Home > Joe Foss

Born on a farm near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Foss grew up in a farmhouse without electricity. When he was 12, he visited a local airfield to see Charles Lindbergh on tour with his airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Four years later, he and his father paid $1.50 apiece to take their first airplane ride.

In 1933, upon the death of his father, young Foss took over the running of the family farm, but the crops and stock were destroyed by dust storms over the next two years. He worked at a service station to pay for books and college tuition, and flight lessons. By 1940, armed with a pilot's license and a degree in Business Administration from the University of South Dakota, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps' aviation program.

Foss served as a flight instructor at Pensacola, Florida, then shipped out for Guadalcanal as executive officer of an F-4 Wildcat fighter plane unit which became known as the Flying CircusMonty Python's Flying Circus is a famous British comedy TV show. Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron led an elite German air corps called the Flying Circus during World War I. Joe Foss led an American air corps, also called the Flying Circus during. He shot down a Japanese ZeroThe Mitsubishi A6M was a light-weight carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. While the official Allied code name was Zeke it is universally known as Zero from its Japanese Navy designation, Type 0 Carrier Fighter , on October 13October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years). There are 79 days remaining. Events 54 Roman Empire emperor Claudius I dies after being poisoned by his wife Agrippina. 1307 All Knights Templar in France are simultaneously arrested by agents, 1942Events January January 1 World War II: The word " United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact. January 2 World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. January 5 Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary ass, but his own plane was hit and, with a dead engine and three more Zeros on his tail, he landed at full speed with a dead engine, no flaps and minimal control on the American runway at Guadalcanal, barely missing a grove of palm trees.

By the time Foss left Guadalcanal in January 19431943 is the common year starting on Friday. Events January January 4 End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Earl Warren. January 11 The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China. January 1, his Flying Circus had shot down 72 JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honshese airplanes, including the 26 credited to him. He became the first American pilot to match the record of World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of pilot Eddie Rickenbacker. He received the Medal of Honor during a White House ceremony in 1943, and appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

After the war, Foss capitalized on his name recognition by opening a charter flying service and flight instruction school. He later became a car salesman. He also organized the South Dakota Air National Guard and commanded the Guard's 175th Flight Squadron during the Korean War, reaching the rank of colonel.

After the Korean War, he served two years in the South Dakota legislature and, beginning in 1955, as Governor of South Dakota. In 1959, after losing election to the House of Representatives to George McGovern, he became commissioner of the new American Football League. He oversaw the emergence of the league as the genesis of modern professional football, then stepped aside as commissioner in 1966, two months before the NFL agreed to merge with the AFL.

Foss hosted ABC television's The American Sportsman from 1964 to 1967, and hosted a syndicated program, The Outsdoorsman: Joe Foss from 1967 to 1974. He also served as President of the National Rifle Association from 1988 to 1990, and appeared on the cover of Time Magazine wearing a Stetson hat and holding a pistol.

An attempt to make a story of Foss's life, starring John Wayne, fell through when Foss refused to allow the producers to add a fictitious love story.