George McGovern, WWII B-24 Pilot, Passes Away

Famous senator visited AirVenture Oshkosh in 2007

October 22, 2012 - George McGovern, who passed away Sunday at the age of 90, will forever be remembered as the Democratic candidate who was defeated by Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election.

But EAA members who met or saw him at AirVenture Oshkosh in 2007 will remember the longtime South Dakota Senator as a fellow pilot who flew 35 combat missions in B-24 bombers during World War II, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross when he crash-landed his plane, Dakota Queen, on an island in the Adriatic Sea after being hit by enemy gunfire.

"I was very lucky to get out," McGovern said during his Oshkosh visit. "I survived at a time when half of the B-24 crews in that theater did not make it."

Read AirVenture Today's story about Sen. McGovern's first visit to AirVenture Oshkosh.

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