Photo of U.S. Air Force ace pilot D.A. Goodson with his own autograph

A very rare autograph of one of the most famous American aces of the Second World War. The photo was printed in the 2000s. The size of the image is 147*155 mm. Guarantee of authenticity.

James Alexander Goodson (March 21, 1921 – May 1, 2014) was a United States Air Force fighter ace credited with shooting down fifteen aircraft and destroying fifteen more on the ground during World War II. Goodson initially trained with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Buffalo and left on March 5, 1941 as a flight sergeant. He joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in No. 43 Squadron RAF, then No. 416 Squadron RAF, then the American Squadron RAF, Eagle Squadron, founded by Charles Sweeney (whose autobiography he later helped write and publish). . He joined the United States Air Force (USAAF) on September 24, 1942, with the rank of second lieutenant, and later became commander of the 336th Fighter Squadron of the 4th Fighter Group and deputy commander of the group. He trained in the RCAF on the Harvard II AT-6, in the RAF he first flew Hurricanes, then Spitfires, and in the USAAF he flew the P-47 Thunderbolt, and then the P-51 Mustang VF-B. He went missing on June 20, 1944, having been shot down by anti-aircraft fire [5] during the shelling of the Neu Brandenburg airfield. He was wounded and avoided capture for several days before he was caught and handed over to the Gestapo. He managed to avoid the death penalty by teaching his interrogator to blow smoke rings, and ended up being a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III before his release. He was nicknamed the "King of Strafers".

He has received more than 22 awards from 5 countries, including the British Distinguished Flying Cross, the American Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, the Belgian Order of Leopold with Silver Palm Leaf and the French Legion of Honor with the rank of Knight.

After the war, he settled next to his friend Bob Stanford-Tuck in Sandwich, Kent. He had a business career at Goodyear, Hoover and ITT before he retired to write his first memoir, Vanity in the Clouds.

He became an excellent speaker, a funny man with a monocle in his eyes, including at Bomber Command dinners, and wrote more books: "The Last of the Knights" and "Overpayment", "Oversexed" and "Here" (with Norman Franks). He helped found a publishing company to publish the memoirs of friends and fellow pilots such as Percy "Laddie" Lucas. This group, with additions such as Johnny Johnson, also went to the airshow to "meet the players." He returned to Massachusetts in 1993.

He was on board the SS Athenia when she was torpedoed by U-30 on 3 September 1939.