-18, and La-11 aircraft were raiding the base continually, inflicting casualties, causing damage, and depriving the Marines of sleep; the Marine F3D Skyknight jet nightfighters and USAF F-94 Starfires could not stop these harrassment attacks. Bordelon wasted no time: in a 24-hour period, 29-30 June 1953, he shot down two Yak-18s and two La-11s. He disrupted another attack by Tu-2 light bombers by switching on his landing lights and blinding the pilots, as his gunsight had failed, registering a probable. It would be only a week before the Korean War ended that Bordelon achieved his fifth and final victory, another La-11, on 17 July. Bordelon returned to the Princeton for a hero’s welcome, though his beloved Corsair, Annie Mo, did not make the trip, wrecked by a USAF pilot unfamiliar with the F4U’s tricky taxiing technique. “Lucky Pierre” lived up to his nickname, becoming the only Navy ace of the Korean War and the last to do so in a propeller-driven aircraft.
After a stint training French pilots in the Corsair, Bordelon never returned to a flying position, finishing as a Commander in support of the Apollo recovery teams. Retiring from the Navy in 1969, Bordelon returned to Louisiana, where he died at the age of 80 in 2002.
This Corsair variant is a F4U-5N, one of over 200 purpose-built nightfighter variants built after the war. Annie Mo was named for Bordelon's wife Anne. As such, Annie Mo is painted in the standard Korean War-era US Navy scheme of overall midnight blue, with markings oversprayed in light blue for night operations.