Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, 97; World War II Flying Ace Wrote ‘God Is My Co-Pilot’

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert L. Scott, the World War II flying ace who told of his exploits in his book “God is My Co-Pilot,” has died. He was 97.

Scott died Monday at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. The cause of death was not announced.

A fighter ace in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II, Scott won three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars and five Air Medals. He was called home to travel the country giving speeches for the war effort.

His best-selling 1943 book was made into a 1945 movie starring Dennis Morgan as Scott. Among his other books were “The Day I Owned the Sky” and “Flying Tiger: Chennault of China.”

Scott shot down 22 enemy planes with his P-40 Warhawk, though he recalled some were listed as “probable” kills.

“You had to have two witnesses in the formation, or you needed a gun camera to take a picture,” he once said. “Only we didn’t have gun cameras in China. I actually had 22 aerial victims, but I only had proof of 13.”

At 33, Scott was considered too old for combat and was still at a training job in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entered the war in December 1941.

After he got a call to serve in combat, he was assigned to a mission to bomb Tokyo from China. When that plan was scrubbed, he flew gasoline and ammunition over Japanese-held territory to the Flying Tigers. When the Tigers were formally incorporated into the Army as the 23rd Fighter Group of the China Air Task Force, Scott was asked to be its commander.

In the years just after the war, Scott was one of the proponents of making the Air Force a service separate from the Army.

“They just plain couldn’t see why we wanted a special service,” Scott said in 1997, when the Air Force was marking its 50th anniversary as an independent service. “They all wanted their own Air Force. We were fighting against public opinion.”

A native of Macon, Ga., Scott graduated from West Point in 1932. He retired from the Air Force in 1957 with the rank of brigadier general. Since the mid-1980s, Scott had spent much of his time working at the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base.

Information on survivors was not available.